Students can pur­sue a hobby or inter­est by set­ting up a Registered Student Organization on campus.

Dennis Boyd Jr., chair­per­son of the Student Leadership and Activities Advisory Council (SLAAC) and senior in the new media print­ing and pub­lish­ing pro­gram, said many RSOs are started as hobby groups.

RSOs are set up based on inter­ests that con­sist of a vari­ety of things such as sports, pol­i­tics, faith, etc.

“They (stu­dents) have to get five inter­ested peo­ple for the E-board, a staff fac­ulty advi­sor, fill out the appli­ca­tion and cre­ate a con­sti­tu­tion,” said Boyd.

Generally, depend­ing on the pur­pose of the RSO, some are eas­ier to start than oth­ers, said Boyd.

“Since I’ve been chair, I’ve had nine peo­ple come in to start an RSO this month,” said Boyd. He added he nor­mally sees three to four peo­ple come in a month request­ing to start a new RSO.

Among the RSOs that are not easy to start are fraternities/sororities and club sports RSOs. Boyd explained the sport must be a valid sport. Fraternities and soror­i­ties must go through a dif­fer­ent process, said Boyd.

Fraternity/sorority groups request­ing to start an RSO have to be acknowl­edged by a national chap­ter. Boyd said they have to go to Greek Councils and find a gov­ern­ing coun­cil that will allow them to be a part of the community.

The inten­tions of start­ing an RSO must be appro­pri­ate and have a pur­pose approved by SLAAC.

The cri­te­ria, appli­ca­tion and sam­ple con­sti­tu­tion form can be found on Ferris’ Web site under the “Student Leadership and Activities” page.

There is an “upwards of 235 (Registered Student Organizations) as of now,” said Boyd. There are two more meet­ings to get sev­eral RSOs estab­lished for the semes­ter; one of which will take place on March 16, and one will be deter­mined in April.

Boyd said he feels RSOs have been fairly suc­cess­ful on cam­pus. A campus-wide e-mail will be sent out this week for peo­ple who want to be mem­bers of the committee.

Any stu­dent who is inter­ested in start­ing an RSO may con­tact the Student Leadership and Activities office at ext.2606 or StudentLeadershipActivities@ferris.edu.