Duke's admissions office has long attempted to sell the University to prospective students as a place where starting a club is as easy as walking into the Duke Student Government office and expressing an interest.
Now with over 300 student organizations and growing, however, some students and administrators are concerned that the entire structure of student-run groups--especially in advising and funding--cannot effectively support all of its members.
At a lunch for campus leaders organized by President Nan Keohane and DSG Chief of Staff Emily Grey last month, Keohane mentioned the possibility of controlling the expanding number of student groups.
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, said Keohane's comment was part of an ongoing conversation about the University's support of student groups.
"We do need to think about unbridled growth because of limited resources," Moneta said. "It's a really challenging issue because obviously we don't want to discourage students from coming together and expressing new ideas and talking about new initiatives."
When groups approach DSG seeking a charter or recognition, legislators may need to be more cautious about granting approval, said Troy Clair, DSG vice president for student affairs.
"The initial concern is as a number of clubs and organizations grow, how are we able to fund them adequately and are we able to advise them," said Clair, a senior. "As a student government, I think it's important to encourage students who have ideas to get something started and increase leadership roles. I think the question that a lot of people on DSG have and... the University in general is, is there a point where you should say 'Hold on, maybe we should reconsider?'"
If DSG and administrators do not consider this issue, Clair said, then clubs may have difficulty generating funds or receiving sufficient advice.
Both University officials and students are also concerned that some organizations are forming when they could be joining established clubs instead. "I don't think there are too many, but I think that the tendency at Duke here is to start their own groups instead of working with existing groups," said Brian Denton, advising coordinator for the Office of Student Activities. "Occasionally, a group will pop up that to me sounds like it should just be on a committee of an existing group."
Clair said the formation of redundant groups discourages collaboration and wastes resources. "What happens is you split the amount of resources that you have not only financially but also in terms of manpower," he said.
Clair added that his committee plans to examine the process of forming a student organization to make the system more efficient. "Let's say they come in the office, what type of information would they get, who would they talk to? I don't think that process has been clearly outlined," he said.
When seeking to establish an organization, students should consider whether their cause serves the larger Duke community or just a few of their friends, Clair said.
"I think it's unrealistic to say that this is the target number of clubs that we want to have and we're going to stop at this number," he said. "However, I think we're going to have to look at how that process works."
Although Pushpa Raja, chair of the Student Organization Finance Committee, said her committee has sufficient funds to sponsor many groups, she added that student clubs should consider how they use that funding.
"I wouldn't say that there are too many clubs," Raja said, adding that some groups choose to deactivate after a few years or do not require much funding.
Raja pointed out that if groups consolidate, funding could be distributed more productively. She suggested that students look at a list of existing organizations in the Office of Student Activities before starting a new group.
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