UPDATE, 10 p.m. Wednesday

The student senate approved recognition for all four student groups at Wednesday’s meeting. Read more info about the groups from last week’s meeting below.

ORIGINAL STORY

Four student groups will be considered for recognition as official student organizations at this Wednesday’s Student Government Association meeting.

The following groups made bids for recognition at last week’s SGA meeting: Shockappella, the Black Academic Honor Society, the Pre-Physician Assistant Student Organization, and the Sport Management Student Association.

To be officially recognized as a student organization, a group has to have at least five members and a president, treasurer, and faculty adviser. There is also a step-by-step process outlined in the RSO handbook.

Becoming an RSO allows a group to receive equipment, meeting space, and services. It also opens up the opportunity for a group to request organizational funding from SGA.

The student senate is set to vote on each group’s potential recognition at this week’s SGA meeting, beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Santa Fe Room on the second floor of the RSC.

Shockappella

Shockappella’s stated purpose is to “share the tradition of competitive collegiate a cappella music with the community and provide an open-minded environment for creativity and expression for students in all areas of study.”

“Shockappella is a great ensemble for people who have a love for singing and cannot commit to choir class during the day,” said Kourtnee Cude, president of the group.   

A maximum number of 18 students will be allowed to participate in Shockappella’s competition team, which participates in the International Championship of Collegiate Acappella (ICCA). The group currently has five members and plans to host auditions in early September.

“If enough people are interested, we will expand to have two ensembles: one for competing/performances and one for just performances,” Cude said.

Black Academic Honor Society

The Black Honor Society’s stated purpose is to “acknowledge and represent academic discipline, cultural awareness, community service to all mankind, honorary excellence and refined interest.”

Star Billingsley, co-founder and president of the Black Honor Society, said some of the group’s short-term and long-term goals include creating a sense of community and unity among black students on campus, elevating the black profile on campus and creating an “unapologetically black culture on campus in every sense of the word.”

Ultimately, the student group would like to attend the Big XII Black Leadership Conference later this year.

Pre-Physician Student Organization

The Pre-Physician Student Organization’s (PPSO) stated purpose is to “build a close-knit community of aspiring Physician Assistant students and develop our leadership, academic, and service skills needed to apply to any program.”

Max Karst, president of the PPSO, said the organization was created in part to help prospective graduate students.

“We came together to create this organization because applying to PA school can be super intimidating, especially because Wichita State is the only physician-assistant program in the state of Kansas,” Karst said.

Typically, between 1500 and 1800 people apply every year, he explained, and only 48 get in.

“So if you go through this process alone, it’s super, super stressful,” Karst said.

Sport Management Student Association

The Sport Management Student Association’s (SMSA) stated purpose is to “establish and maintain communication with the sport business community, to promote faculty and student interaction from the sport management, media, sociology, business, psychology, and other sport-related departments,” among a list of other purposes.

“What we’re hoping to do with SMSA is create this family environment within the sport-management department” said Zach Morris, president of the association. “We don’t really have anything at the moment to connect all the students within that department together.”

The association also hopes to create a student sports network that would cover Shocker sports, as well as JUCO and high-school sports in the area.

View each group’s presentation here.