In recognition of de-recognition

The TCUJ should be commended for clearing out a slew of defunct student organizations and forcing all campus organizations to meet Senate guidelines. The recognition/de-recognition process is essential to the student body because it keeps recognized clubs on their toes, frees up the budget for active student organizations, and eliminates the false opportunities offered by the existence of clubs that haven't had organized activities in months, or even years.

Still, the Senate shouldn't be too quick to write these activities up as a way of compensating for the massive budget errors committed over the past two years. When compared both to the enormous budgets allocated for the most active student groups and to the $50,000 error discovered in the TCU budget, the $3,971 saved by de-recognizing inactive clubs doesn't amount to much. Still, despite the inability to repair the economic damage done to the Senate budget, the process was both necessary and fruitful.

And in any case, the Senate should not de-recognize or fail to newly-recognize groups for the sake of the budget. The beauty of student activities at Tufts is that the opportunities are theoretically endless. Capping or reducing the number of clubs would be detrimental to the campus community, and with the bulk of the Senate budget directed at highly active organizations anyway, it is unlikely that it would solve any budget problems.

But on a critical note, the Senate should seriously reconsider re-recognition of Queen's Head and Artichoke, Tufts' oldest (though admittedly still young) literary magazine. Given the dedication that its former editors have devoted to the publication since its de-recognition, there appears to be a good chance that the magazine would flourish if re-recognized.

The decision to de-recognize because of an overlap with other magazines, or for that matter, other clubs, is a dangerous precedent to set for the future quality of extracurricular opportunities because it eliminates healthy competition between student groups.

To say that most of the de-recognized clubs have not left their mark on campus is an understatement. Few students have heard of the Burma Action Group or the Friends of Sparticus Youth, for example. For clearing and thereby further solidifying extracurricular activity on campus, the TCUJ should be commended, but the student body must continue to critically examine the de-recognition of each club individually to determine if the action indeed has the campus' best interests in mind.