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Become a TGS-Affiliated Organization

Community and fellowship are important pillars to a successful academic experience. To emphasize and encourage these pillars of success, The Graduate School (TGS) sponsors a number of affiliated graduate student and postdoctoral scholar organizations through our TGS Office of Student Life (OSL).

TGS-affiliated organizations are primarily under TGS graduate student and/or postdoctoral scholar leadership and predominantly serve The Graduate School community.

Privileges and Recognition Accompanying TGS-Affiliation

• Ability to reserve campus space at the lowest available rate
• Presence on Wildcat Connection as a registered student group**
• Opportunity to table at TGS organization fairs
• Access to technology resources reserved for student groups and campus departments (e.g., communicate via TGS listserv, organizational email account, access to copying and printing, and webspace).
• Access to apply for institutional grants available to registered student groups and TGS funding. **
  • Please note: recognition does not necessarily mean automatic funding of any sort
• Access to obtaining a Student Organization Finance Office (SOFO) or Chicago Organization Finance Office (COFO) account.
• Contracts to be processed and signed to bring speaking engagements to campus, screen films, obtain rights/licenses for productions, rent equipment, host an event at an off-campus venue, and more.

** Specific to graduate student organizations

New Organizations Applying for TGS Affiliation

Are you interested in starting a new organization under TGS? Please see below for preemptive considerations and application process!

Considerations to make before applying

• Will your organization be led by TGS constituents (i.e., TGS graduate students or postdoctoral scholars)? ***
• Is your organization explicitly intended to serve our TGS community primarily? ***
• Will your organization be open to graduate students across program and discipline? ***
• What is your organization’s purpose and mission?
• How will your organization serve a need that is not already being served by another organization?
• Do other organizations like yours currently exist on campus? What makes yours different?
• What baseline resources do you expect your organization to need?
• Do founding members have the time and energy to start and maintain a student organization?
• Will your group be sustainable beyond founding members’ time at Northwestern?
• Are other graduate students and/or postdoctoral scholars interested in your organization?
• Will your organization be open to any interested graduate student and/or postdoctoral scholar?
• Would your organization be more appropriately sponsored by another Northwestern entity (i.e., department, program, school, office, etc)?

*** If the answer is no, you should consider seeking affiliation with another department, program, school, or Northwestern office.

For those seeking to legitimize their organization under another Northwestern entity, see SOFO and COFO regarding their new account processes.

Please email TGS Director of Student Life Lauren-Ashley Buchanan with any additional questions.

Applying for TGS Affiliation

Preemptive Requirements:

1. At least five members to start
   1. Namely five people who are interested and invested in the organization
2. Regularly scheduled meetings intended for your inaugural year
3. Mission statement, purpose, and TGS-adjacent values
4. Adviser
   1. All registered student organizations must have an approved adviser. Any Northwestern University faculty or staff member is eligible to serve as the group’s official adviser.
   2. Postdoctoral Scholars: Please email TGS Associate Director of Postdoctoral Affairs Beth Healey regarding an adviser for your organization.
5. Constitution (after approved)

Use of Northwestern University Name & Trademarks

• New group proposals may only use the name Northwestern, NU, Wildcats, or any other licensed trademark of Northwestern University if authorized by university administration and legal counsel.

Application and Decision Schedule

1. Applications will not be reviewed until the submission deadline. Exceptions will not be made for groups seeking to access campus privileges immediately.
2. Decisions will be announced within one month of the application due date – Approved, Rejected, Deferred (with notes if rejected or deferred.)
3. If approved, organization leaders will then need to apply for a SOFO or COFO account depending on where the organization will function primarily (i.e., Evanston or Chicago campuses, respectively) with TGS listed (and signing off) as the advocate authority.

TGS-Affiliation Application

2024–25 Deadline: Friday, February 7, 2025

Please email TGS Director of Student Life Lauren-Ashley Buchanan with any additional questions.