Have you ever wondered what it’s like to start a registered student organization (RSO) at UMass Amherst? Starting an RSO allows student groups to receive funding, to reserve rooms for events, and to become officially recognized by the university. This recognition is especially significant for cultural affinity groups who want to form an established community on campus. It was a long-running affair, but recently, the Filipino Student Association— of which I’m the co-president— finally became an official student group. This is our journey to RSO status.

How It Started

Growing up in the suburbs of Eastern Massachusetts, I sometimes felt like a minority within a minority community. The majority of Asian students in my high school were either East Asian or South Asian; rarely were there ever any Southeast Asians and even more rarely were there other Filipinos like my family. I made it an important point in my college search process to apply to a school where I could join a Filipino student club, but by February of senior year of high school I was set on UMass Amherst — where such an association did not exist.

UMass Amherst had registered student groups for Asian Americans, Taiwanese and Chinese students, Vietnamese students, Korean students, Japanese students, and South Asian students (including a separate Pakistani Student Organization)— but I couldn’t find anything at the time about a Filipino student group, which were popular among the colleges I applied to in Boston.

What I did find, however, very soon into my first year, were other students who were also looking to join a Filipino affinity group. I started to meet Filipino students through social media and through the Asian American Student Association. In the spring of 2020, I took a class called History 247: Empire, Race, and the Philippines, which is where I met my co-president Elaine Felizardo.

Our First Attempt

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Later that year, in the fall, we decided to make our barkada officially known to the university by applying to become an RSO. One thing to note about this process is that it is very tedious. I would definitely recommend starting early, breaking up the tasks among your board members, and scheduling times to meet with the Secretary of the Registry of the Student Government Association (SGA) to ask questions well before the application deadline.

Along with more general information like a logo and a preliminary roster to indicate membership interest, the application will ask you to develop a constitution and a strategic plan that outlines the goals and vision of your organization. It is important to note that because official groups receive support and funding, you are expected to adhere strictly to the SGA bylaws. This highly selective process does not hold space for small mistakes, so it’s imperative that you and your team work together to check over all the materials more than once.

In the end, we received a checklist that highlighted four seemingly miniscule mistakes in our application, but these items carried enough weight to deny us RSO status for that year.

Applying Again

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But we didn’t let that discourage us. We learned a lot from our first attempt and kept our group alive and growing. This year, we tried again, enlisting the help of our vice president, Audrey Gabriel, who is also involved in student government and has experience with deciphering the bylaws. Audrey worked hard to correct our four mistakes from the previous application cycle.

In the meantime, the rest of us worked on promoting our club. While we waited for the results of our application, we had to act as official as possible. We started up our social media accounts, we created an interest form to be spread among the student body, and we also networked with Filipino faculty and staff to let them know what we were trying to accomplish.

Most importantly, we held our own unofficial events. After submitting our RSO application in October, we hosted a game night at the Integrative Learning Center that was centered around Filipino American History Month. We started off with human bingo to get attendees out of their seats. We then moved into a presentation, which covered topics such as the first Filipinos to arrive in America, the Philippine-American War, modern-day struggles, and our community’s resilience. Finally, we had teams compete against each other through an interactive game of Jeopardy. All throughout the night, attendees could take pictures with our Philippine flag photo wall and winners received Filipino snacks and candy prizes. Our first event was a success! It was so beautiful and heartwarming to see people supporting our group and wanting to learn more about our culture.

Another Denial, An Accompanying Appeal

Unfortunately, we received notice a few weeks later of yet another denial of RSO status. However, this time, the checklist highlighted a singular item—an item that was considered correct during last year’s application cycle. We knew we had strong grounds to appeal the decision to the SGA, and Audrey got right to work on outlining the implicit language in our constitution as well as past precedents that reinforced our argument.

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We as a collective executive board again tried to stay calm during the appeal process and planned yet another event, this time at the Yuri Kochiyama Cultural Center—which was established in 1989 specifically to support the growing population of Asian American students on campus. The theme was Kapamilya Craft Night (“kapamilya” meaning family member in Tagalog). Attendees made zines for their loved ones, signed the gratitude tablecloth, matched the executive board member to his/her corresponding baby picture, and spontaneously started a game of Pictionary during the last fifteen minutes. We really tried to embody a welcoming, family-centered atmosphere.

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The night following this event, we were invited to present our appeal at the SGA senate meeting. At the time, I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. With the sound of the gavel, the deal was sealed. On November 17, 2021, our group officially became the Filipino Student Association at UMass Amherst.

As one of our publicists, James Rosales, said that night, “This is the happy ending we’ve been wanting for so long! After the first rejection and then a false alarm second, no one dared give up. It feels so good to finally be here! So much hard work and dedication was put into all of this… I still remember the very beginning in quarantine with frantic Google docs and Zoom meetings.”

Why Join?

The mission of FSA at UMass Amherst is to create a platform for the voices of Filipino and Filipino-American students on campus and the surrounding areas. We aim to introduce Filipino heritage to students in the Five Colleges through education and community involvement, as well as to raise awareness of the Philippines’ rich history and traditions through native cuisine, language learning, traditional folk dances, and other activities of interest. Lastly, we strive to uphold our culture’s familial values by welcoming all interested students to join us, regardless of their background.

All are more than welcome to join. Interested students can find more information via our Instagram and our Campus Pulse page.