Dale Chronister is the administrative assistant for Campus Life, which deals with student organizations and SGA. He also coordinates elections for Man and Woman of the Year, and Student Government and Student Activities Council events. He works in the University Center in room 202, and is the first person that visitors see when they enter the office. He has been working in different areas of the university for almost 15 years.

Q: Describe your time at Southeast.

A: I started working in the printing and duplicating department when it was over on Fountain Street. I was there for about a year. I applied for the administrative assistant position with Student Government and I was there until they completed the Center for Student Involvement. I've pretty much been with Student Government and Campus Life ever since then, starting in about '98.

Q: What do you do on campus?

A: I mainly work with student organizations, getting them registered, helping out the groups if they have any questions or any problems. For Campus Life, I do [the] accounts, purchasing, [reviewing and reconciling the monthly budget], the billing [of student organizations], anything along those lines. I work at selling budgets. I'm also the administrative assistant for the office, the first person people see when they come in, the go-to person.

Q: Can you explain your job?

A: I work mainly with Student Government. I'm mainly Student Government's administrative assistant, so anything they need, I help them out with whatever they need. In Campus Life, I do work with the budgets for Campus Life and a little bit for Student Government. I work with the Student Activities Council if they need anything, with Joanna Shaver. Our office does the Speakers' Series, so I help with that if there's something going on with it. Pretty much anything they need for the office.

Student organizations have to come through our office to register, and I'm the main one. Between me and Megan Randolph, I've been dealing with the registration for the student groups since I started because it was handled through the Student Government office to begin with. So I'm usually the first person they always go to, or they always come to me anyway. It's all online now. I'm the main one who knows how to operate the program online, so I'm the first one they send it to, anyway, because no one else knows how to get into the system. The main online program is on my computer, so I'm always the first one who has to deal with it.

Q: What is your favorite memory of Southeast so far?

A: Usually what I tell everybody is I like the variety of students that I get to meet. Every year there's always new students each year coming in. That's what I always love about working here. You always get to meet new students every time, every semester. There's always new ones. It always adds the spice to life, new variety each year.

Q: What do you like to do outside of Southeast?

A: Well, I work part-time tending bar. So this is my full-time job and I also work part-time tending bar, so I really don't have much free time. And then if I do have free time, that's usually in the summertime, it's spent mowing lawns and doing yard work at my house. I've got five dogs that I have of my own, and then I've got my 18-year-old daughter.

Q: What thing do students need to know that it seems like they don't when they try to register an organization?

A: They must have an on-campus adviser, someone employed by the university, a faculty or staff member or grad assistant. Greek organizations forget and list their chapter adviser, which won't work.

Q: What is the craziest or most different organization you remember being on campus?

A: Here are a couple groups that are no longer active that we had in the past: Buhse's Foosies Foosball Club, Capers Spirit Club.

Q: If a student wants to start an organization what does he/she need to do?

A: To start a new organization they just need to come by the office and pick up our registration form. When they pick it up we go through with the person what the requirements are to register a group. I usually first direct them to our student organization web site, semo.edu/leadership/studentorgs/resources, which gives them all the information for registering their organization, but I usually give them a brief overview of the main requirements. First, you must have at least five active student members, these you will list on your registration form and two of these should be your officers of the organization. They must be in good academic and judicial standing and have at least a 2.0 GPA. The organization must also have an on-campus adviser, which can be faculty, staff or a grad assistant, just as long as they are an employee of the university. They must also submit a constitution for the organization along with the registration form.

Q: What is the most common problem you see pop up when students try to register an organization?

A: I really have not had any problems with student organizations themselves other than getting them to meeting deadlines. The most problem I have had has been since we started using our online registration program. For organizations that are renewing, we do our main registration of organizations each fall and those groups submit their five members plus adviser using the online program. Each one of those members receives an email that has a link in it for them to click on and it takes them to a page for them to verify that they do hold that position within that organization. That has been a major problem, just getting them to follow that link just to verify their position.