The beginning of the government shutdown on Oct. 1 arrived with a pause on federal food assistance for millions of families and students, including 5.5 million Californians. With the quarter just beginning, many students at UCLA found themselves not only having to manage their arduous academics and work life but also falling into a financial frenzy as they worried where their next meal may come from.
Federal funding cuts to food aid have trickled into the layoffs of federal workers and cuts to public university funding. California legislators neglected to reserve funds to account for cuts before approving the state budget, leaving public institutions like UCLA to carry the burden of continuing campus activity within under-resourced boundaries. Consequently, these federal and state funding cuts have bled into the way of student life, affecting campus clubs and organizations.
Numerous clubs encountered hits from federal funding cuts, but some were able to navigate them by touching base with other university programs in proximity to them.
Second-year political science student and Afrikan Student Union Public Relations Coordinator Leah Nelson said that ASU has had to adjust its budget and heavily rely on supplementary support systems.
“The university has placed tighter limits on how much student orgs can apply for, and the overall funds distributed are smaller compared to last year and previous years,” Nelson said. “Thankfully, we’ve been able to continue our work through the ongoing support of the Black Bruin Resource Center (BBRC), which has stepped in to help sustain key programs and community-centered events. In addition, we’ve increasingly relied on the UCLA Black Alumni Association, whose contributions have been essential in bridging the gap created by campus-wide funding cuts.”
As a result of federal cuts to food assistance, some clubs have witnessed the effects of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, cuts in their attendance. The Hunger Project, a service-based organization providing aid for those facing housing and food insecurity in the greater Los Angeles area, was one of many clubs to report a surge in attendance.
Olivia Wu, a third-year pre-computational and systems biology student and the co-executive director for the Hunger Project at UCLA, shared that though the organization has not experienced recent funding cuts, several of the sites they serve have felt the impact of broader funding reductions.
“During periods of SNAP funding cuts, St. James Soup Kitchen saw a significant increase in the number of individuals seeking support,” stated Wu.
Meghna Bhakta, a third-year civil engineering student and the co-external vice president for Bruin Dine, said the organization also had a higher number of attendees at their food recovery events.
“Right after SNAP benefits were cut, we were running out of food each night, and we even had to go into our storage and use our dry good donations to ensure that everyone who came still received food,” said Bhakta. “This quarter, we served an average of 111 meals a night compared to last fall, where we served about 90 meals per night.”
The weight of hidden fees for resources such as projectors, microphones, DVD players and any other equipment in classrooms necessary for meetings has been placed on student boards to tackle. Autism Advocacy at UCLA, an organization that works to destigmatize autism on campus and in the local community through podcasting and hosting events, experienced frustrations in an already-complicated equipment acquisition process.
Sophie Adkins, a third-year linguistics and psychology student and president of Autism Advocacy at UCLA, said their club events mainly involve several forms of activism. They rely heavily on funding for booking event staff, audio equipment and ASUCLA spaces for long durations of time.
“As far as the projector fee, that was a bit of a nuisance for me,” Adkins said. “I wasn’t informed of this change, so it was a surprise when, during my second meeting, the system was locked. I started the process of getting funding for it that same day, but it took until week 7– I submitted the form Week 3– for it to be completely processed.”
Adkins also expressed concerns about possible declines in club involvement if Autism Advocacy was to face funding cuts in the near future.
“It definitely also makes me worry about membership,” she said. “Will people still want to be a part of the club if they can’t help put on these events or work on special initiatives?”
Ashley Hodge, a third-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student also studying Central and Eastern European languages, serves as both the founder and president for Art MEDified as well as several other clubs on campus. She agreed that the fees for projectors and expensive equipment are not only difficult to locate, but the opportunities to obtain funding for such fees are even more buried.
“It has been official policy for a while and so if you read your full EOL, which is the application form we have to fill out to get roomed booked, in the small print, it does mention that you need to fill out [some] forms that are linked there in order to activate the projector,” stated Hodge. “Even then, within that little link, it doesn’t mention that you can also apply for SOLE funding to cover the fees themselves, so you have to discover that piece of information on your own.”
Hodge said it now costs clubs $375 to activate a projector for the entire quarter.
“Imagine being a new club who doesn’t have the infrastructure to know about all the funding options known to them and suddenly you’re expecting them to pay $400 to have a projector during their meeting, which is essential if you’re trying to give any announcement,” Hodge said. “A new club is not going to have [around] $400 lying around. And it’s nice that the SOLE office will provide a grant to cover it if you can find out about it, but you know it says until the fund runs out, so is the fund going to run out in winter or spring?”
Hodge believes that the bigger the club, the more likely it is to be affected by funding cuts.
“[Large] clubs have a lot of real, professionals coming in and helping, and they’re booking really big venues,” she said. “Things like that are really expensive and so those funding cuts hit them a lot harder. Overall, if you can’t get a bigger event funded, you can’t have the event or you’re going to have a worse version of the event.”
Overall, funding cuts injure clubs for several reasons named, and many of them are highly dependent on grants.
Hodge stated, “Ultimately, members need a reason to walk 20 minutes from their dorm to La Kretz 100 every quarter, every week. That reason is basically what [clubs are] offering them. Are you offering them community? Are you offering them the chance to participate in really large events? A lot of times it is a combination of the two, so when you take one out, the whole system can fall out.”
The consequences of funding cuts can be seen trickling down from federal and state decisions into the choices of students and their larger ability to participate in programs.
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Featured Image Photographed by Julia Gu/BruinLife
