The Student Organization Cabinet has met twice with the goal of fostering growth in different Registered Student Organizations on campus.

The Student Organization Cabinet was recently reconvened after about a two-year hiatus, said Kaci Abolt, student vice president for student affairs and junior communication studies major.

Abolt said the Student Organization Cabinet is outlined as part of her duties in the Student Senate constitution, but for about the past two years, the former student vice presidents for student affairs have either not had any meetings for the cabinet or have had only one meeting.

Mitchell Gurick, a freshman business major and a student senate member, has attended both Student Organization Cabinet meetings, and he said the meetings give student leaders a chance to meet and share ideas.

“It’s a cabinet where there’s an open discussion, and it’s informal where different leaders and organizations can come together,” Gurick said.

Nico Canaday, a senior English major and the president of EIU Pride, said cultural-based RSOs can sometimes be isolated from each other and the Student Organization Cabinet helps to solve that.

“I saw as an opportunity for our organization to network with other organizations,” Canaday said. “We are able to reach more students if we collaborate.”

Canaday said the real measure of the Student Organization Cabinet’s success will come next semester with the spring Pantherpalooza turnout, but right now the cabinet is figuring itself out.

Gurick said the Student Organization Cabinet is currently working on the spring semester Pantherpalooza that will take place Jan. 11.

“It provides you with networking skills for other organizations and all the issues we talk about are relevant,” Abolt said. “We have the chance to make our own agenda to what people’s concerns are.”

Canaday said EIU Pride is glad to help newly developed RSOs develop a stable foundation.

Gurick said around 30 different RSOs have been represented at meetings and the different organizations are learning from the student leaders about how to accomplish their goals.

Abolt said she announces updates about the Student Organization Cabinet at Student Senate meetings.

The Student Senate is meeting today at 8 p.m. in Carman Hall, at its last installment of the “Senate on the Road” program.

Kathryn Richter can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].