Registered student organizations are uncertain whether they can hold events or produce programming this fall after Provost Noel Wilkin announced last month that the University of Mississippi is closing access requests for the Student Activity Fee. As part of their tuition, UM students pay $2 per credit hour to fund the SAF.
The university indicates that a new plan for RSO funding will be announced soon.
“The university is working with student leaders to create a plan for student programming that will serve our student body and uphold our commitment to having student events and activities this semester. We expect to be able to share those plans soon,” UM Director of News and Media Relations Jacob Batte said in an email to The Daily Mississippian on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
The university’s decision to freeze SAF funding follows Gov. Tate Reeves’ signing of House Bill 1193, passed by the Mississippi Legislature last spring, which prohibits Mississippi public K-12 and postsecondary schools from maintaining “any programs, including academic programs or courses, or offices that promote or endorse divisive concepts or concepts promoting transgender ideology, gender-neutral pronouns, heteronormativity, gender theory, sexual privilege or any related formulation of these concepts.” According to a recent Mississippi Attorney General opinion, the bill exempts RSOs but not student activity fees, which the opinion labeled state funds.
In the wake of this law, events such as Oxford Pride have seen funding from the university cut.
How are RSOs being affected?
Junior Riley Mickelson is struggling with how to proceed as the leader of the Ole Miss Book Club, an organization that pays for its book purchases through SAF funding.
Upon learning that her group will not receive funding this semester, Mickelson was shocked, but she pointed out that many other groups are facing a similar situation and expressed a desire for an equitable solution.
“The Ole Miss Book Club is just one of many communities that are impacted by the loss of our SAF funds,” Mickelson said. “I hope the Mississippi Legislature and courts can recognize the severe consequences of this bill on students and their self-built communities.”
The lack of SAF funding challenges the foundational mission of the Ole Miss Book Club.
“We believe that all people, no matter their background, should have access to the same opportunities, including reading and discussing a variety of books,” Mickelson said. “Asking our members for dues to supplement SAF funding is an unnecessary barrier that should not, and will not in the Ole Miss Book Club, become normalized.”
Junior Eli Nordstrom halted registering an RSO focused on religious ministry to the homeless population in Memphis due to the funding cut. The SAF funds would have bolstered his organization’s ability to meet the material needs of those being helped.
“The initial plan was to use money provided by the university to address the needs of the homeless population in Memphis. I later learned that the university was no longer providing these funds to RSOs due to changes in the federal government’s policy,” Nordstrom said. “Because of this, our group will have to rethink our approach.”
Nordstrom is questioning whether it is still worth registering his organization as an RSO, but he is determined to proceed with the aim of being inclusive and helping others.
“While the founders of the club were all Roman Catholic, we recruited many like-minded people from several of the Protestant clubs on campus,” Nordstrom said. “We still fully intend to organize and live out the Gospel, but this change in policy has emerged as a roadblock. The aims of our organization are not partisan. Ultimately, our aim is to serve others as we are called to do.”
Which activities will continue to receive funding?
The initial email concerning the funding freeze from Wilkin dated Aug. 29 stated that, on account of the DEI ban bill, “the ability of registered student organization to put on certain programming using student activity fees” was restricted, leading to “the university (sic) creating a new process for putting on student activities this school year.”
The Daily Mississippian asked Batte what was meant by “certain programming” and which types of programming would receive funding under the new model but did not receive an answer to this question directly in his Sept. 10 email.
Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Director of Communications John Sewell emphasized that the programming funded will be consistent with state and federal law, wherever that stands.
“Universities are using these funds to support student activities following state and federal law, including the First Amendment’s requirement that student activity fees be used in a viewpoint and content neutral manner,” Sewell said in an email to The Daily Mississippian.
Will any RSOs continue to receive funding?
All campus organizations that receive SAF funding from the university have found that this support has been cut. It remains unclear which, if any, organizations may receive funding in the future.
The Student Activities Association, a campus organization focused on providing student-focused events, did not respond to The Daily Mississippian’s question of whether the group will still receive funding.
What will happen to the SAF money already paid?
Students pay for SAF in their tuition, which could call into question where the funds are being allocated if not to RSO programming.
In an email dated Sept. 5 from The Daily Mississippian, Batte was asked what will happen to the funds students have paid into the SAF fund, but he did not address this question in his comment.
What is ASB doing to bring back SAF funds?
When asked what the ASB planned to do in response to this situation, ASB President Jack Jones redirected The Daily Mississippian to a statement released on Aug. 29 via the official ASB Instagram account.
“(T)he Mississippi Legislature has placed the university in a position where we cannot continue dispersing student activity funding without violating either state or federal law,” Jones said in the statement. “These recent changes will have serious implications for our student organizations. Primarily because many of our student organizations rely almost exclusively on funding from the SAF … Over the coming weeks, I will be meeting with student leaders from other Mississippi institutions as we work to ensure the SAF process is returned to the hands of students — where it belongs.”
What are other Mississippi universities doing?
Other institutions throughout the state face their own student organization funding challenges in grappling with the law. At Mississippi State University, student funds will remain “unused and untouched this fall,” as student organizations will be directed to get involved in “fundraising workshops (that) work to connect groups with local businesses,” according to an article by Kate Myers in MSU’s student paper, The Reflector.
The Daily Mississippian is reaching out to other state universities to find out how they are handling the situation.
