The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Judiciary is exploring the possibility of ending the practice of subgrouping, according to Judiciary Chair Beth Doyle.
Subgrouping, the process by which the Judiciary recognizes small student groups as subsidiaries of larger groups, is intended to help smaller groups gain membership and navigate TCU Treasury procedures by linking them to larger, related organizations, according to Judiciary New Group Recognition Chair Greg Bodwin.
But subgrouping has actually complicated the budgeting process for many TCU groups, Doyle, a senior, said.
Each TCU group designates two signatories to work with the Treasury, but subgroups share signatories with the larger group, she said.
Bodwin, a sophomore, said the need to coordinate with the larger groups on budgeting, especially when those groups engage in very few related activities, has frustrated many subgroups.
"They had said that they had trouble communicating with the supergroup," Bodwin said. "They thought that the supergroup was too stretched out to adequately manage the subgroup's funds."
Bodwin said the Judiciary plans to look closely at subgroups during next semester's rerecognition process, when the Judiciary reviews a membership list of each group and a written statement on the group's activities over the past year.
Doyle said that groups wishing to remain subgroups will probably be allowed to do so, though no decisions have been finalized.
Because group recognition is closely connected to budgeting, the Judiciary will solicit feedback from TCU senators to coordinate with the Treasury before making any final decisions, Doyle said.
"We want to have a broader discussion so it's not just us making the decision," she said.
Judiciary Vice Chair Adam Sax said that the Judiciary has also contacted Office for Campus Life Director Joe Golia. Sax said that Golia is currently exploring whether the administration would be able to create new department IDs for all the subgroups.
"It's just the creation of more numbers and it's paperwork," Sax said. "We're seeing if it's feasible."
There are currently 20 subgroups and 14 umbrella organizations, Doyle said. Additionally, the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) has 33 subgroups of its own, according to TCU Treasurer Kate de Klerk, a junior.
De Klerk said that the practice of subgrouping deprives designated subgroups of financial autonomy.
"It means they don't have control of their budget, and in the past, that has led to a lot of confusion and money being lost from subgroups because the process for accessing that wasn't made clear to subgroups," she said.
De Klerk said that pairing subgroups with larger organizations often proves counterproductive.
"Oftentimes, communication between heads of subgroups and the actual groups was poor," she said.
Senior Pat Pop, more commonly known by her last name, founded Tufts Belly Dance. She said the club's status as a subgroup of the Arab Student Association (ASA) imposed unnecessary complications.
"When it came time to actually do budgetary things, we realized we didn't know where to go," she said. "Getting in contact with so many extra people took up so much extra time with us."
Pop said that Tufts Belly Dance and ASA rarely communicated because their interests and activities were fundamentally distinct from each other.
"There was no reason for us to be in contact with them because we were doing different events, very separate things," she said. "There was not much overlap."
Pop said that Tufts Belly Dance had only agreed to be a subgroup of ASA because they felt the Judiciary would not recognize the organization otherwise.
"The reason we accepted that was because they were kind of pushing it; it seemed like that was the way to get approved," she said.
Bodwin said subgrouping enables groups with very low membership that might not be able to gain recognition as a full TCU group in a particular year to retain recognition and funding.
"It's a lot easier to get rerecognition as a subgroup," he said. "So as a result it was used as something for groups that provided good things on campus but might have trouble sustaining members."
De Klerk noted that some groups, such as those subgrouped under the Leonard Carmichael Society, benefit from subgrouping because they are too small to need to negotiate their own budgets with the Treasury.
