Texas State provides an open forum for learning and scholarship, but it is also a community of people driven by common goals that go beyond the academic life. The university presents the opportunity to foster civic engagement beyond the academic experience through the existence of Registered Student Organizations. At present, there are over 380 Registered Student Organizations contributing to the landscape of student life at Texas State.
According to the Student Council Organization, their purpose is to “enhance the learning and development of the individual student and help create a sense of belonging.” To that end, Registered Student Organizations “are afforded access to campus resources, and in turn agree to comply with regulation and procedures established for the governance of all student groups.”
The registration of a Student Organization takes place through the office of Student Involvement and involves the recognition of their existence by the university. Resources are allocated for their activities such as rooms, spaces and the ballroom. Moreover, they can reserve space in the quad for information and solicitation towards their activities, whereas non-registered organizations require sponsorship by a Registered Student Organization. Registered Student Organizations can apply to the Student Organization Council for funding at the term of a year of registered status for up to $1,000 for an event. It is important students know that being a part of the university community only comes with advantages.
Student life at Texas University is diverse and different groups reflect many different interests. At the moment, Registered Student Organizations are classified into 13 groups, such as political, religious, academic, professional, sports, recreational, Greek, Honors and multicultural. These organizations reflect the vitality of the student body and reveal the concern for providing an education that permits for the human flourishing that facilitates life in the community.
The human is inherently a political animal, one who forms his vocation in life through participation in the society in which he lives. There is an inherent wisdom in the election of extra-curricular activity as part of one’s student life; it can contribute to personal development, growth and mutual enrichment, the establishment of a career and the development of a professional life, the formation of relationships and of bonds of friendship and in the more general sense of well-being that follows upon contribution to the life of the community.
Texas State is an inclusive learning environment which encourages diversity, openness and the desire to expand one’s natural horizons. Students are encouraged to take part in the life of the community of the university, whether through student organizations or even holding public office.
For a university is more than an open space for learning, it is also a community and an environment with training for the political life—that is, for the civic life in society. Eminently, there is virtue in politics, despite our learned disaffection and distrust for our political system—a nobility that ought to foster moral action and strengthen it with a certain spirit of optimism, a hope for temporal progress and a responsibility for the future of civilization beyond all fatalism, nihilism and disbelief.
Student life is essential to the life of Texas State, and every student is reminded of the opportunity that a higher education presents in the process that is the formation of a culture and the social training of the individual.
– Patrick Tchakounte is a biochemistry junior