USC's Student Government implemented a new funding model for student organizations at the start of the school year. These organizations are now adjusting to getting their funding through a criteria rubric system.
Some of these student organizations have positive opinions on the new funding model but believe it is too early to see its long term effects.
Funding for student organizations is now divided between Student Government and the Student Organization Funding Assistance Board. For the 25-26 school year, SOFAB has $120,000, while Student Government has $185,000.
This new funding model was put in place by student government to help funds last longer into the school year as a result of this year’s budget being smaller.
Funding from SOFAB is available to both graduate and undergraduate organizations, whereas Student Government funding is exclusive to undergraduate organizations.
Ash Jacobson, president of the Jesse Pinkman Conglomerate and Student Government senator, said SOFAB's money is competitive because it is open to all organizations.
“That money is a lot more competitive because there are so many different groups going after that money,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson also said that Student Government’s budget has been split into the fall and spring, so any excess left from the fall semester will most likely move into the spring.
Part of the new funding process requires clubs to meet certain criteria on a point system to determine how much of their requested funding they receive. This system does not go into effect until the requested amount is above $1,500 for programs and $2,500 for conferences or tournaments, according to the Student Government finance committee. Most organizations are not requesting above those numbers, Jacobson said.
Some of these criteria include physical location and student accessibility, number of expected attendees, learning outcomes met, cost effectiveness and collaboration, according to an outline provided by the student senate finance committee.
Carolina Model UN was the top funded organization last year. Most of their funds go towards conferences and traveling, according to third-year political science and criminal justice student Andrew Velasquez, the organization's president.
Velasquez said that last year Carolina Model UN traveled to four conferences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Florida State University, the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia. Most of the money it received from the student government went towards funding those trips.
Velasquez said he sees the importance of meeting the criteria point system and said that the organization aims to meet as many as possible.
"I love that our treasurer does enough to kind of facilitate a lot of that and ensure that we're hitting everything as we can," Velasquez said.
Velasquez said he feels the new policy has not been around long enough for there to be a significant impact as of right now.
“I feel like right now we’re in the early stages of this, so I think it’s just too early to tell at the moment,” Velasquez said.
Another top funded organization last year was the Indian Cultural Organization. According to fourth-year exercise science student Nishi Patel, director of the Indian Cultural Organization, most of their funds were used to rent out the Koger center for events.
“About $10,000 of that (funding) goes to just renting out the Koger Center for an entire day, which is about 12 hours, and then the other couple $1,000 of that goes to the events that we put on for all of our members,” Patel said.
Meeting the criteria for points has been a major focus of the organization as well, Patel said.
"Getting the points is a very big requirement for us," Patel said. "We know that our organization spends a lot of money and that we need the money to put on these big events for everyone."
Jacobson said that the Jesse Pinkman Conglomerate looks at the Student Government codes to see what they can get funding for and holds events based on that. The group held a food-based event last year because it was easy to get funding for, Jacobson said.
“The best example of that is our cheese wheel event we had last year,” Jacobson said. “We had 70, 71 people ... A lot of people there, and we bought a $600 wheel of aged gouda.”
The group found that food was the easiest item to get funded by Student Government, Jacobson said.
Some of the previous iterations of the finance committee were more relaxed with their interpretations of the Student Government codes, Jacobson said.
According to Jacobson, the interpretations have become stricter due to a smaller funding pool and the funds being divided between Student Government and SOFAB.
Patel said the changes are positive as long as they continue to allow clubs to receive the funding they need.
“I feel like as long as every club is getting adequate funding to keep doing what they're doing, I think it’s a good change,” Patel said.