Student Council approved the University Guide Service as a Contracted Independent Organization March 25 following its termination as a Special Status Organization in February. Under CIO status, Guide Service leadership hopes to focus on the historical side of the organization and is considering applying to become a non-governmental organization.
As an SSO, the Guide Service formerly acted on behalf of the University and therefore was required to keep a close working relationship with a University advisor. In contrast, CIOs are student clubs which provide educational or social membership opportunities but are not considered official representatives of the University.
Before their termination in March, the Guide Service gave admissions and historical tours on behalf of the University to prospective students, families and visitors. After being suspended last fall due to administrative concerns over quality and consistency of tours, the Guide Service worked alongside the University admissions office to formulate a training plan with the goal of reestablishing University-sanctioned admissions tours. The University officially chose to terminate its relationship with the Guide Service as a SSO in February.
Nina Accousti, Guide Service co-chair and third-year Architecture student, expressed excitement for this new chapter of the Guide Service because of the flexibility they gain from the change.
“[CIO status] gives us a great opportunity to expand Guides,” Accousti said. “We're able to think about research projects, collaborations with other organizations, creating specialty tours, really cool opportunities that come with independence that we're just exploring now.”
CIOs are not required to have faculty advisors, unlike SSOs, and do not have any affiliation to the University and its departments. However, CIO status gives organizations access to different benefits, such as the ability to reserve on-Grounds spaces, participate in Activities Fairs and apply for student activities funding, for which SSOs are ineligible.
Yukta Ramanan, Guide Service member and third-year College student, similarly expressed enthusiasm for the redirection and path ahead for the Guide Service.
“I'm excited. I feel like there's a new direction,” Ramanan said. “And as unfortunate as [losing SSO status] was, I feel excited about how we can make the most of this opportunity.”
Under CIO status, Accousti said she would like the Guide Service to focus more on the historical role of their organization. She hopes that the Guide Service can become a historical resource for students as well as other CIOs on Grounds.
“With our new independence … we can focus on really exploring and especially digging into the history side of our organization,” Accousti said. “Under SSO status, we have delegated functions. That's a contract that you sign with your advisors, so you have to hit those points. So now we just have more control over what the focus of our organization is.”
Prior to becoming a CIO, the Guide Service announced their break from the University to give independently-run historical tours. The Guide Service began holding these tours Jan. 24, which they said have had better-than-anticipated turnout. The co-chairs did not share specific turnout statistics for these tours.
Along with these independently-run historical tours, Rose Haron, Guide Service co-chair and second-year College student, expressed interest in archiving the history of the Guide Service itself, as well as other CIOs' histories. Haron did not share specifics of how the Guide Service would conduct this process of archiving.
While Haron recognizes their main purpose is still to give tours and educate people about history, she said she looks forward to the opportunity to assist CIOs with archiving or conducting specialty historical tours.
According to Haron, these specialty tours would dive deeper into more specific topics or the history of certain groups at the University. Accousti gave the example of potentially conducting tours about Asian-American history on Grounds.
After being approved as a CIO, Ramanan noted the overall positive shift in attitude among the organization, including an increase in participation in facilitating tours.
“I think morale was really low [last semester] because we didn't know if we would ever be giving tours [again],” Ramanan said. “By becoming a CIO, we get some of that autonomy back. I'm already noticing a lot more engagement from within the Guide Service.”
Ramanan also said she is now more motivated herself to participate in the organization and give tours knowing that she has more individual freedom as a guide.
As the Guide Service prepares to conduct its functions under CIO status, the co-chairs also spoke about a need for outside funding sources. As an SSO, the Guide Service was funded by the Vice President of Student Affairs Office as part of their SSO agreement, according to Haron. Now as a CIO, the future of their funding is less clear. She did not share how much funding the Guide Service received as an SSO.
According to a statement from University spokesperson Bethanie Glover, CIOs may request SAF funding which is appropriated by Student Council. Student Council allocates close to $1 million of SAF funding annually. Accousti and Haron said that they will apply for funding as a CIO but have also begun to develop external funding plans to help support the organization heading into the next semester. According to the co-chairs, funding is used for training materials and events, although they did not share how much funding they hope to secure.
Specifically, the co-chairs noted alumni outreach, donations and public history grants as potential funding sources. Haron did not express concern with funding uncertainties hindering the ability of the Guide Service to carry out its duties.
“At the end of the day, we're giving volunteer tours,” Haron said. “Funding is helpful and essential, but we can also give tours without the amount of funding that we're used to.”
One concern Ramanan expressed with converting from an SSO to a CIO is the loss of legitimacy — particularly in terms of purposefulness — and therefore loss of participation in the organization. However, she did say she has faith in the plans of the new co-chairs to ensure continued participation in and support of the Guide Service.
“The further we detach ourselves from SSO status, I'm just worried that we're not going to have people that want to join the organization, or we won't have as many tourists,” Ramanan said. “But at the end of the day, I think the chairs have a really robust plan for advertising and giving more tours and increasing collaborations with other organizations, so hopefully that shouldn't be a problem.”
In part to combat concerns around delegitimization that may result from losing SSO status, the Guide Service is considering applying to become a non-governmental organization. Non-governmental organizations are non-profit individuals, groups or organizations that operate separately from the government and have their own humanitarian or development goals.
According to Haron, as an NGO, the Guide Service would maintain their CIO status. She said that becoming an NGO will not only help the Guide Service financially but will also strengthen their reputation.
“There are certain tax breaks that you qualify for as a nonprofit. You look more appealing to donors, there’s certain grants that you can qualify for as a nonprofit,” Haron said. “[It would] really just strengthen our image as a public history entity, and give that legitimacy to the work that we are doing, which is service work.”
Similarly, Ramanan noted the importance of strengthening their organization’s public image to attract more donors.
“Mainly, it would get us access to more funding if we were an NGO. And I think that's the purpose,” Ramanan said. “And it also legitimizes us a little bit more … it makes us look a little bit more purposeful … I feel like it clarifies our mission a little bit more.”
During their time as co-chairs, Accousti and Haron plan to focus on strengthening the Guide Service as a CIO. Accousti noted that there is no animosity between the Guide Service and the University and that they are not ruling out the possibility of collaboration in the future.
“We're going to leave that door [of working with the University] open. I think Rose and I are going to focus on creatively building up our independent organization for our time,” Accousti said.
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