Organizations are part of the warp and woof of the fabric that makes life at Loyola so distinctive.
They are the bread and butter of this university, giving it sustenance, maybe even a kind of community cornucopia that nourishes the whole student in ways beyond the curriculum.
Regardless of your personal taste, interest or even agenda, there’s probably a group on campus that can both enfold and involve you, be it in the political spectrum or social scene.
For these organizations, their expansive membership rolls, T-shirts extolling the theme of some event or secret codes known only to the members might seem enough to justify their continued existence.
Maybe they don’t have to contribute; it’s enough just to “be.”
Well, sadly it just ain’t so – and that’s according to the Constitution. Every organization that is chartered by the Student Government Association is subject to review.
From the moment that a representative presents his case before Congress hoping to be chartered, that group is subject to this review.
And this is where the Court of Review comes in, much to the chagrin of organization advisers and officers who are dealing with the somewhat obsessive e-mails from the court or who have heard the mantra “must be turned in by Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. in the SGA Office.”
But why charter review? Is it a means of torture that 10 students decided to inflict upon the student body one day? Is it an overly adventurous exercise of proscribed powers?
While there are some who might emphatically answer, “Yes!” to all of the above, that’s really not what it’s about at all.
Charter review is not just a meaningless exercise like answering a pop quiz on the Internet in hopes of winning a DVD player.
It’s an important process that contributes to the improvement of Loyola and, by extension, to those who participate in the very assessment and evaluation of their organizations.
While charter review hasn’t occurred in a while on this campus, the concept isn’t a new one.
In Texas, for example, the Sunset Commission does exactly what the Court of Review intends to do: It conducts a review of all of state agencies.
Based on their findings, agencies continue or fade into the sunset. Who benefits? Quite simple: everyone.
The agencies justify their existence.
The taxpayers see streamlining, improved efficiency and elimination of redundancy.
While this isn’t the exact intent behind charter review, the heart of the matter is that its intent is to look at organizations based on what they set out to do and what they actually do. There is no intent to revoke charter; that’s not the goal.
The goal is to aid in the improvement of Loyola. The goal is to aid in providing better options for the student body, not act as a detriment to it.
Here at Loyola, we ultimately will find that charter review is a good thing.
By taking a look at ourselves, we’ll see where improvement is needed, where weakness can be strengthened and where assets can be better utilized for our goals.
It’s not enough just to “be” anymore; we need to be something.
And, while the court is going through the mountains of paper that are part of the review process, we’ll do it with the certainty of finding the pony that’s in there somewhere.
After all, the information came from the horse’s mouth.
