When the leaves in Los Angeles don’t change colors in October, the banners lining Trousdale Parkway do. In the past, bright rainbow banners would take their place in honor of LGBTQ history month, which USC has celebrated for the past 50 years. But this year, no Pride flags hung on the posts along campus’ main path and, for the second year in a row, the Queer and Ally Student Assembly did not hold its Pride Fest event during the month.  

Renee Penunuri, QuASA’s co-executive director, said Undergraduate Student Government budget cuts have made it impossible for the organization to hold Pride Fest to its full capacity. At the end of the last academic year, USG cut QuASA’s budget by $14,000. Since its beginning in 2018, Pride Fest included a main stage drag show along with arts and crafts tables and HIV testing.

Tabitha Johnson, one of QuASA’s co-executive directors, said they’re disappointed that Pride Fest didn’t happen.

“As someone who’s queer, [it’s] important to me,” Johnson said. “But also, it’s important because we’re not in school during Pride month, this is the chance that our queer students get [to celebrate].”

Johnson said although Pride Fest didn’t happen in October, it is still happening this academic year: The event will be held at a smaller scale as part of the Performing Arts Committee’s music and arts festival, Artscape in March.

In past years, the University has also held a variety of events including workshops, panels, networking events and activities for LGBTQ+ students during October. 

“[The University is] just making sure that there are still events for these very important [cultural history] months celebrations,” Johnson said. “ I don’t think it’s targeted at any specific type of group.” 

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, the University wrote that banners promoting cultural heritage are displayed on digital signs. The University is also currently installing new light poles on Trousdale, according to the statement, which will only include yearlong banners with general messages, citing the high cost of changing banners each year.

Penunuri said QuASA has had to rethink their events and find ways to cut costs. 

“Our budget has been slashed like crazy this year,” Penunuri said. “USG is recommending to all assemblies to collaborate with each other and utilize their budget and all of their budgets.”

It currently takes several weeks for Campus Activities to process budget requests, Penunuri said, making it difficult for RSOs to plan events ahead of time.

“For a lot of our programming, at least in October, we just have to do our best with what we have, because we don’t have supplies,” Penunuri said.

Penunuri said QuASA had to make difficult decisions about what events it had to cut to maximize its budget. Ultimately, leaders decided to prioritize their Spring event, a drag show.

Meredith Ziegler, executive director of the Performing Arts Committee, said PAC is welcoming QuASA, along with other student assemblies, to join Artscape in March. She said she hopes this will allow QuASA a second chance to celebrate LGBTQIA+ students.

“[Pride Fest] is absorbing into Artscape for the sole reason of allowing queer student artists to have the platform and the event production to communicate their art in their perspective, rather than not at all,” Ziegler said. 

Although the collaboration is a compromise, Ziegler said she hopes the event will draw in more students who may only follow one of the organizations, and that PAC will continue to collaborate with other student organizations in the future. 

“Those relationships and those connections are a big thing, and we’re planning on continuing Artscape, whether the format changes or not, for the next few years,” Ziegler said. “I don’t think that those things end because people have money.”

Although Pride Fest has been postponed, Penunuri said queer students and allies can come to QuASA to find community. QuASA is open to all USC students and hosts activities — such as movie screenings, clothing swaps and craft sessions — every Wednesday throughout the academic year.

“Hanging out with people and being around other queer individuals or allies, it really does something to your body and you feel like you’re part of something bigger, and you don’t feel alone,” Penunuri said.