GPA taken into account

Starting in the 2013-14 academic year, those holding the position of president for any Wilfrid Laurier University campus club will be required to maintain a 5.0 grade point average (GPA) or  a C.

Previously, there were no grade requirements placed on the position of president. Other executive positions remain without a formal grade requirement.

Maggie Schaefer, vice president of clubs and associations at the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union, discussed this new change with The Cord.

The goal of this new change, she explained, is to ensure that students who are volunteering on the Laurier campus are still in good standing academically.

“We made the changes for all volunteers that we directly hire so we thought it was important … we want to make sure students that are volunteering [are] doing well academically,” said Schaefer.

This new GPA requirement is meant to give students the opportunity to volunteer, as well as increase incentives to maintain their grades.

For now, the GPA requirement only extends to the presidents of campus clubs.

“We’re starting off with presidents as it’s a larger role with more time commitment,” Schaefer explained. “We’re going to start off with presidents and see how it goes from there.”

This may later be extended to other volunteers who are involved within campus clubs.

“As much as we want to provide volunteer opportunities for everyone, we want to make sure their academics don’t suffer,” she continued.

This is not only a rule for Campus Clubs presidents, as Schaefer explained, because the GPA requirement was enforced on other types of volunteers that were directly hired by WLUSU.

5.0 is the point where a student is on academic probation, so earlier this year the choice was made by WLUSU to make it mandatory to have this overall average, Schaefer explained.

The current president of the Medieval Students Society, Alex Krawecki sees this as a positive change.

“Clubs are a good extracurricular activity, but can’t replace schoolwork,” she said.

As president, Krawecki admitted that running a club is a great deal of work.  She sees this new rule as beneficial, especially to faculty clubs.

“As I’m part of a faculty club, the role of president includes a lot of interaction with professors, and the maintenance of a minimum GPA would help future presidents to be respected by faculty.”

Emma Morrison,  president of the Harry Potter Alliance at Laurier, sees the change  as an extra stressor placed on the president.

“I think clubs are something campus club presidents do for fun, something to be relaxing,” she said.

For Morrison, she sees her club as one for enjoyment that she and her members use as part of relaxation and distressing.