Changes to Miami’s student organization funding cause confusion

When Eleanor Jones, the co-chair for Miami University’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) chapter, opened her email on Sept. 3, the last thing she expected to see was a message saying YDSA was ineligible for funding this semester.

The Associated Student Government (ASG), which distributes funding for student clubs, required club leaders to attend several training sessions. Jones had attended everything, and her treasurer submitted YDSA’s budget request the day it opened through ASG.

Now, six weeks into the semester, YDSA has no money and no idea why it was denied funding.

“It is definitely a barrier in planning,” Jones said. “It’s not impossible for us to pull together some money for small things. But this extra cost and time and organization makes it even more difficult because we’re a better functioning organization if we can plan months in advance and we literally cannot.”

The requirements to become eligible for funding aren’t the only things students are confused about. There’s still a lot of conflict about how much money each student-run club receives.

Miami funds clubs through a four-tier system, with each club falling into a specific category. Tier four is the highest designation for a club, which means it has a campus-wide impact, a faculty advisor, extensive programming history and high student engagement.

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Halfway through the spring semester of 2025, ASG announced they were cutting funds for tier four organizations effective immediately. A surplus of funds had remained from COVID-19 lockdowns, when student clubs were inactive and not requesting money. Between 2022 and the fall semester of 2024, tier four organizations could receive $12,500 per semester.

By March 2025, the money had run out. Now, the most any tier four organization can get is $5,000 per semester.

Club reactions

The 2025 funding reduction created challenges for tier four clubs across campus. Stage Left, a student-run musical theater organization at Miami, felt particularly affected by the cuts. The reduction was announced mid-semester, creating logistical difficulties for the club, as contracts had already been signed to pay a technical company for help with an upcoming production.

“The way they did this was absolutely not appropriate,” said Lillian Shelley, president of Stage Left and a senior majoring in psychology and biology. “We got kind of an emergency email that said we will not be handing out any more funding this semester. It set our board into a real panic, and [ASG] didn’t even explain what was coming next.”

Shelley said the university provided relief after coordination between Stage Left’s faculty advisor and the office of Student Engagement and Activities so that Stage Left could honor its existing contracts for the semester.

For Drew Belcher, chairman of the College Republicans at Miami and a senior political science major, the funding cuts presented both a challenge and an opportunity.

“I would say it was a little bit of a shock to the system,” Belcher said. “We didn’t really have any sort of infrastructure for fundraising externally a lot of money, so we had to put that into place. We had a fundraiser with U.S. Congressman Warren Davidson in Hamilton. We were able to draw a pretty good crowd, and you know we set a lot of fundraising records for ourselves that year.”

Changes to funding

Additionally, the funding application process required clubs to be approved and registered through Miami Central, a new platform for students to connect with clubs on campus. This change, instituted in spring semester 2026, replaced The Hub.

Following the spring 2025 adjustment, tier four student organizations are eligible for up to $5,000 a semester in funding. Now, ASG is gearing up for a new funding structure — a three-level system set to begin spring 2027. Under this new structure, level one organizations will receive $500, level two can receive up to $3,000 and level three organizations can receive up to $5,000 in activity funding.

Japveer Singh, ASG secretary of funding and a junior finance major, said this change aligns with his administrative goals.

“I think bureaucracy kills a lot of things,” Singh said.

One goal of the new system is to remove some of the restrictive barriers for low-level organizations applying for funding.

“We’re thinking that we should automatically imburse it into your account, so you automatically have $500 to spend,” Singh said. “Therefore, you don’t have to come to ASG and submit all the requests.”

Scott Walter, vice president of Student Life at Miami and faculty advisor for ASG, has seen the funding structure change several times during his 16 years in his position and believes the changes being made are a move in the right direction.

“We changed the whole system,” Walter said. “Instead of doing five programs about something you want to do, we’ve cut it down to: How do you run a student organization? How do you do funding? How do you prepare a budget? There’s not as many steps.”

What can organizations do if they have issues?

Walter said students with questions about their organization’s funding should reach out to the Office of Student Engagement and Activities. This office works with ASG, the Division of Student Life, and Miami’s Budget Office to distribute funds to student organizations.

Jones and YDSA are currently working with the Office of Student Engagement and Activities to find out where exactly in the funding application process YDSA is lacking.”

Singh and his colleague Nathan Lentz, deputy secretary of funding at ASG and a senior majoring in physics and political science, said student organization leaders should email them or come to office hours with questions.

Improving access and accountability are among the primary goals that Singh and Lentz are working on.

“Last year the biggest issue was a lack of communication and clarity, and that’s what me and Nathan are trying to solve,” Singh said.

nagelku@miamioh.edu

fahymm@miamioh.edu