RSOs must apply for funding via USG funding board
Membership organizations can’t apply for funding via programming assemblies anymore.
By ADAM YOUNG
The Undergraduate Student Government senate unanimously passed senate bill 145-24 to approve the fiscal year 2027 budget Tuesday night.
Also changing in the next fiscal year, chief financial officer designate Jackson Alexander said “federal regulation” no longer allows programming assemblies to give out money to member organizations.
More specifically, vice president-elect Diane Kim said the Trump administration’s policies on DEI made it so membership organizations would have to request funding through USG’s general funding boards rather than programming assemblies. The funding department was allocated $388,000, a 6.7% increase from this fiscal year. Kim said USG is changing its policy to comply with the University, and that the policy change does not represent the opinions of their cabinet.
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As an example, Kim said the recognized student organization Troy Philippines currently applies for funding through the Asian Pacific American Student Assembly. To comply with President Donald Trump’s DEI policies, she said RSOs will have to apply for funding through USG’s funding department instead.
When asked to identify a specific Trump administration policy requiring this, Kim did not name a specific policy and the Daily Trojan could not immediately find an applicable federal policy.
“Nobody is losing money. They’re just redirecting [where] to apply [for] funding,” Kim said. “It’s just [to] steer away and [make] sure that we’re being very cautious and complying with policy.”
The Academic Culture Assembly, Latine Student Assembly and Asian Pacific American Student Assembly faced the largest budget cuts among student assemblies. ACA was allocated $25,000, a 38.1% decrease from this fiscal year and the largest percentage difference from fiscal year 2026.
USG’s total expected budget for next year is $2.6 million, a 0.5% decrease from FY 26.
Alexander said the cuts to member organizations look “much more egregious” than they actually are. Alexander also said that the ACA got all the money that it requested.
(Adam Young / Daily Trojan)
The largest budget increases to student assemblies went to the Black Student Assembly, First Generation Student Assembly and Student Assembly for Accessibility. The SAA was allocated about $5,600, more than double this fiscal year.
Alexander said the executive cabinet saw that SAA had many events that had good attendance, and could hold more events if they were given more money.
Among programming committees, the Concert Committee received $520,000 for the next fiscal year, a 5.1% cut of its budget from this fiscal year. When asked about the $28,000 decrease, Alexander said last fiscal year, the committee was reallocated an additional $50,000 after the preliminary budget was approved.
The Performing Arts Committee saw the largest budget increase among programming committees, receiving $90,000 for the next fiscal year, a 27.8% increase from FY 26. Maximus Patri, PAC assistant director, said part of the reason the committee saw the largest fixed increase in the budget was because of the committee’s large attendance numbers for its event, Artscape: POV.
“Our main point that we really tried to communicate during our allocations pitch was: An investment in PAC isn’t just an investment in programming, but it’s also investing in student artists,” Patri said. “It wasn’t just putting on a great night for 2,000+ students, it was also giving 150 student creatives direct portfolio pieces.”
PAC executive director Meredith Ziegler said the raise in budget may look large on paper, but the operating budget to put on events tends to be supported by fundraising. Last year, Ziegler said PAC was able to fundraise more than $100,000 to support their programming.
“USG giving us this support is helping us to focus more on our events, rather than pitching,” Ziegler said.
(Adam Young / Daily Trojan)
Among other budget changes, staff salaries saw a 6.8% increase from FY 26, which is the first time in the past four years that staff salaries rose. Alexander said the increase was due to the Los Angeles city minimum wage increasing to $18.42 in July 2026.
USG tabled SB 145-24 last week because the Joint Assembly for Military-Associated Students executive director was not able to meet with the incoming and current chief financial officers. After JAMS officials met this week with Alexander, no changes to budget allocations were made.
