At the Jan. 14 meeting of the student senate, Student Body Treasurer Ashley Reynolds announced that the Student Organization Funding Assistance Board had run out of money and Student Government was now the only funding body for student organizations.
According to Reynolds, the reason the board ran out of money is because it is open to all student organizations, while Student Government money is only open to undergraduate organizations.
In an email sent to student organizations, Matt Hinds, who oversees the Student Organization Funding Assistance Board, said more money is expected to come in from reimbursements from student organizations who did not ultimately use all the funds they received from the fall semester.
According to Hinds, while this process is taking place, the application for student organizations to submit requests to the board for funds will be put on pause.
"I think a lot of people went to him first because they thought it would be a lot easier to get money from that board, and then they kind of ran it out," Reynolds said.
Reynolds also said a contributing factor was the fact that the board did not split its budget in half between the two semesters as she does for Student Government to ensure it doesn't run out of funds before the spring semester.
SOFAB was established this year to respond to the budget for undergraduate organizations running out to quickly in previous years. The budget allocated for student organizations was reduced from $340,000 to $305,000 with $185,000 going to student government and the other $120,000 going to SOFAB for this year.
Student Government saw an increase in pending requests for funds with 37 student organizations in the first week of the spring semester, Reynolds said.
Thomas Spurgeon, chairman of the Finance Committee for student senate, said the student government budget will run out quicker than he would personally like without SOFAB. He doesn’t believe this is a bad thing, as budgets are intended to be spent in their entirety.
“Money that we don't use doesn't go back to students,” he said. “You want to use money.”
According to Reynolds, there is a $10,000 soft cap for student organizations for the whole year that can be overridden with a two-thirds finance committee vote. That policy has been put on hold.
“We've basically decided as a committee that if it would push an (organization) over $10,000, we're not going to do that right now, just to make it last as long as possible,” Reynolds said.
If a student organization has already requested $10,000 for the fiscal year, July 2025 to July 2026, then anymore requests from Student Government will now be denied, according to Reynolds.
Reynolds is also reaching out to student organizations with outstanding reimbursements from the fall semester and plans to reevaluate the situation once Student Government has all available funds.
According to Spurgeon, if Student Government funds run out sooner than expected, it will try to assist student organizations in finding other methods of funding.
“What we will do is focus our efforts towards helping (organizations) fundraise, helping (organizations) communicate with departments, trying to learn how departments do funding,” Spurgeon said.
The future of student organization funding
According to Spurgeon, the Student Organization Funding Assistance Board situation reflects a larger problem with the money allocated for student organizations.
“I think Student Government or (the Student Organization Funding Assistance Board) or some entity out there needs more money for students to be able to freely use for (organization) funding,” Spurgeon said. “It is not enough, as demonstrated by things running out this quick.”
Reynolds said she will continue to split her budget between the fall and spring semester. She will also continue to use a partial funding system that her and the finance committee created last summer to save money.
The Student Organization Funding Assistance Board is also planning on implementing a partial funding system next year based off of the success of the one implemented by Student Government, according to Reynolds.
Spurgeon said one way to change the procedure for student organization funding would be to take funds from places such as the Department of Student Life's budget and give it to Student Government and the Student Organization Funding Assistance Board for organization funding.
Reynolds has been pushing the university to raise the student activity fee so that more money can be given to fund student organizations.
“I think it's really unfortunate that we don't place more emphasis on student organizations and student experience as a university,” Reynolds said. “I think raising the student activity fee or allocating more money to student organizations would be beneficial as a whole."