Brandeis’ over 200 student-run clubs and organizations are pivotal to the Brandeis experience for many students on campus, providing a sense of community and a connection to one’s culture. They also plan countless events for students to take part in. Currently, many clubs are experiencing issues regarding registering events on Campus Groups, specifically with how far in advance clubs must register events. This editorial board chose not to name specific clubs to use as examples for these issues in order to protect their privacy.

Regular events and day trips must be submitted for approval three weeks ahead of time, whereas events requiring contracts, involving minors, extended trips and overnight trips must be registered a month ahead of time. International trips understandably take the longest amount of time, as they must be registered four months in advance. However, these policies can cause inconveniences, as they allow little to no leeway for events that respond to certain occasions — such as a political or cultural event — or impromptu club collaborations that hope to fill a niche on campus.

If a cultural club is hoping to host an event fundraising for an unexpected political happening, there would be a three-week waiting period, regardless of how long the event actually takes to plan. Informal tabling now takes weeks to approve, discouraging clubs from any type of tabling to raise money or awareness. In addition to having to register events weeks in advance, there are many forms clubs must fill out, resulting in clubs with significant amounts of programming taking additional time to do needless administrative work on top of already busy student schedules. For a university focused on social justice, these bureaucratic barriers stand in students' way more often than they help them. 

For clubs that hold regular meetings or open club hours, registering every “event” is nearly impossible, and if they were to follow this policy, students would find their Campus Groups flooded with general meetings from a handful of clubs, making it hard to find events they would be interested in. Campus Groups, generally, is a poorly-functioning platform on top of being challenging to navigate. Additionally, it seems these policies are not completely being upheld on the Department of Student Engagement’s side, as students have often experienced long waits for a response, and scheduling meetings with the DSE team has been difficult for many. There have also been various issues with booking spaces, whether events happen in spaces that are unable to be reserved or with spaces being double-booked for events, causing both clubs to struggle for an otherwise fully planned out event.

The Justice Editorial Board calls for more leniency for event planning timelines on the part of the DSE, with understanding that every club functions differently and sweeping policies prohibit clubs from properly serving the Brandeis community. The waiting period should be different for impromptu events and events should be categorized by type, whether it is a one-off or a regularly occurring event, with regulations around forms and space reservations being adjusted accordingly. The current system can be inconvenient for clubs and can discourage student activity on campus — something we can’t afford as a campus with a diminished sense of school pride.