At the beginning of the semester, Campus Activities required all of USC’s pre-existing recognized student organizations — which numbered over 900 — to apply for RSO status, in addition to all student organizations that were rejected in Spring 2024. What followed was a number of delayed deadlines, which numerous club leaders called a lack of transparency on the University’s part.

Campus Activities set a timeframe of under one month — from Aug. 8 to Sept. 6 — for organizations to apply for RSO status. Originally, the deadline to table at the first involvement fair came eight days after the applications were released and only four days after the required officer training modules were posted. After citing “ongoing challenges” with the process, Campus Activities changed its two planned involvement fairs into a series of “RSO Spotlight Tabling Fairs.”

Christophe Merriam, the co-president of Trojan Filmmakers Club and a junior majoring in the business of cinematic arts, said this semester’s process came as “a bit of a jumpscare.” TFC had applied for RSO status last spring but was denied as a result of the RSO acceptance freeze.

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“If I’m being honest, there’s just not too much hope in our end,” Merriam said. “After a year of [doing] everything right and then being told, ‘Oh, sorry, we can’t even read this because we’re that understaffed,’ it was a little ridiculous.”

In a statement to Daily Trojan, Campus Activities wrote that they were behind the original schedule and expected to conclude processing within the month.

“Campus Activities is thoroughly reviewing all required documentation submitted for the fall semester,” the statement read. “We expect the full review to be completed by the end of September. Many RSOs have been approved for the academic year. Applications have been processed for those that applied by Aug. 23.”

The delayed processing caused issues with more than just the status of student organizations. On Wednesday, the Undergraduate Student Government said Campus Activities delayed the opening of the organization’s RSO funding applications. By the time these applications opened, at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, the deadline closed in under eight hours, just before midnight.

The “ongoing challenges” that applicants faced stemmed from more than one issue, but many club leaders said the problems could be traced back to a lack of communication from Campus Activities. Andrew Bawiec, the co-president of SC Garden Club and a senior majoring in environmental studies, said the club first faced issues when their required trainings were posted to EngageSC.

“We were told that the training links would arrive Aug. 12, and we were checking everywhere. We didn’t get any emails about the links,” Bawiec said. “We had received no communication that the trainings were added, nor where to find them.”

When asked about the issues faced by organizations, Campus Activities wrote that students “should send an email to Campus Activities, and we will respond.” Bawiec said Campus Activities should have communicated more general guidance. When Garden Club reached out for help with their problems, they had to wait multiple days for a response.

“They should have been communicating any links and changes, rather than just relying on students to be checking constantly,” Bawiec said. “They told us to check our emails for things, and then our emails were barely getting any information.”

Merriam said a lack of familiarity discouraged him from reaching out to the University for assistance.

“The thing that I wish there definitely was more of was that support network,” Merriam said. “Even now, if I have a question on this, there’s no one I can really email or talk to from student services.”

Josh Morton, the president of Spoiler Alert Improv and a senior majoring in theatre with an emphasis in comedy, said reaching out for guidance on issues faced by multiple clubs slowed the application process, especially when it came to contacting faculty advisers.

“If you have a hard time getting hold of your adviser, then this four-step communication process would lead to massive delays, and when you’re given four days to do this, that just isn’t plausible for most groups,” Morton said. 

The delays led to an inability to reserve campus space or table at the Spotlight Tabling Fairs for most organizations. Bawiec said the first two fairs appeared sparse compared to previous semesters’ involvement fairs.

“On campus during involvement fairs, they are chaotic, and they take up everyone’s vision and space,” Bawiec said. “We’re supposed to have over 1000 clubs, and I would be shocked if there was more than 100 [or] 150 total [at this semester’s involvement fairs].”

Campus Activities confirmed Bawiec’s estimate but wrote that the tabling fairs would continue to be held throughout the semester.

“Over the past three weeks, 150 organizations have been featured at weekly tabling events,” Campus Activities wrote. “The tabling opportunity will continue to be available so recognized student organizations can continue to be featured.”

In addition to only a limited number of clubs getting to table, Morton said the times that Campus Activities scheduled the spotlights were not ideal for students.

“[The Spotlight Tabling Fair] was a Thursday from 11-1, which is not a great time to do the involvement fair,” Morton said. “Imagine if you have a class from 11-1 on Thursdays. Then you’ll just never, ever get to go to the involvement fair, right? Because their whole thing is, ‘Oh, we’ll do one every week,’ but it’s the exact same time.”

Out of the four spotlights scheduled thus far, only Sept. 12’s spotlight was scheduled for a different time — from 4-6 p.m. rather than 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Morton said the lack of communication and priority placed on the issue was especially disconcerting considering the importance of these organizations at USC.

“The recognized student organizations — or even just the student organizations, because currently none of us are recognized — are such a crucially important part of USC,” Morton said. “This improv group I’m a part of has been the greatest part of my time at USC.”

When asked if USC had the resources necessary to handle the applications, Campus Activities did not address the question directly. Bawiec pointed toward USC’s $7.7 billion endowment and said the problem was not with resources but with a misallocation of those resources.

“[USC is] just not prioritizing students with that money that they have,” Bawiec said. “This has just been chaos. It’s been a shitshow.”