Clubs agree they contribute to community, divided on UCI support
- Camelia Heins
- Mar 31
- 6 min read
According to a New University survey, 91.6% of UCI campus organizations surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that Registered Campus Organizations (RCO) contribute to the sense of community on campus, with a majority of student leaders dedicating six to 10 hours a week.
From Feb. 17 to Feb. 28, New University directed a survey to more than 500 of UCI’s RCOs to understand how organizations feel supported on campus and received 60 responses from various student-led clubs. Student leaders had the opportunity to share issues their club has faced and respond to statements regarding support from administration or departments, how aware they were of available resources and if they felt recognized for their contributions to the campus community.
Many student leaders were divided regarding perceived support from UCI administrators, departments and resource centers.
Thirty percent of RCO leaders surveyed were undecided on the statement, “In my RCO, I feel supported by UCI higher administration.” About 36.7% either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, while 33.3% either agreed or strongly agreed.
President of Students for Socialism at UCI and third-year sociology major, Lauriana Adriano, wrote in their response about being contacted by staff from UCI’s Office of Campus Organizations and Volunteer Programs (COVP) “for organizing a postering session related to immigrant rights awareness” and expressed concerns that their club’s “social media is being monitored.”
“It’s disgusting how UCI has shut down student orgs such as SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine] and Anakbayan after sicking the cops on them last year at the encampment and then furthering repression by shutting them down,” Adriano said. “No, UCI COVP is not supportive of student activity; their role is the opposite — to shut down progressive action on this campus as the chancellor and the UC’s corporate interests see fit.”
SJP at UCI and Anakbayan at UCI were two student organizations that lost their RCO status following suspensions due to participation in the UCI Gaza Solidarity Encampment in May 2024. Both organizations are currently on disciplinary probation, and Anakbayan at UCI has regained RCO status.
Hatchly Galindo, who serves as the co-chair of the Latinx Law Students Association and the external director of Law Students for Justice in Palestine, shared her clubs’ experiences with UCI administration in her survey response.
“I have had issues with the administration in getting clear answers to policies,” Galindo wrote. “Also, there seems to be a preference for different organizations. For example, one organization can violate policies and administration looks the other way, but when it comes to organizations that are more political, the same asks are denied.”
Some student leaders of RCOs discussed issues with membership retention and outreach and expressed how opportunities offered by the UCI Office of COVP, such as the Anteater Involvement Fair and department affiliations, have helped clubs recruit new members.
“The biggest issue has been spreading awareness of our presence and the fact that we exist,” Zoha Ahmed, a fourth-year English major and president of the Pakistani Student Association, wrote in her response. “We’ve increased activity on social media, participated in cultural fairs on Ring Road and signed up for AIF to spread the word.”
Steve Chan, a fourth-year computer science major and president of New Youth Society, discussed how his club “currently lack[s] the manpower to organize anything beyond simple events like film screenings.”
“We’ve always wanted to host cultural salons or discussion forums, but with just a handful of us, it’s nearly impossible,” Chan wrote. “We believe that support from more departments or professors would be crucial in making this happen.”
Anisa Johnson, a fourth-year triple major in dance performance, dance choreography and economics, and president of Movement Exchange at UCI and the Sole Rhythms Tap Club, discussed how their organizations have a “hard time reaching students” and tend to recruit by word of mouth.
“I do not think students recognize that RCOs are really trying to make their experiences better,” they wrote in their survey response. “All of what we do is to provide them with opportunities that they often do not take up.”
For Movement Exchange at UCI, Johnson hopes a new partnership with the UCI Division of Career Pathways will help them with recruitment.
The UCI Division of Career Pathways is just one of many offices on campus that offer affiliate programs for RCOs. Others include the Cross Cultural Center, the Student Outreach and Retention (SOAR) Center, the ANTrepreneur Center, the Womxn’s Center for Success, the Center for Black Cultures, Resources and Research, the Latinx Resource Center and the LGBT Resource Center.
The ANTrepreneur Center’s affiliate program focuses on treating a club “as if it was a business,” according to program coordinator Stefani Rios. The center offers consultation meetings to help RCOs create sponsor decks to pitch to businesses or develop membership recruitment and retention plans. Other resources include access to funding opportunities for entrepreneurial efforts and the use of the center’s spaces for events.
“Especially when it comes to sponsorships, whether it’s for a business or a club, people who invest or give money want to know where their money is going and how you’re going to benefit them,” Rios told New University. “So we really try to help clubs understand that core concept before anything else.”
Since the ANTrepreneur Center affiliate program’s initiation in 2022 with 10 clubs at its founding, the program now hosts about 20 affiliated RCOs. Affiliated organizations are required to attend quarterly meetings. “Distinguished clubs” have more guidelines regarding attending and promoting the center’s events and gain added benefits like priority room reservations and collaboration opportunities.
“We don’t want to force people to come to things if they don’t want to come, which is why we structured it different[ly] this year,” Rios said. “So we try to make our affiliation program as accessible and open as possible, and we’ve seen more engagement in this regard.”
At the SOAR Center, its affiliate program is made up of a “coalition of student or campus organizations that conduct some form of student-initiated outreach and retention program,” according to Andrew Nguyen, a fourth-year political science major and an affiliate co-chair at SOAR.
“We consider them kind of the heart of our SOAR Center, because they’re the ones that actually go out and do that kind of work,” Nguyen told New University. “So things like they get allocated funding, they engage in dialogue, they organize and lead different projects. But the main focus is increasing the graduation rates for underrepresented students on campus.”
The program has grown from 19 RCOs in 2022 to 26 in 2023, 37 in 2024 and currently has 36 RCOs this year. According to Nguyen, funding for organizations largely comes from the UC’s Student Academic Preparational and Educational Partnerships, which is likely to be impacted by California state budget cuts. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year included a 7.95% cut to the UC system, equivalent to $396 million.
“There are some looming state budget cuts that, you know, are happening currently,” Nguyen said. “So we do expect across the UC level that we are going to get cuts from our outreach programs and stuff, which might impact the [number] of organizations we can take on.”
RCOs can apply to affiliate with SOAR during the summer and, if approved, attend mandatory training sessions. Other requirements include meeting with an assigned affiliate co-chair once per quarter, attending quarterly affiliate meetings, attending at least one SOAR program and working on a student-initiated outreach and retention project.
Staff at the SOAR Center are open to answering questions from student organizations interested in affiliating or from new RCOs who don’t know how to start planning events.
“We’re not just a resource for affiliates, but we’re also a resource for student organizations as well on campus,” Nguyen said. “The more work that they [student organizations] do, you know, the more it impacts our outreach and retention. Our whole goal is to be a more successful campus.”
Camelia Heins is a News Intern for the winter 2025 quarter. She can be reached at cheins@uci.edu.
Edited by Karen Wang & Jaheem Conley.
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