Constitution Writing Guide

Colleges generally require student groups seeking recognition (in order to use the school name, receive funding, etc.) to submit a formal constitution. This is meant to give long-term structure to the group by formally specifying its purpose, leadership, scope, and decision-making process.


Find your school's requirements
Most schools publish their own unique list of requirements that submitted constitutions must fulfill. This can generally be found online on the website of the “Office of Student Life”, the “Student Leadership Center,” or a similarly named organization. (The fastest way to find them is generally to google “[college name] student group constitution”.) The Reducetarian Foundation has written an example Constitution, which hopefully can be quickly edited to bring it in line with your institution's requirements.

The requirements list will generally specify some of three things:

  •  A required format- for example, Article 1: Name, Article 2: Statement of Purpose, etc.

  • Information that is required to be in these articles.

    • We've tried to make our sample articles below fairly inclusive; however, there will inevitably be requirements our example does not cover. Go ahead and write these out yourself; if you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

  • Required passages- for example, UC Berkeley requires all groups to state that “We will not haze according to California State Law.”

  • Required passages can be copied and pasted from the requirements list onto the constitution in the appropriate place.

If your school doesn't have any specific requirements for constitutions, that's great news! You can just copy and paste the sample constitution, provided below, and submit it.

Sample Constitution

We've written a sample constitution as an example of the style and substance most colleges desire. This will almost certainly not fulfill your institution's requirements; however, it should require only a few bits of editing to bring into line with those requirements. (Also: this is just an example, designed to make it easier to found a meetup; if you wish to write your own constitution, go for it!)


Article 1 – Name:
Reducetarian Society at [Institution]


Article 2 – Statement of Purpose:
Reducetarian Society at [Institution] aims to spread awareness about the value of eating less meat.

[If that’s too short, you can add:] We will explain the ideas in reducetarianism and will show how to put those ideas into practice.

As more and more people get involved, we will have a larger and larger positive impact on the world. We will direct more money to the most effective charities. We will help more people choose the highest impact careers. More aspiring scientists will choose high impact research questions. We will raise people out of poverty, cure diseases, save lives – and eventually make the world as awesome as we can.


Article 3 – Criteria for Membership:

  1. All registered [Institution] students are eligible for membership.

  2. Community members and students from other schools are always welcome at all Reducetarian at [Institution] events, unless otherwise specified.

  3. Members of Reducetarian Society at [Institution] will be considered for expulsion if they create a disruptive environment for other members. Prior to expulsion, the member will receive an explicit verbal warning, and an additional explicit electronic or written warning. The individual in question will have one final opportunity to appeal to the Executive Board before expulsion.

Article 4 – Structure and Duties of the Executive Board:

  1. The Executive Board shall consist of the following officers: President, Treasurer, and Secretary

  2. The President may represent the organization, conduct Executive Board and general meetings, assign duties to and supervise officers, schedule and plan elections, and chart a vision for the organization.

  3. The Treasurer may maintain the account of the organization, work with the Board and membership to determine budgets, apply for available funding, pay bills of the organization when receipts for expenditures are turned in, submit quarterly reports to the membership, coordinate fundraising, and disburse monies as the organization may direct.

  4. The Secretary may maintain a yearly calendar of activities and goals, keep minutes of meetings, give written notice to all members of meetings and the agenda to be covered, issue press releases when deemed appropriate by the Board, maintain Reducetarian Society at [Institution] email list, and tally votes during any voting procedure.


Article 5 – Election and Removal of Officers:

  1. Any members of the organization who show demonstrated commitment are eligible for candidacy.

  2. Officers may only hold one position at a time. There is no term limit.

  3. All officers shall serve for a term of one year. Elections for the officers of the forthcoming year will take place no later than May 1st of each year.

  4. The candidate for each office receiving a simple majority of votes cast at the election will be considered the victor. In the event that no candidate receives a simple majority, a run-off shall be held between the two candidates who obtained the most votes.

Article 6 – Dissolution:

  1. Dissolution of Reducetarian Society at [Institution] shall be decided by consensus.


Article 7 – Amendment:

  1. Amendments can be proposed by any member of the organization.

  2. At least one week prior to any vote, the Secretary must distribute a copy of the proposed amendment to all members.

  3. A majority vote shall be required to amend this Constitution.