By Emily Nixon, Margot Dragos, and Contributing Reporter Jaida Dent.
On Nov. 11, multiple clubs spoke at a senate meeting held by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), voicing their concerns about issues they’ve had with the Brooklyn College (BC) administration’s updated policies regarding clubs in the past semester.
“Until everyone sees these policies as fundamentally unjust, some people will follow them to the letter, unaware of the damage they are doing to student life,” said Miguel Figueroa, Vice President of the Puerto Rican Alliance (PRA). “Students have no power if we can’t have fun, or learn about and express our culture.”
While policies are written and voted on at the Clubs Affairs Council (CAC), they are enforced and regulated by the Student Activities, Involvement, and Leadership (SAIL) office and Student Affairs.
The changing policies around club and event registrations have been a major source of frustration for BC clubs, such as Student Organization For Every Disability United For Progress (SOFEDUP).
“We had trouble registering at the start of the semester because of the changes to the process,” said Venus Blue, former president of SOFEDUP (2024-2025). “SAIL changed the rules from requiring 2 e-board members to 4 over the summer and abruptly denied our re-registration, and then we had issues with the new training rules.”
Another source of frustration for club leaders has been the unclear regulations put forth by Central Depository, which funds club events when Event Request Forms (ERFs) are submitted and approved.
“Consistently, SAIL has failed to accurately disclose the official budget for our club despite the rough estimate given to many club leaders during the mandatory club training sessions,” said Tai Lee, Secretary of the J-Fashion club. “We have remained within the estimated budget given to us […] but time and time again, we have never approved the full amount necessary to ensure that our club has all the items we need for our events.”
This remains a problem for the J-Fashion Club, according to Lee.
“On the day of the Senate Meeting, we were having an event in collaboration with the LGBTA club, and just a day before the event, Central Depository informed us that they did not order some of the things we requested weeks in advance,” said Lee. “The lack of communication and sufficient reasoning behind these decisions has made it challenging to establish ourselves as a new club.”
Clubs claim there has been a lack of communication about these changing regulations, which has added to their frustration with Admin’s lack of support, according to Blue.
“SAIL, USG, or the administration has not communicated with us at all about these policy changes or increasing enforcement,” said Blue. “We do not feel as though we have been supported; in fact, we have consistently been ignored by administration, and in particular, [BC President] Michelle Anderson, who we met with last year regarding several important issues to our members, which she was and continues to be incredibly dismissive of.”
Various cultural clubs expressed frustration with their events being cancelled and funding being pulled. There have been issues with clubs’ ERFs being cancelled or rejected “for frivolous reasons,” according to Figueroa.
“This is like on a broader pattern, specifically cultural clubs, where they’re losing money for events, getting their events rejected for frivolous reasons like spelling mistakes,” said Figueroa.“For PRA, there was the Encuentro that we had recently […] There was a mistake on the flyer of which room in SUBO the event was going to be in. Rather than asking us to edit the flyer later before we posted it, the entire ERF got cancelled.”
President of PRA, Angelina Venetian, spoke out against alleged “favoritism” from Charles Amerson, Director of SAIL and the Department of Student Activities at Student Affairs.
“I see a clear discrimination against clubs like mine and in favor of clubs like United for Israel. Charles Amerson in specific rejected one of our important ERFs because our flyer didn’t include all of the co-sponsors’ logos – we had to rewrite and submit the entire ERF,” said Venetian.
Last spring, 17 clubs signed a letter to CUNY and BC Administrations, written by Blue, who was president of SOFEDUP at the time, “condemning the use of police violence” in response to the May 8 Pro-Palestine demonstration.
“There is no place on our campus, or on any college campus, for this level of intimidation and repression, or for students to be willingly placed in harm’s way by administrators,” states the letter.
During the meeting, Blue criticized the supposed targeting of the clubs who’d signed the letter.
“Most of those clubs over the last few months have experienced ERFs being cancelled, funding being pulled, discrimination […] [Admin] are targeting people that they disagree with politically, that speak out against things.”
Towards the end of the meeting, USG apologized for the statement they put out.
“I will apologize on behalf of USG and on behalf of the post,” said Doha Nemr, USG’s Chief of Staff. “Yes, it could’ve been done in a much better way […] we kind of had to respond quick, so I do apologize for the post [..] and hopefully we can move forward with that and take action for you guys.”
While those in attendance appreciated the apology, Figueroa pointed out that all parties deserving of an apology weren’t present when it was given, namely, figures from Blaze, BSU, and CSU.
During the meeting, Sanchez said that representatives from SAIL had been invited to attend, yet were unable to.
Haikeda Hilliman, USG Club Director, remarked that this meeting had been the first step towards progress.
“This is the first time that we’ve had students really come to these meetings and actually sit and let us know there really is a problem,” said Hilliman. “So now that you guys have done so, I’m sure that we can come together and at least have a meeting with SAIL as a group.”
Many students are unaware that they are able to attend the senate meetings, according to Lee.
“I would like for USG to advertise their meetings and town halls more widely to the campus and students,” said Lee. “Many of us were unaware that these meetings are public to us, which made it difficult for us as students to know what was going on within USG and Brooklyn College.”
USG President Cyle Paul later confirmed to The Vanguard that plans were underway to set the meeting up between SAIL, USG, and club leaders.
“We’re also planning a December town hall specifically focused on this topic so that SAIL, USG, and club leaders are all in the same room hearing the same information at the same time,” said Paul.
Lee felt that despite the conflict in the meeting, a consensus was reached about what the next step needed for resolution was.
“Though there were some moments where it felt like there was still blame being shifted between USG and eboard members, there was a collective agreement that SAIL and Student Affairs need to be held responsible for their neglect of student clubs,” said Lee. “Seeing that a majority of USG were sharing our frustrations and understanding where many of us are coming from felt like we were being seen and heard.”
Nemr issued a warning to club leaders that they should manage their expectations of what transparency USG and Admin can give.
“I know that you guys want transparency, but there are certain things that happen backstage that we really can’t share,” said Nemr. “But, whatever we can share and whatever’s gonna make you guys happy, that’s what we will do.”
The senate meeting served as a step towards unity between USG and club leaders as senators emphasized that they are here to serve BC’s student body.
“There is a clear crackdown on student clubs, specifically culture and political activist clubs,” said BC student and USG senator Ari Tirado Candia. “Again, I want to emphasize that our role as USG and student representatives is to be one in solidarity with other clubs and students.”
Students interested in further events by JFashion Club, PRA, SOFEDUP, and USG should check their respective Instagrams: @bcjfashionclub, @bc_pra, @sofedup_bc, and @bcstudentgov.