Constitution of the Red Cedar Institute at Michigan State University

§1The name of this organization shall be the Red Cedar Institute at Michigan State University (“the Institute” or “RCI”).

§2The purpose of the Institute is to produce high-quality artificial intelligence research at Michigan State University—both general AI and machine learning research and AI alignment research—and to be the place where MSU’s strongest technical undergraduates do serious work, publish it, and are placed into research careers.

§3The Institute measures itself externally: by work that survives peer review at a real venue, not by work that impresses a student audience. Every activity of the Institute is judged by whether it moves a paper toward submission, a member toward competence, or the Institute toward credibility.

§4Research areas include, but are not limited to, language models and language acquisition, machine learning for scientific domains, and alignment and interpretability. The Institute does not gatekeep by subfield; it gatekeeps by rigor.

§1This organization will abide by the Michigan State University Non-Discrimination Policy.

1.1The organization will not discriminate on the basis of age, color, gender, gender identity, disability status, height, marital status, national origin, political persuasion, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, or weight.

§2Only currently enrolled Michigan State University students are eligible to be members and officers of the organization. Non-MSU students may participate in the organization’s activities but may not hold membership, vote, or hold office.

§3The Institute recognizes three classes:

Affiliate — any MSU student who attends Institute events. Affiliates have no obligations, do not vote, and are not counted toward quorum.

Member — an MSU student admitted under Section 4 who is in good standing under Section 5. Members vote, count toward quorum, and may hold office.

Alumnus — a former Member who has left MSU. Alumni remain listed on the Institute roster and may advise, but do not vote or hold office.

§4Membership shall be attained as follows:

4.1The candidate attends at least three (3) Institute reading events within one semester.

4.2A Member nominates you in writing.

4.3A majority of the officers confirms the nomination within fourteen (14) days. No meeting or vote of the membership is required.

4.4Membership begins on confirmation. The Reading Lead adds the new Member to the roster and provides a copy of this constitution.

§5A Member is in good standing while they: hold and meet weekly blocked research hours as recorded with the Research Lead; present at least once per semester at a general meeting or reading event (paper, project update, or debate); and submit, or materially contribute to, at least one external artifact per academic year (paper, workshop submission, preprint, or public blog post).

§6Membership shall be revoked for violations of this constitution or for not abiding by institutional policy, including the Spartan Life student handbook.

6.1A Member who fails to meet Section 5 for a full semester automatically reverts to Affiliate status. The Research Lead notifies the individual in writing. Reinstatement requires a majority of the officers.

6.2For conduct, any Member may call for revocation by written notice to the officers. The officers place the matter on the agenda of a general meeting held at least seven (7) days later. The Member in question may speak. Revocation requires a two-thirds (⅔) vote of Members present, with quorum.

6.3The officers may suspend a Member’s participation pending the vote in Subsection 2 where continued participation would violate institutional policy.

§1The Institute is led by four officers, elected annually to serve one year from May 1 of the current year to April 30 of the following year. The Institute is deliberately flat: each officer owns one function, and there are no officers without a function.

1.1Director (President and Treasurer equivalent): presides over general meetings and sets the agenda; sets Institute priorities and has final say in disputes among officers or Members; serves as the Institute’s primary contact with the Department of Student Life, the faculty advisor, and external organizations; maintains all financial records, holds signing authority for Institute funds, and reports finances to the membership each semester; files this constitution and any amendments with the Department of Student Life.

1.2Research Lead (Vice-President equivalent): assumes the Director’s duties in the Director’s absence; chairs the Research Committee (Article IV, Section 3); scopes research projects and assigns each a target venue and submission date; allocates compute, API credits, and mentor time among projects; records Members’ blocked hours and maintains the submissions log.

1.3Reading Lead (Secretary equivalent): chairs the Reading Committee (Article IV, Section 4); keeps minutes of general meetings and records of all votes; maintains the membership roster, the idea bank, and the curated source list; is custodian of this constitution and ensures every Member has access to it; delivers the constitutional briefing at the start of each semester (Article IV, Section 7).

1.4Recruiting Lead: chairs the Recruiting Committee (Article IV, Section 5); runs scouting and manages the membership pipeline from Affiliate to Member; maintains the opportunities board, placement pipelines, and application answer bank; owns the Institute’s public identity: name, website, and outcomes record.

§2To hold office, a student must be enrolled at Michigan State University, be a Member in good standing, and have been a Member for at least one full semester by the time of taking office.

§3Officers shall be elected as follows:

3.1Nominations: Nominations open at the first general meeting in April. Any Member in good standing may nominate themselves or another eligible Member; a nomination requires a second. Nominations close at the start of the election meeting. Each candidate may speak for up to three (3) minutes before the vote.

3.2Voting: The election is held at the last general meeting in April by secret ballot. Members in good standing may vote. A candidate is elected by a majority of votes cast. If no candidate has a majority, a runoff is held immediately between the two candidates with the most votes. Results are recorded by the Reading Lead and announced at the same meeting.

3.3Transition: Outgoing officers hand over all records, accounts, and credentials to incoming officers before May 1.

§4An officer who fails to fulfill the duties of their office or fails to abide by institutional policy may be removed by the membership.

4.1Any Member in good standing may call for removal by written notice to the other officers stating the grounds. The matter is placed on the agenda of a general meeting held at least seven (7) days later. The officer in question may speak.

4.2Removal requires a two-thirds (⅔) vote of Members present, with quorum. The vote is by secret ballot and is recorded by the Reading Lead or, if the Reading Lead is the subject, by the Director.

§5An officer vacancy shall be filled as follows:

5.1The remaining officers appoint an interim officer from among Members in good standing within fourteen (14) days.

5.2If the vacancy occurs before November 1, a special election is held within thirty (30) days under the procedure in Section 3, with nominations opening at the next general meeting. The elected officer serves the remainder of the term.

5.3If the vacancy occurs on or after November 1, the interim officer serves the remainder of the term.

§1The Institute holds a weekly general meeting during the fall and spring semesters, at a time set by the officers before each semester begins. Meetings are managed in the spirit of Robert’s Rules of Order; procedure is informal unless a Member requests formal procedure for a specific item. The standing agenda is: project updates, blockers and resource requests, committee reports, and organizational business.

§2A quorum of a majority of Members in good standing is required for official organization business, including elections, removals, amendments, and disbanding. Committee events and reading events require no quorum.

§3Research Committee. Chaired by the Research Lead. Outcome-driven: its job is to convert ideas into submitted, publishable work.

Papers — every active project has a named target venue and a target submission date. A project without a target venue is a reading topic, not a research project. Submissions are tracked in a shared log (venue, deadline, status, authors).

Resources — the committee maintains access to compute (HPCC, lab allocations, cloud credits), API and inference credits, and a roster of faculty and graduate mentors. Each project should have at least one mentor.

Organization — Members commit to fixed weekly blocked research hours, which the Institute schedules around rather than through.

External presence — research is written up publicly as it matures, including negative results and process notes; alignment-relevant work is posted to the forums that read it; alumni remain listed and reachable.

§4Reading Committee. Chaired by the Reading Lead. Process-driven: its job is to build the skill base that makes research possible. Reading is training, not a lecture series.

Events — a recurring reading club with a designated presenter and one assigned skeptic; open discussions on a theme; and structured debates on contested claims with assigned positions.

Ideas — a shared idea bank of open questions and hypotheses that any Member may add to and that the Research Lead reviews when scoping projects; a deliberate focus on under-explored niches where undergraduates can contribute at the frontier; and a curated list of sources.

Skills — the committee explicitly teaches how to read (claim- and question-organized reading logs), how to ideate (from interesting paper to answerable question), and how to write (abstracts, related work, rebuttals, and internal review before submission).

§5Recruiting Committee. Chaired by the Recruiting Lead. Feedback-driven: its job is to find the best technical talent at MSU, develop it, and make it visible.

Talent — actively scout strong students rather than wait for sign-ups, and give Members concrete vehicles to showcase work: talks, posts, posters, code.

Opportunities — maintain an opportunities board (research internships, REUs, national-lab programs, industry research roles), documented pipelines into specific labs and programs, and an answer bank of shared application materials.

Communications — one name, one visual identity, one web presence; a public record of outcomes (publications, placements, awards); and a clear distinction between Members and the general audience.

§6Any Member may participate in any committee. Committee chairs are the officers named above and serve for the officer term; a chair is removed only by removal from office under Article III, Section 4. Committees act on the authority of their chair and report at general meetings; they may not commit Institute funds or make decisions reserved to the membership under this constitution.

§7This constitution, the membership roster, meeting minutes, the submissions log, and the idea bank are kept in a shared drive accessible to all Members. The Reading Lead provides every new Member with this constitution on admission and delivers a constitutional briefing to the membership at the first general meeting of each semester.

§8The following standards apply to all Institute research: No external submission without internal review by at least one Member not on the project. Authorship follows contribution. Authorship disputes are decided by the Director; if the Director is a party, by the remaining officers. Code and data for any submitted work are kept in an Institute-controlled repository. Alignment work follows responsible-disclosure norms. Hazardous capability findings go to the faculty advisor before publication.

§9The Institute charges no dues. Institute funds are held and managed in accordance with MSU RSO policy. The Director maintains financial records; any expenditure requires the approval of the Director and one other officer. The Director reports finances to the membership at least once per semester.

§10The Institute maintains at least one faculty advisor as required by Michigan State University. The advisor is selected by the officers and confirmed by a majority of Members present at a general meeting.

§11Each March, before nominations open, the officers review this constitution against the Institute’s actual practice—in particular whether officer descriptions match day-to-day duties—and propose any amendments under Article V so that they can be voted on before the election.

§1Any Member in good standing may propose an amendment by submitting its full text in writing to the officers.

§2The officers circulate the proposed text to all Members at least seven (7) days before the general meeting at which it will be voted on, and the proposer or an officer presents it at that meeting.

§3An amendment is adopted by a two-thirds (⅔) vote of Members present, with quorum. It takes effect immediately on adoption. The Director files the amended constitution with the Department of Student Life within fourteen (14) days, and the Reading Lead updates the shared copy.

§1Ratification of this constitution shall be confirmed by a two-thirds (⅔) majority of the organization membership.

§2On ratification, the founding officers hold the offices in Article III until April 30, 2027, and the founding members are Members in good standing. The one-semester requirement in Article III, Section 2 is waived for the first election.

§1The organization may be disbanded by a two-thirds (⅔) majority vote of the membership in good standing, at a general meeting announced for that purpose at least fourteen (14) days in advance.

§2Upon disbanding, all remaining organization funds shall be transferred to a Michigan State University academic unit or student organization agreed upon by the membership, in accordance with MSU RSO policy. Research code, data, and records are transferred to the faculty advisor or an MSU academic unit so that ongoing work is not lost.