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Brālyn Louise promised members of her organization, Beyond the Book, free reading material this semester. But after losing funding from Syracuse University’s Student Association, she now relies on fundraising to rebuild the club’s attendance back to its levels from the fall.

Louise co-founded Beyond the Book last semester in hopes of building a community of literature enthusiasts at SU. While the club’s general body meetings attracted about 50 people last semester, only 5 regular members attend this semester, Louise said.

Across campus, from mechanical engineering clubs to student-run magazines, registered student organizations are scrambling to fundraise money because of SA’s limited budget. RSO leaders described SA’s allocation process as confusing, while SA leaders said they’re working to adjust to a smaller budget compared to last semester.

The association’s primary funding power comes through advanced semester allocations, which occur once every semester to allocate funds for the following semester. Throughout the semester in its weekly meetings, SA’s finance board allocates smaller sums as semester allocations.

To mitigate confusion, SA is transitioning away from the term “semester allocations” and instead using the term “special programming allocations.”Alexis Leach, SA’s Comptroller, said the new label better reflects the purpose of the smaller, more frequent funding requests.

“Semester allocations, or special programming allocations, involve a set pool of money for the semester, distributed on a first-come, first-served basis,” Leach said. “Organizations submit their budget, and once the pool runs out, it’s gone.”

Complaints from RSOs come after the association faced significant budget restrictions this school year, receiving only $100,000 for the fall and $150,000 for the spring, SA President German Nolivos said.

This shortage is a result of overspending in past sessions, Nolivos said. To offset the shortage, SA used $250,000 of rollover funds — mostly composed of money leftover from the COVID-19 pandemic — for advanced allocations.

SA received over $800,000 in funding requests at the beginning of the semester, more than three times their budget at the time. As a result, Leach and the finance board were tasked with reviewing and adjusting requested funds to fairly distribute the limited assets, Nolivos said.

This spring, SA capped semester allocations at $31,000 for each of the university’s 27 RSOs. However, within a few weeks, some RSOs submitted requests totaling over $200,000 for general advanced allocations, Leach said. Advanced allocations, which are reserved for large events and higher-tier organizations, are usually granted before the semester begins.

Louise said the changes to funding processes this semester disrupted her organization’s previously-made plans.

“It’s definitely been pretty discouraging. It was kind of a random hit to the org at the start of the semester,” Louise said.

Julia English, an SU junior and president of Mythos Magazine, said her organization has struggled to complete key projects, including its print edition, in its first semester as an RSO. Without SA funding, English said the comic and illustration magazine plans to look at alternatives to earn revenue, like selling at house show venues — a strategy they also used last semester.

“It’s been really, really difficult urging people to stay true to our deadlines that we have in place without having a printed edition that we promised them we would have by now,” English said.

Like English, Norah Nappi, editor-in-chief of Fetch Collective, is also seeking alternative fundraising options. Last semester, she requested funding to produce 700 copies of the collective’s magazine, but SA denied this and told her to reduce the number to 250 copies, she said.

Two weeks into this spring semester, Nappi received an email from SA notifying her the collective would not be receiving any funding from SA. After consulting with her RSO advisor, Nappi said she’s now scrambling to find ways to fundraise so Fetch can still produce a print publication like it did last semester.

“As a small club, we work really hard as a unit to try to put out something that really showcases the hard work and creativity of students here on campus,” Nappi said. “We’re trying all that we can to produce a second print magazine this semester, so hopefully that comes to fruition.”

At a SA town hall last week, Leach and Nolivos addressed RSO leaders’ concerns about this semester’s lack of funding. Leach said the finance board is actively working to cut unnecessary spending to ensure the current budget issues don’t occur again in the future.

One of these wasteful expenditures is catering costs, Leach said. In 2021, SA’s fiscal codes prohibited allocating funds for food due to the absence of a designated catering budget. Last year, the assembly revised its rules to allow more catering because of the significant funding available after the pandemic, Nolivos said.

To prevent these costs going forward, the association’s finance board introduced a $60,000 total semester catering cap and implemented a tiered system for SA catering funding, Leach said. The tiers are based on an organization’s capital, or history of successful events, as outlined in the university’s RSO handbook.

Under the new catering system, Tier 1 RSOs can request up to $1,500 for catering per semester, while Tier 2 organizations can request up to $3,000. Tier 3 organizations are capped at $4,500, and Tier 4 organizations can request up to $6,000, Leach said.

New organizations automatically begin as Tier 1 and can move up after two years on campus.

Anna Meehan, president of SU’s Ukrainian Student Association, expressed frustration with the tier system. After SU disbanded the organization last year for failing to complete the re-registration process, Meehan said she has no clear understanding of where the club falls within the system, which complicates efforts to secure funding.

“It shouldn’t take this much work to run a club,” Meehan said.

Meehan said the Ukrainian Student Association has struggled to maintain consistent attendance, and that food would be essential to attract more participants and boost attendance. With the new catering cap and tier classification, Meehan said she’s worried these factors could create additional barriers for cultural clubs that rely on food to engage with their communities.

Jonathan Link, president of SU’s Biotechnology Society, described his experience requesting funding from the association as “pretty muddy,” citing confusion over the budget’s timeline.

For a recent Valentine’s Day event, Link said he requested $645 from the association, with most of the funds going toward catering. However, Link said the group only received $35 in approved funding and the decision was delayed by over a week. The society organized the event without a finalized budget, he said.

“I’ve submitted a few budgets myself,” Link said. “In the past they’ve gotten denied for the very fine details they require.”

According to the RSO handbook, groups must submit requests at least two weeks before an event and must include proper documentation, such as proof of space and catering costs, to be approved.

To save future funds, SA has launched a Lending Closet which allows RSOs to borrow commonly requested items for events and return them for future use. The association has purchased frequently requested items, including mini stages, DJ booths, photo booths and balloons to stock the closet, Leach said.

Leach said the initiative will cut costs for both SA and RSOs.

As SA looks to the end of the academic year, Leach said she’s focused on improving communication between herself, RSOs and their Student Engagement RSO consultants. To build this transparency, the finance board is putting out updates on SA’s Instagram to inform students about its weekly activity, Leach said.

“I understand it is difficult for them to have as much funding as they normally do,” English said. “It just was really unfortunate timing for us.”

DISCLAIMER: Julia English is a contributing cartoonist and illustrator for The Daily Orange. She was not involved in the editorial process of this article.

Published on March 6, 2025 at 1:06 am

Contact Madeline: mmgoodhe@syr.edu