Students offer opinions on SALP

Starting or running a student organization can be a taxing experience, filled with lots of paperwork and bureaucracy.

That’s where the Student Activities and Leadership Programs at Portland State comes in—the organization helps students with support and advising to make sure their group runs smoothly.

“We are more than just student groups,” said Aimee Shattuck, the SALP director.

Some of the programs that SALP oversees are student organizations, student-run businesses, student government, the programming board, the Quiet Prayer and Meditation Lounge and many more.

While some student organizations enjoy working with SALP, a few report having difficulty with some of SALP’s processes.

“We have four professional advisors [who] work with 150 or so student organizations,” Shattuck said. “The advisor’s role is to recognize the groups, support their leadership development and provide administrative support in navigating the bureaucracy, [which includes] funding spending, event planning, et cetera.”

According to Shattuck, SALP offers training, mediation in group conflicts and ideas to help organizations grow.

“SALP also provides an immense amount of administrative support,” she said, “including a full accounting team and office manager who processes spending and resource requests.”

For some student organizations, SALP’s support has been nothing but helpful.

“Knowing that SALP is there to help us has given us the confidence to grow as an organization and organize events,” said Cody Gehring, the president of Scholars for Awareness of Neuroscience Education.

The Vanguard spoke to several student organizations, only two of which were comfortable sharing their problems with SALP on the record.

Those problems ranged from funding issues, lack of communication, inconsistent policies and an arduous application process.

“My first experience starting an organization was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done on campus,” said Nick Simms, the president of the PSU Entrepreneurship Club. “I had to go through so many hoops and things to get this club started.”

Simms said there was a lot of paperwork, and that he was constantly being sent to different people.

“The experience was a little tough,” he said.

However, he also noted that he enjoyed interacting with the people who work at SALP.

“The people [who] work there are really genuine,” Simms said. “They love to help student organizations grow.”

Amy VanDitti, the American Marketing Association executive vice president, explained that the AMA has had their own issues with SALP.

VanDitti explained that, previously, the AMA was able to use funds for food, but this year they were given limitations that prevented them from doing so.

“I think the restrictions have gotten too strict,” VanDitti said.

They had also planned on using funds for AMA T-shirts. At the time they had permission to use the funds and had set everything up. However, at the last minute they were told that this was no longer something they could use funding for.

“We’ve had plenty of issues with SALP,” VanDitti said.

Funds for student organizations are decided on by the organization budget council, which is made up of five students who construct their own guidelines and distribute funds.

Shattuck noted that budgets and funding are determined by the OBC, not SALP.

Being a PSU-recognized student organization gives you certain rights, privileges and access to resources within the university, but also requires a level of responsibility.

“We do require that [a PSU-recognized] group have us handle all of their accounting,” Shattuck said. “They don’t have to have funding—they could do things like get a grant, get a sponsorship and bring in money—but we need to be involved in it.”

Simms also struggled with funding issues.

“I think it’s great that they offer us money to use—that’s amazing,” Simms said. “There could just be an easier way to use the money we have, instead of having to sign all these papers, do all this stuff online and go through OrgSync.”

OrgSync is a database where students can look up organizations and programs offered by their school. PSU’s student organizations also host a page through the website, which offers contact information, a description of each organization and a hub for organization activity.

One way for student organizations to take charge of their own funding is to be an affiliate group.

“[Being] an affiliate group means that you really belong to some sort of national or regional organization, but we’re recognizing that you’re organizing on campus,” Shattuck said.

SALP doesn’t do the accounting for affiliate groups and isn’t in charge of them.

“Their money is with this outside group,” Shattuck explained.

According to Shattuck, the OBC has $575,000 to allocate to student groups, and there are typically around 100 groups that apply.

“Our department processes the highest volume of contracts of any department on campus,” Shattuck said.

Enoch Aggrey, the vice president of the PSU Entrepreneurship Club, expressed frustration with SALP’s change in leadership.

“SALP changes leadership so rapidly you have to deal with new leadership all the time, and that’s very frustrating because every leader that comes in comes…with all new stuff,” Aggrey said.

Shattuck explained that SALP’s new leaders receive a thorough run-through of all the rules and regulations so that SALP stays consistent.

“[W]e have a great on-boarding system with new staff,” Shattuck said. “Their first two weeks [involve] going over all the skills and knowledge, and they have a good deal [of] meetings with students and other staff to help them navigate their new job.”

In addition to that, new leaders are supervised by experienced staff members.

“They also…have weekly supervision and [are] supervised by staff that have been part of SALP for multiple years,” Shattuck said.

Simms hopes to deviate from SALP and turn the Entrepreneurship Club into a self-sustaining group.

“We’re trying to find a way for our club to make its own money to sustain itself and maybe offer student jobs,” Simms said.

Shattuck mentioned that students are the leaders of student organizations, and that SALP tries to support and advise them, not tell them what to do.

“The groups select their own leadership and choose their own projects,” Shattuck said. “We support them in those initiatives.”