When freshmen arrive on campus, one of the first things they are encouraged to do is get involved in extra-curricular activities on campus. Many newcomers jump right in and join at least one organization, if not more. Some more creative students, however, may decide they want to start their own organizations.

This is usually when, quite suddenly, things aren’t so encouraging.

In order to start any new organization on campus and have it affiliated with Ashland University, students must apply for a provisional charter, “test run” the organization for a year, apply for full charter the next year and submit a constitution and roster for the organization. If the Activities Budgeting/Charter Committee (ABCC) approves all of these steps, then the organization can exist, at least until paper work is not completed correctly or the organization doesn’t stay in good standing for a year.

Whether this sounds like a reasonable amount of steps or not, one can’t deny that it’s a complicated list, and those are just the logistics. They’re rules and regulations that students should expect when they go to a private school.

Perhaps even more distressing, not to mention confusing for students, is the fact that once a provisional charter application has been submitted, those planning the new club are told they cannot market their group or recruit new members until the application gets the okay from ABCC.

Also, as it would appear on this campus, this ban on marketing and new member recruitment is also expanded to talking about the potential club, whether to friends or to the Collegian.

The first rule about proposed clubs, it seems, is that you don’t talk about proposed clubs.

The Collegian has run into a fair number of students who have been told they cannot talk about potential clubs, whether they are in the process of obtaining a charter or not.

While there is a rule regarding the prohibition of marketing and recruiting members for groups that have applied for a provisional charter (which quite frankly we do not understand at all), a quick glance at the Student Organization Manual reveals no such ban when it comes to non-chartered groups. And, of course, a ban of this type would fly in the face of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The second rule many students have come across is that they have been told they are not allowed to gather on Ashland’s campus, use Ashland’s equipment or use Ashland University in their name if they do not have at least a provisional charter.

This is interesting considering there is an entire section in the Student Organization Manual devoted to unchartered organizations and how they can use the Ashland University name.

“An independent student group,” the statement says, “may make use of the University name in its title, publications or letterhead…”

This statement not only acknowledges that independent student groups may exist, but that they are allowed to be on AU’s campus and can indeed use the AU name, albeit in certain prescribed ways.

The question remains: Why is there such confusion and rancor over what should be a fun process? And what will happen when students just get tired of it and stop creating university-sanctioned organizations? What impact will that have on retention and campus life?

Our guess is that it wouldn’t be good.