During last week’s Club Presidents Meeting, Guy Parenteau, the President of Club Affairs, said that clubs are required to commit to 10 hours of service per semester and that a club fair will occur four days later on Friday, February 4th. This change to policy and the lack of sufficient warning for the club fair prompted concern from club officers given the lack of written and transparent guidelines. 

“I have nothing personal against doing service hours, it’s good for the community, but this requirement was given without a heads-up or written guidelines,” said the club vice president of a small student organization who wished to remain anonymous. 

This lack of transparent guidelines does not only exist for service requirements, but to reserve rooms and lockers. 

“Getting a locker for our club has been a nightmare. We followed the instructions presented verbally at the meeting and we emailed Club Affairs. They didn’t get back to us for months. Or, when we emailed them in the past, they just didn’t respond. There are no written guidelines.” 

When asked if written club guidelines do exist, President of Club Affairs Parenteau did not comment. In a Student Government Association (SGA) meeting on February 2nd, he did claim that a Canvas page with information for clubs would be published, however, he did not mention the page’s contents nor its publication date. 

Patrick Marcoux, President of the International Relations Club and a Senator for the class of 2023, drafted a resolution within the Welfare Committee during February of last year. He said that the goal of his bill was to place all rules and regulations concerning clubs in a single document so that club officers could more easily access information. 

According to section two of his bill, the goal of the resolution was to establish “a functioning set of published hard rules in regard to club activity forms, when clubs can hold events and X Account spending constrictions as both of these are surrounded by many unspecified rules that lack appropriate codification and can confuse and discourage new club leaders.” 

Chris Demarkey, a senator for the class of 2023 who was part of last year’s Welfare Committee, lead efforts to kill the bill given the wording in section three which he deemed “hostile.” After the addition of edits to section three, the Welfare committee voted to table the bill in a 2-3 vote. 

When asked to provide justification for his opposition, he said that Marcoux’s bill came from a “personal vendetta towards Club Affairs” and “not out of actual student need or welfare.” The bill, according to an email from Demarkey, “was a complete waste of time.” 

Marcoux believes that since the striking down of his bill, there has been no significant improvement in the codification of club guidelines and expectations. This lack of transparency has made the job for club officers more difficult, especially during last’s winter club fair. 

“A snap club fair was called last February,” Marcoux said, “and all the clubs turned out. We had a gym full of clubs, but we didn’t have any people. There wasn’t even an email sent out that Friday about the club fair. You had almost every club showing up with tables, posters, and they all sat there for three hours, which is a lot to ask for student volunteers who have busy schedules. Their sacrifices weren’t honored.” 

On the eve of this year’s winter club fair, there was a fear that low turnout will once again impact the event. While the fall club fair is a Saint Anselm College tradition, the winter club fair does not have the established presence to be common knowledge among the student population. 

“The lack of communication and transparency is confusing,” said the anonymous club vice-president, “we are now hearing about this fair four days before it’s about to happen. Last year’s turnout was bad. Maybe it would be better with more planning, but I’m frustrated.”  

This year’s winter club fair also had a poor turnout. The effects of the artic freeze could have been a contributing factor, as well as overall lack of advertisement.