Some recognized student organizations’ applications for Fall 2025 are still being processed, the University wrote in a statement to the Daily Trojan. Without recognition, student organizations cannot access campus facilities such as classrooms, receive student government funding or participate in the semesterly involvement fair.

“The majority of applications have been approved for Fall 2025, and reviews are still underway for those organizations completing their application process,” the University wrote Nov. 20. “Organizations with questions can reach out for support to a variety of resources, including information sessions, office hours, and a RSO toolkit.”

Applications for recognition opened Oct. 13 and closed Nov. 17. Recognition from Campus Activities requires an officer from the RSO to submit documents such as a list of current members, a constitution and bylaws. USC requires all RSOs to reapply for recognition each year.

Harley Chen, a senior majoring in international relations and a member of the Chinese Student and Scholar Association, said that CSSA couldn’t be recognized as an RSO for the 2025-26 school year due to slow communication between RSO officers and their advisor, which stalled the recognition process.

“We were trying to reach out to them every week or even daily,” Chen said. “But they either said they cannot meet right now, or they don’t provide us with a response.”

Chen said he and other members of CSSA visited the office of Campus Activities when they were starting to fill out the RSO form Oct. 13 and left their contact information. By the end of the month, the CSSA members received an email that stated that CSSA had a prior violation in the summer for having a member who was outside of the student directory. Chen said this violation led to Campus Activities holding their application for review.

“We’re trying to have a good base of communication here so we can resolve the issues,” Chen said. “I think that kind of communication is lacking.”

Chen said that CSSA reached out to a member of the UCLA chapter of CSSA for assistance with an event that they were organizing in the summer. That person had provided support as the primary contact when it came to acting as a liaison between the University and CSSA’s members.

Jennifer Nehrer, a senior majoring in journalism, said that Chavurah at USC, an independent, egalitarian and Jewish organization, has also faced delays in communication throughout the semester that had prevented their organization from gaining timely RSO recognition.

Nehrer, the vice president of Chavurah, said that it registered for recognition Aug. 21, and did not receive an email from Campus Groups that confirmed their recognition until almost three months later Nov. 12.

She said the long wait was a result of back-and-forth contact through EngageSC’s messaging platform that RSO officers use to communicate with Campus Activities and their advisor. Nehrer said that EngageSC’s messaging platform was not sending her messages to Chavurah’s advisor.

Nehrer said that issues with the platform led to a delay in organizing a meeting with Chavurah’s faculty advisor. She had gotten an email from Campus Activities saying that they hadn’t received the necessary paperwork and course certification needed to be a faculty advisor.

“Something with EngageSC glitched on [the advisor’s] end,” Nehrer said. “It took a good week or two to get this meeting organized with her, because none of her messages kept going through.”

Nehrer said she wishes that Chavurah was recognized earlier so that it could have provided a welcoming space for new students.

“I feel terrible that we have not been able to host many of those spaces for these kids yet,” Nehrer said. “Especially the ones who are freshmen and are experiencing college for the first time, and may have a hard time finding the people they want to be with.”

Disclaimer: Jennifer Nehrer formerly served as News assignments editor at the Daily Trojan in Spring 2024. Nehrer is no longer affiliated with this paper.