Student Organizations

Currently, there are nearly 300 student organizations at the UWM. While the university if supportive of co-curricular and extracurricular experiences, the institution has a responsibility to manage the resources needed for such a large number of organizations. 

There is also a limit as to how many students may be interested in joining a new organization with so many student organizations already available to them.

Consider the following:

• Does our proposed organization overlap with any existing organization? Check the student organization list. If there is some overlap, what makes the proposed new organization different from similar organizations?
• Does your student organization have enough interest among students to last for multiple years?
• Has a similar organization been active on campus in the past?
• Will the proposed organization require special resources (facilities, equipment, etc.) to operate and if so, how will the organization gain access to these unique resources?

Check the Student Organization List

Read and respond to emails. Include all officers in the cc line of emails.

Respond to requests in a timely manner.
Organizations that have one or more individuals serving as officers who have been an officer in a student organization before have a much higher success rate than other student organizations.

If you have any doubts or questions, contact Student Involvement for assistance. Student Involvement, csidesk@uwm.edu, 414-229-5780 or Union 351.

List four UWM students enrolled in a degree program, on a fee-paying (Segregated University Fee) basis for at least half‐time (6 credits for undergraduates and 4 credits for graduate students) as contacts within the Org Registration and showing in the online membership roster. Each student organization must provide the full name, UWM student identification number, phone number, and email address of four UW‐Milwaukee students to serve as officers. At least one of the contacts for the organization must agree to have their name and phone number or email address released as the public information for the group.

Have a membership consisting of at least 3/4 students enrolled for a minimum of one semester hour of credit at UWM. To comply with this requirement, student organizations must maintain a current roster of membership at all times in the online platform used by UWM for student organizations (Presence).

List the name, office location, telephone number, and email address for at least one faculty or staff advisor who is employed by UW‐Milwaukee. This information must appear in the Org Registration and in the membership roster online. The name and UWM email address for the faculty/staff advisor’s supervisor must also be provided so that liability protection for the advising role can be documented.

A UWM approved Charter document. This can take the form of a Constitution, Bylaws, one of the charter forms available online or other primary operating document.

Disclose any community, state, national, or international affiliations of your student organization by listing them in the Org Registration in the Affiliations section. Constitution/bylaws of the affiliated organization(s) can be submitted electronically as PDF or by using a website URL.

Additional criteria for registering a student organization on campus can be found in the Student Organization Guide and RSO Expectations, located on the Student Involvement website, under Student Organization Resources.