There are over 245 registered student organizations at UNC Wilmington. Despite having a steady influx of new organizations register each year, there are still many groups on campus that are not officially registered with the university. This may be a direct result of a difficult and lengthy process for registering a student organization.

It’s  anything but easy.

The registration process involves turning in an “Intent to Register” form to the Campus Activities and Involvement Center and completing a constitution within 30 days of turning in the Intent to Register form. Jon Kapell, director for CAIC, says this is where many groups fail to become a registered student organization.

“Honestly, we get several Intent to Register forms dropped off at the CAIC office, but that is the last we hear from that particular group. We will send out an email notifying them of their provisional status, but they do not schedule a meeting with us or send us a constitution to review,” Kapell said.

The Muslim Student Association is a group on campus that is currently going through the process of registering as an official student organization. Aysha Khan, the co-president of MSA, has been trying to register since the beginning of Fall 2012.

“Our biggest frustration is with the numerous seminars we have to attend and the constant rewriting process of the constitution,” Khan said.

The constitution template can be found online and appears to be a straightforward fill-in-the-blank document. But Casey Merritt, president of the Seahawkappellas, knows forming a constitution goes beyond filling in blanks.

“Although it did not look like a lot, we had to correct it [the constitution] until the CAIC office approved of it. Even if we missed a comma or misplaced a word, we would have to redo it and hand it in again,” Merritt said. “It was a very important document they had to have, and the rules were super strict. It held us back from being an official group.”

Today the Seahawkappellas are a registered UNCW student organization.

CAIC emphasizes patience during the process, but groups like MSA are ready to have the advantages of an officially registered UNCW organization.

Registered student organizations have access to room reservations on campus, advising through the CAIC office, SGA funding for on-campus events and for travel to conferences, as well as access to the resources and supplies offered by CAIC.

They also get their name and contact information on the school’s website, which is key to recruiting members. Student orgs that don’t register aren’t recognized at all, and don’t have access to any benefits.

“By registering MSA as an official student organization, we hope to establish our own prayer area on campus, increase awareness and knowledge of Islam in both Muslims and non-Muslim, and to unite the Muslims of UNCW,” Khan said.

Students’ concerns about the registering process are not going unheard. The issues surrounding the process are not only important to the students, but to CAIC as well.

“This spring, CAIC is going to launch an assessment piece and part of that will try to reach out to organizations that started the registration process, but did not complete it, to get a better sense of the issues they faced,” Kapell said.

The assessment can hopefully break the barrier between groups, such as MSA, having issues with registering and CAIC’S effort to register as many organizations as possible.

Despite the numerous road blocks MSA has encountered, they continue to move forward with the registration process. The process can be lengthy and brutal, but over 245 groups have proved registering with the university is not only doable, but well worth it.

If you are part of an unregistered student organization or have experienced difficulty in registering, write to us! Send your letters to the editor to Angie Hunt at  [email protected]