Statement on Clubs and Events
As your student association and oversight body for clubs on campus, one of WUSA’s main roles is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all students during club-organized or club-endorsed events.
We became aware of a rally happening on Thursday, November 7, 2024, endorsed by several WUSA clubs. At the time, no event form had been submitted. We reached out to all clubs who appeared to have endorsed the event, to offer our support and to ensure that, like other events, this one would be carried out safely. At the bottom of this statement is the messages that were sent to clubs who were endorsing the Nov. 7 rally.
WUSA has clear processes in place to support student events. These processes are not new, all club executives are required to attend mandatory termly training where policies, procedures, and processes are outlined. Submitting an event form is included in this mandatory training and is an essential part of this process, as it ensures WUSA can support clubs in making their events successful and provides insurance protecting individual club members from personal liability in case of an unforeseen incident. If a club does not submit an event form and we are aware of an event happening, WUSA does its best to reach out ahead of time to offer support, and to expedite the approval of the event form wherever this is feasible.
WUSA has consistently supported students’ right to peaceful protest, including during the encampment on campus earlier this year. At no point this year has any WUSA club been asked to cancel an event where they were planning to peacefully demonstrate. With respect to the allegation about WUSA staff texting club leaders, we are continuing to look into this to ensure any student information held by our staff is being used appropriately. Any suggestion that we are opposed to student protests or that we censor clubs, or their events is false.
We will continue collaborating with all student clubs, as we have done previously, to ensure that events hosted by students, for students, are done in a safe and responsible manner and follow the relevant policies and procedures.
WUSA always strives to improve our processes and our services to students. If you have feedback on ways we can improve, you can contact us using the form linked here.
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November 5, 2024: Message from WUSA’s Clubs Team to all clubs endorsing the Nov. 7 event:
I hope you’re doing well! It has come to our attention that your club is endorsing and attending a rally on Nov 7th in the Arts Quad.
The Clubs team has not received any event forms related to this rally. It is imperative that event forms are filled out for any events your club is hosting, attending, or endorsing. This is to ensure the appropriate process is followed and to uphold the safety of all students on campus. This has been outlined in Clubs training and the Clubs manual on a termly basis and the policy can be reviewed below!
As stated at Clubs training, “All events involving the club (held on or off campus, big or small, just attending or hosting) require an event form to be submitted and approved.” The same language is stated in the Club’s Manual. These are requirements that all clubs are required to abide by.
By not submitting an event form, this event is not officially sanctioned, and your club is no longer covered under WUSA insurance leaving your club members personally liable for damages. In addition, not filling out an event forms can jeopardize a club’s official status. We want everyone to stay in compliance to continue to support all clubs and their mandates.
I understand that you are hoping to gather peacefully on campus, which would not require an event form if it was just a group of students gathering together. Since this is advertised as a rally endorsed and advertised by your club, it implies that the rally/event has received official approval, and as of right now, no event has been approved.
Given that your previous events have occurred in a respectful and compliant manner, we don’t foresee an issue with event approval for this event, however, it is still required that you submit an event form by end of the day today to get official approval for this event. We are more than happy to facilitate an expedited approval process for this specific rally/event but we need event forms to begin with to do that.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
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November 5, 2024: Message from WUSA’s Clubs Team to Voices for Palestine
Additionally, it appears that an event form has not yet been submitted for the rally on Thursday that VfP has endorsed and advertised. Could you please submit the event form for the November 7th rally by end of day today, to ensure the necessary approvals are in place? I am confident we can expedite the approval process to keep everything compliant.
We will be requesting that all other clubs who have also endorsed the Nov 7th rally submit an event form.
If there is anything we can do to support you, please let us know.
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