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Start a Graduate Student Organization

All student organizations must be re-registered each semester on Catlife through the Office of Student Involvement.  The following steps must be taken to both register your organization and maintain its active status.

  1. Create your organization profile.  Have a name and description of your organization as well as a way for students to contact the organization, such as an email and social media.  Include a link to your organization's website if applicable.
     
  2. State at least 3 interests of your organization.  Many organizations have academic and social components aimed at skill-building, public service, and cultural education.  Use the purpose of your organization and think of ways your organization can express it.
     
  3. List the officers and members of your organization.  Every organization must have at least 4 members to be considered an active organization.  Ideally, the four officers should be the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.  
     
  4. List the organization's advisor.  Every organization must have an on-campus advisor in order to be an active organization.  This person must be either a full time faculty, staff member, or postdoc.
     
  5. Include the organization's constitution and/or bylaws.  The constitution defines the organization's structure as well as the responsibilities and regulations governing all officers and members of the organization.  The bylaws usually contain more detailed guidelines pertaining to everyone in the organization.  The Office of Student Involvement has samples available on its website.
     
  6. Read and agree to the Hazing Prevention Agreement.  Hazing of any person seeking to gain membership into an organization is prohibited bu university polices.  Organizations who wish to be registered with the Office of Student Involvement must abide to this agreement.
     
  7. Have at least 2 officers attend 4 of the required virtual training sessions offered by the Office of Student Involvement.  these trainings are: RCO 101 Training, Risk Reduction & Policy Awareness, Budget & Finance Management, and Event Planning, Programming, and Policies.  Follow updates on Catlife to learn about the dates and times of these trainings.

Note that the registration process has been modified to comply with COVID-19 restrictions.  To learn more about the process, should in-person activities resume, click here.  You can also find these procedures on their website.  The organization registration period usually opens up in the summer semester and closes in late October.  If you are an existing club, you wil be required to re-register each semester.

Organizations that fail to register/re-register, have less than 4 officers/members, or do not indicate an on-campus advisor will be considered inactive and will not be eligible for funding.

Should you have any question or concerns, please contact Cassie Gunter at cgunter@ucmerced.edu or Jim Greenwood at the Office of Student Life at jgreenwood@ucmerced.edu.