Photo by: Alpine Club

Do you want to become more involved at DU? Joining or starting a club on campus is the perfect way to do it. Whether you have a fresh new idea for a club or just want to get involved with one that already exists, the process of joining or starting a club at DU is easy.

The clubs currently at DU range from all different sizes and interests. There are clubs such as Alpine Club that has 335 members to clubs like DU’s Big Swing with 11 members. There is so much freedom to start anything you want and all of the different clubs at the University of Denver add diversity and character to the school.

“The good thing about clubs at DU is that there isn’t really a genre,” said Joey Ham, President of the All Undergraduate Student Association Senate. “It’s a mix of clubs that are added each year ranging from religious to sports to an engineering group.”

There isn’t any specific type or trend when it comes to which clubs are being added each year. “Clubs are mostly started based on whatever students are interested in and think will benefit the DU community,” said Ham. “A lot of clubs are just new things that haven’t been thought of before.”

For instance there were clubs like fly fishing and cigar club at one point and now we have the University of Denver Grilling Society and DU Off-road Club. Clubs that have smaller memberships and more narrowed interests do not stay on campus as long.

“Cultural, religious, and racial clubs have been established long ago and maintain membership and are stable, so they have longer a lifespan and new ones of those genres typically aren’t added,” said Ham. “Sometimes young students who are first-year and second-year students are excited about their new club and the club does well but then study abroad comes and their club ends because they lose interest and members.”

The number of clubs during the year changes so much because students can come get their clubs licensed at any time during the year. .

“At any given point during the year there are between 60 and 80 clubs at DU,” said Ham. “I would estimate that there are about 15 to 20 clubs added each year and the number of clubs that are discontinued each year varies because of many reasons.”

Students who want to start a student organization must simply go online to the AUSA Senate website and fill out a licensing application with all the information about your club. The requirements to become a licensed student organization on campus are:

.Have a faculty advisor

.Have at least three individuals that act as the primary leaders

(President,Vice President, etc…)

.Have at least 10 undergraduate student members

.Have a constitution, program

ming action plan, financial request

form (if seeking funds from AUSA

Senate) and a signed agreement with

the AUSA Senate.

After completing these four requirements and obtaining a club on campus, you receive benefits from the AUSA Senate such as free use of the Driscoll Center and General Classroom Building meeting rooms and Student Life Involvement Center, reduced AV equipment rental and a mailbox in the Student Life office.

Clubs can also receive funding for their events from the AUSA Senate by filling out the Diversity Funding Application, found online.

“Funding is based off the number of people in the club, the success of the event in the past and where they are going to spend it,” said Ham.

Join or start a club on the DU campus because there are so many options and something for everyone to have fun participating in.

For more information about student organizations and the AUSA Senate go online to http://www.du.edu/studentlife/.