Registered student organizations at Ole Miss will not have access to Student Activity Fee funding to put on certain programming until further notice, University of Mississippi Provost Noel Wilkin said in an email sent Friday to all RSO leaders and advisers listed on the ForUM directory.
The university will tap the Office of Student Affairs, the Gertrude Ford Student Union and other UM departments, such as the Department of Campus Recreation, to create a series of events in the interest of RSOs and other students. The email said this is common practice at other universities.
“After studying how this model has worked at other universities and carefully considering what is of interest, we look forward to hosting many successful events and reaching all members of our student body,” the email said.
The funding shift is triggered by Mississippi House Bill 1193, which prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion practices in public schools, passed by the Legislature in April. U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the bill on Aug. 19.
Wilkins said the ongoing discussion about whether the law is constitutional is a cause for the change. Any institutions found to violate Mississippi House Bill 1193 can be withheld from state funding.
The future of the SAF, set at $2 per credit hour a student takes per semester, is uncertain.
“The Mississippi Legislature has placed the university in a position where we cannot continue dispersing student activity funding without violating either state or federal law,” ASB President Jack Jones said in his official Associated Student Body statement. “While Mississippi House Bill 1193 includes an exemption for registered student organizations, it does not exempt student activity fees, which have been labeled as state funds by a recent Mississippi Attorney General opinion.”
On Monday, Mississippi State University’s Student Association announced that the distribution of funds to student organizations on its campus would be halted indefinitely as a result of the bill.
Both Wilkin and Jones stressed that the university is working on an alternative method to ensure funding for registered student organizations on campus.
“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 the students – where it belongs,” Jones said. “At the same time, ASB leadership will continue to work alongside university leadership on ways to provide needed student activities and programming as we enter the fall semester.”
