Responsibilities of Running a Student Group

Before applying, please familiarize yourself with the following information:

You should be familiar with Student Services’ CLS Student Organization Handbook. You must comply with the content of your own constitution, and all student groups must comply with The Guidelines (VI.B of the Student Senate bylaws). For example, you must demonstrate that you won’t be redundant to an existing student group and that your existence will benefit our community.

  • Membership must be open to AND limited to all law school students.
  • Your spending will be audited by the Student Senate Budget Committee.
  • Recognized organizations may not be officially subject to another university authority (e.g., no Law School chapters of Business School organizations).
  • Recognition may be withdrawn for violation of the Student Senate Constitution, By-Laws, any other University or Law School regulation, or your group’s own constitution/by-laws.
  • Beneficial Purpose Requirement. According to the Senate By-Laws, the proposed organization MUST have a purpose that is "sufficiently related to the law school community and sufficiently unrelated to the purpose of any other recognized organization so as to offer a distinct benefit to a substantial number of law school students." When thinking about this, try: 
  1. Listing currently recognized organizations that seem most REDUNDANT (e.g., for a Texas Society, consider the Southern Caucus (a.k.a., Y’allSA)). Ask whether the proposed organization can effectively achieve its purpose by working with an existing organization.
  2. Listing currently recognized organizations that seem most the most ANALOGOUS but DIFFERENT (e.g., for a Texas Society, consider the California Society (a.k.a., CalSoc)). Ask whether the proposed organization’s activities or services will be analogous. The more analogous, the more difficult it will be for the Committee to credibly distinguish the proposed organization from the existing organization. Organizational documents (proposed and existing) will aid this inquiry.
  3. Asking how much interest the proposed organization has already received (e.g., number of members, inquiries, etc.). How many active members does the proposed organization anticipate in a WORST case scenario? In a BEST case scenario? Please verify your assertions and predictions, as the Committee is likely to test them.
  4. Budgetary implications of recognition. The committee will carefully examine proposed organization applications and ask difficult questions, such as why Organization X cannot work through existing (and very similar) Organization Y to achieve its purposes.