SGA dissolves Stevens Italian club

This past semester, the Stevens Italian Club (SIC) was dissolved by the Student Government Association (SGA). The Italian Club was a cultural student organization with the purpose of promoting Italian and Italian-American culture on campus. Past events held by the Italian Club have included the Gelato Fest and the celebration of Italian Easter. However, starting last fall semester, event and general body meeting attendance began to decline despite the efforts of e-board members to revive the club.

According to the Head of the Audit Committee, Mark Krupinski, the SGA’s Audit Committee audited the SIC last semester and found that money that had not been previously allocated to them had been spent. According to Krupinski, the Audit Committee also found that the SIC was being mismanaged at an organizational level, including not holding e-board transitions, not putting club events on DuckLink, and overall disorganization within the club. On November 14, SIC received the final report from the SGA, detailing the requirements they needed to fulfill to remain a registered student organization (RSO), such as revising their constitution and meeting monthly with their subcommittee head in the SGA. On November 17, the SIC was told their budget request was not approved at the semesterly budget meeting. As a result, the SIC did not receive a budget for the semester and would have to submit an AFR for funds to host events. This meant that the SIC would have had to submit a request for funds to the SGA each time they required money to host a meeting or event.

As the SIC continued to not fulfill the requirements set by the SGA to remain a registered student organization (RSO), the SGA reached out to see if the club needed assistance. However, the SGA received no response from the SIC President and prepared to dissolve the club at the first meeting in March if they received no further response. At the end of February, the head of the Cultural Subcommittee of the SGA reached out to the President of the SIC. In their response, the President of the SIC requested to have the SIC dissolved by the SGA. The dissolution of the club raised little resistance from the e-board or club members. At the following SGA meeting, the Senate approved a motion to dissolve the SIC.