A comprehensive repository resources and guidance for registered student organization (RSO) advisors available at OU and the GCoE. If you have any questions about any resources or would like to report an update or additional resource, please contact engineeringstudentlife@ou.edu.
A registered student organization (RSO) advisor is an OU staff or faculty member that supports, mentors, and works with the various RSOs in an official capacity. Advisors help students learn and apply life skills such as networking, leadership development, critical thinking, organizational management, communication techniques, and event planning.
Advisors can serve as mentors, experience student life outside the classroom, and build relationships that students will remember and appreciate long after they graduate. Serving as an advisor is a commitment to the students and to the University. In return, advisors will benefit from a greater knowledge of student development, a connection to university activities, and a sense of accomplishment that their efforts have directly and positively impacted the lives of students.
All RSO advisors must be full-time (1.0 FTE) faculty or staff members at the University of Oklahoma. They cannot be PEAK, temporary, or student employees. RSOs may invite faculty or staff to serve as their advisor. Competitive Club Student Organizations (CCSO) and Departmental Student Organizations (DSO) do require permission from the director or dean to register as an advisor.
Faculty and staff members need to be mindful of their own teaching, research, and other professional duties before becoming an advisor. Your dean, department head, or supervisor may make recommendations based on professional duties, experience, or interest.
Guidance and Support
Serving as a RSO ’s advisor shows a commitment to the success of its members. The students count on the advisor not only to assist with administrative tasks and serve as a liaison with the College and wider University, but also to provide encouragement, guidance, and support through a wide range of situations.
Fiscal Oversight
Each RSO should have a student financial officer or treasurer, but the advisor should be completely aware of all RSO finances and should share all of this knowledge with the appropriate officers.. The advisor should be willing to provide guidance and training regarding how to create a budget, obtain funding, spend funds in accordance with university policy, and keep good financial records. The advisor can also assist students with the opening, maintenance, and tracking of financial accounts.
Policy Interpretation and Advocacy
As an employee of the University of Oklahoma, an advisor should be knowledgeable about OU and GCoE policies and provide guidance to students on important University policies and procedures. The advisor can also serve as an advocate for students who do not feel their needs are being met or who need assistance interpreting policies. The advisor can also provide critical feedback to Engineering Student Life, college leadership, and Student Affairs regarding ways to improve the student experience and RSO support systems.
Approve RSO Registration
The advisor works with Student Affairs to approve all RSO registrations with the University and the college. This process is through Engage and advisors will receive notification to approve their RSO's registration annually.
Continuity
The advisor provides stability for RSOs, so records are not lost during the natural transition and turnover of officers as students graduate and become engrossed in other endeavors. The advisor should assist students with information regarding events, processes, documentations, etc. that have worked in the past and may be applicable to future group endeavors.
Meeting and Social Activities
Advisors are encouraged to participate in meetings with their respective RSO. Advisors should communicate early with their officers regarding their availability and willingness to participate in meetings and programming. It is important that students feel worth of the advisor’s time as this helps establish mentoring relationships that many students greatly desire in their extracurricular activities.
Advisors should meet with their RSO’s leadership and communicate expectations. Both sides can discuss what they can do for the RSO, their planned level of involvement, and what they need from each other. Establishing expectations early is key to a successful and healthy relationship while maintaining boundaries, ensuring adequate advisor involvement, and desired officer autonomy. This process should be collaborative, honest, and respectful. While setting these baseline expectations, both parties should find ways to easily revisit, update, and discuss expectations again throughout the year.
Advisors are an important part of an RSO's continuity. It is important to take time to examine the constitution, learn about the missions and goals of the RSO, and have knowledge of what kind of activities the RSO does and generally when they happen. Advisors must also be aware of and have access to key organizational documentation, like budgets and constitutions and where funds are kept or whom to contact for questions. With this knowledge, an advisor is better equipped to advise officers on policy, event planning, and to help prevent bad transitions from paralyzing a RSO.
An advisor should make time to introduce themselves to the RSO's members, attend some meetings, help plan major events or trips, assist with organizational reforms, annual planning, and overall be a presence in the RSO. This does not mean the advisor needs to attend every meeting, do everything for the officer team, micromanage, or otherwise hover over their RSO. An advisor should meet with the RSO's executive board at least meet once or twice a month and be someone that the regular members know about and can approach if needed.
Remember, each RSO will ask a different level of involvement from the advisor to be successful, and that involvement may vary year to year as officers change.
University policy can be complex and obtuse for students to figure out and can change from year to year. As a staff or faculty member, advisors often have insight on current travel policy or the knowledge of whom to talk to and get answers. If your RSO is planning an event, approach your officer team and ask about their plans. Event planning involves a lot of moving parts and making sure your officer team is remembering everything that is needed and taking enough time to organize it is very important. Remind them about relevant University policies regarding Special Events, the OU Youth Protection Policy, and any financial policies regarding spending, reimbursements, and money handling.
RSOs are an opportunity for students to learn, lead, and practice their leadership and communication skills. This is a valuable part of experiential learning within our college. It is important to give students within a RSO the opportunity to have actual responsibilities and the space to make mistakes and learn from them. While failure can be disappointing for everyone involved, it can be a valuable learning experience to student leaders and members. As an advisor, these failures do not reflect on you, but do give you an opportunity to mentor and advise your officer team on learning from their mistakes and making strides towards future success.
As an advisor, your experience and mentorship are often invaluable to the success of a RSO. However, student officers may not always ask for help if they are in need. Advisors should check-in with their RSO and ask how things are going throughout the year. Asking more specific or probing questions can help you identify if an issue is occurring and how to best approach them.
A student’s primary duty is to work towards their degree. As an advisor, one of the hardest tasks is stepping in when a student is in crisis and helping them make responsible choices. If you are aware or become aware that a student is in crisis, you are encouraged to approach them and help them make decisions that will allow them to continue making good academic progress. This could be asking them to step down from an officer position or to be less involved with a RSO so they can focus on their studies.
As an advisor, you will have insights and experience that your officers are still developing and can provide valuable guidance during organizational development and reorganization. You should feel comfortable approaching your RSO’s officer team to discuss these efforts, offering knowledge and expertise as needed. This should be a collaborative effort and one that is made with the consent of your leadership team. As the advisor, you should be respectful of your leadership team by listening to their needs, respecting established expectations, and building on pre-existing trust and respect between you and your officers.
RSOs utilize a variety of applications to communicate publically and internally. As the advisor, it is important that you are aware of the various applications utilized by your RSO for communications. For publically facing applications such as social media accounts, an advisor should have login credentials for continuity. For internal communication applications used by members and officers, advisors should be aware they are used, but they do not need to be a part of these groups.
Organizational changes may demand an advisor to be flexible in their role to support their RSO even within the same academic year. Working with the leadership team on what they might need, helping them identify those needs, and collaborating on what can be done by you are important steps in being flexible to the needs of your RSO while respecting your time and efforts. Remember, being flexible does not necessarily mean you should give more of your time, but instead altering your interactions with the RSO and your relationship with certain tasks and knowledge.
As a RSO advisor, you are a mandatory reporter and Campus Security Authority for crimes that you observe or learn about on or off campus.. This reports can be made to the Office of Student Conduct, Title IX, or to OUPD for Clery Act Crimes. While you are a reporter, you are not responsible for the investigation, apprehension of the offender, or to pressure a victim to pursue any specific action.
Here are links to these specific bodies for more information
Many registered student organizations organize or participate in events that involve travel off campus and often overnight. OU has various policies about travel that students need to observe. Our advisors are an integral part of making sure that our RSOs are compliant and that they have support for reservations, purchases, and during emergencies.
All students and non-OU guests that are participating in RSO travel are required to do the following:
In addition, any travel that is overnight or exceeds 100 miles round-trip must also register their travel with OU Student Affairs.
Digital travel forms and travel policy acknowledgments can be created for your trip by registering your travel with the Engineering College.
When it comes to travel, advisors support RSOs in several different capacities.
Compliance
Advisors must ensure that the RSOs are compliant with all University policies. Meet with your officer team and event planners to make sure that all OU policies are followed and that all participants will be safe during the trip. This includes completing the Clery Act Reporting form and ensuring all traveling students have completed the digital waivers and releases.
Emergency Coordinator
Advisors are responsible to their RSO in case of an emergency. This is through accessing any submitted travel forms to get medical information and to share it with emergency personnel if needed. Advisors can do this by either traveling with the group or by acting as their emergency contact.
Per University policy, a RSO is required to have an OU faculty/staff person act as the on-campus emergency contact for the trip. This is normally the advisor’s role. If the advisor is traveling with the group, another OU faculty/staff person shouble be listed as the emergency contact for the trip. This helps in case an emergency involves the traveling staff/faculty person.
If there is no staff/faculty person traveling with the RSO, the on-campus emergency contact must be on-call throughout the trip in case of an emergency situation. Again, this is normally the advisor’s responsibility.
Reservations
Advisors should help with reservations for trips. If they have a travel card, they can make reservations on behalf of their RSO with guidance from their officer team. If an advisor is unable to get a travel card, they should encourage their officer team to speak to a financial person about possible options for reservations.
Advisors can also help with procuring rental vehicles from OU Fleet Services or plane tickets or hotel rooms through Concur. Before reserving anything, advisors should check with a financial associate to discuss any pertinent policies or restrictions and to obtain any Chart Field Spread (CFS) or account information needed.
Some important OU Fleet Services policies to keep in mind for student travel:
Purchasing and Reimbursements
Unless clearly stated and planned, OU faculty and staff are not responsible for purchasing or reimbursements for a student trip. Advisors should meet with their executive team or event planner to determine what responsibility the advisor should have over purchases for the trip.
Advisors can help with purchasing things while on the trip using their travel cards. If the advisor has a travel card, they can help with purchases throughout the trip using their card and then process it through the RSO’s finances. Advisors should meet with officers to see what expenses can be purchased with this method and which costs need to fall on the participants for the trip, including any traveling OU staff/faculty person.
If the advisor does not have a travel card, they can still help pay for travel expenses using reimbursement. While possible, reimbursements can be tricky and without consulting a financial person prior to the trip for approval, you and your participants may not be reimbursed for expenses on the trip. You should work with your officer team and financial associate to understand OU’s current reimbursement policy so you can ensure that you have a plan and can be reimbursed for those expenses.
Mandatory Reporting
All students on the trip are still bound to all OU policies and regulations. If a student violates the Student Code of Conduct or Title IX, you are a mandatory reporter and must work with the appropriate group in making your report.
Here are links to these specific bodies for more information
Regardless of their advisor status, staff and faculty that elect to travel with students do have roles and responsibilities.
Compliance
Traveling staff and faculty must make sure that the RSOs are compliant with all University policies. Work with the responsible officers on the trip to make sure that all OU policies are followed and that all participants are safe during the trip.
Some important things to remember:
Emergency Coordinator
Any OU faculty and staff person traveling can be an emergency coordinator for the trip and be given access to any submitted travel forms to gain medical information and share with emergency personnel if needed. Faculty and staff participating in student travel are asked to act in this capacity during the trip to assist the advisor in case of an emergency and will be given to digital waivers and release submissions from the traveling students.
Purchasing and Reimbursements
Unless clearly stated and planned, OU faculty and staff are not responsible for purchasing or reimbursements for a student trip. Any faculty or staff person that would like to help either by paying personally or through a travel card, should meet prior to the trip to discuss their role and interest in this process.
Remember, while possible, reimbursements can be tricky and without consulting a financial person prior to the trip for approval, you and your participants may not be reimbursed for expenses on the trip. You should always work with the responsible officer team and financial associate to understand OU’s current reimbursement policy so you can ensure that you have a plan and can be reimbursed for those expenses.
Mandatory Reporting
All students on the trip are still bound to all OU policies and regulations. If a student violates the Student Code of Conduct or Title IX, you are a mandatory reporter and must work with the appropriate group in making your report.
Here are links to these specific bodies for more information
To register travel, you will need the following information:
Register with GCoE
RSO officers or advisors can register their travel with the Engineering College at the following link: https://ousurvey.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6ri5oQX4HbPZths.
Register with OU Student Affairs
RSO officers or advisors can register their travel with the University by creating an event through their RSO’s Engage and indicating that travel will occur when asked. The event creation page will redirect them to complete their travel registration.
The Clery Act is a federal law that requires all US colleges and universities to report certain crime statistics annually. This report collects data on known campus property and non-campus locations used by students where the university or a registered student organization “owned or controlled” the location(s) through a written agreement. This written agreement may be formal (lodging invoice, deed, lease, etc.) or informal (email, text, etc.). Control or ownership of non-campus locations does not require cost or payment as the University can still control a location through a written agreement without having to pay anything,
At the conclusion of any trip, the advisor or an officer must submit these details to our Clery Act reporting form. This form allows the college to report the necessary information regarding your trip to OU’s Clery Compliance Office. Information needed include:
Submit this information to the Engineering Student Life Coordinator.
As an advisor you are given access to travel form submissions in case you need to look something up during an emergency situation. There are two ways to access submissions:
Excel Quick Reference Travel Sheet
As students complete their travel forms, an Excel sheet is created and automatically records important information regarding their submissions including their contact information, emergency contacts, and medical information. The on-campus emergency contact as well as any travelling faculty or staff are given access to this Excel sheet from the Engineering Student Life office.
Directly from Qualtrics Submissions
If Excel is not an option due to mobile restrictions or an inability to access the shared document, you can also access submissions directly from Qualtrics by following these steps:
Please note that you can download all Qualtrics submissions as a PDF if needed by instead selecting “Export to PDF”. You will have an option to rename the file prior to download.
Due to limitations with software, attachments and uploaded files such as insurance cards, passports, and flight itineraries cannot be accessed directly from the Excel travel sheet. Instead, they can either be batch downloaded or accessed from Qualtrics directly through the “Data & Analysis” tab of the trip’s survey.
Batch Download
From the Data & Analysis tab:
The files will be downloaded as a Zip folder with all files given by Qualtrics by survey ID and whatever the submitted file was called. This can be difficult to parse in an emergency, so a batch download is recommended to do prior to a trip when all documents are submitted so they can be sorted and organized.
Directly from Qualtrics Submissions
If you can access pdfs or images from your electronic device, you can also access uploaded files directly from a submission. To do this from the Data & Analysis tab:
Remember that any documents that are downloaded to your device should be deleted at the conclusion of the trip.
Questions about travel, ELA, GCoE Funding, and general RSO information
Questions about Student Government, RSO resources, and Engage
George Ahmadi
Director of Student Government & Organization Services
kga@ou.edu
(405)-325-5471
OMU 181
Questions about RSO fundraising & alumni fundraising or contacts in ECE and EP
Questions about alumni fundraising or contacts in AME and DSA
Questions about alumni fundraising or contacts in SBME and SCBME
Questions about: REPF access, bays, and machine shop
Jimmy Cannon
Engineering Practice Coordinator
jimmyray@ou.edu
(405)-325-6844
REPF Machine Shop Office
Questions about SGA Funding
Questions about corporate fundraising
Questions about alumni fundraising or contacts in CS
Questions about alumni fundraising or contacts in ISE, CEES, and OU YEA
