University of South Carolina Student Government is creating a new central hub for its funding on campus called the Student Organization Funding Assistance Board (SOFAB). SOFAB is a student assistance funding board that will begin next year.
The Undergraduate Organizational Fund will still remain the central hub for funding for the 2025-2026 year, according to Student Body Treasurer Elect Ashley Reynolds.
Matt Hinds, Director of Administration for the Department of Student Life, said SOFAB was a university idea. He said the first step was to look into measures taken by USC's SEC peer institutions.
"We found that the majority of other SEC institutions have an alternative funding source," Hinds said. "We have modeled ours and really looked at Auburn. Auburn's has been fantastic in the way it's set up because their current system is set up how ours is. Just starting at that point and then ironing things out."
Hinds said SOFAB was created to serve as a central hub for student organization funding at USC, addressing gaps in the current system. Students in certain colleges, such as the College of Pharmacy and the Law School, do not have alternative funding options if their requests are denied.
He said while graduate students and sports clubs have their own funding boards, many organizations are left without support. Student Government often receives questions from students seeking additional funding, but it is not their responsibility to manage these cases, Hinds said. He said SOFAB will provide guidance and ensure all registered student organizations have a clear path to financial resources.
"Two years ago, Student Government Finance Committee was given around $185,000 a year to allocate to undergraduate student organizations. This past year, with the advocacy from our students, it was increased to $340,000. So right now, the Student Government Finance Committee has $340,000 to allocate to student organizations," Hinds said. "Next year, we're going to take Student Government and give them back to $185,000. That difference is going to fund SOFAB, so SOFAB will take $155,000, $160,000, that difference- and that's the money they are going to use to allocate to organizations."
Hinds said SOFAB will not affect Student Government beyond reducing its funding to $185,000. He said the processes and allocations will remain unchanged, with the redirected funds going to a secondary allocation board.
Students are not required to seek funding from Student Government, SOFAB or their college’s funding board in any specific order, Hinds said. He said whether students choose to request money from SOFAB, Student Government or both, they have the flexibility to navigate the process as they see fit. While the exact communication process between funding boards is still being determined, Hinds said coordination between them will be established.
There have been an unusual amount of delays with reimbursements this school year. Hinds said he does not know if there is one specific reason that caused the delays, but a few things contributed to the problem.
"The past years, we had an entire just Student Life team who had done it for years, so it's a new team getting to know our systems," Hinds said. "Student Government also was given a lot more money. They were given an extra $160,000. Naturally, you're going to have a lot more reimbursements because there's now $160,000 more to spend."
Student Body Treasurer Reese Lycan said she has been direct with university finance administrators about the issues and their serious effect on students.
"It's really hard for college students to be waiting on a $2,000 check for months at a time," Lycan said. "We have made sure to continuously prompt the university finance team, who are supposed to be claiming these requests."
Lycan said in order for a student organization to receive a reimbursement, it will first have to submit an allocation request through Garnet Gate. She said the allocation first goes to the treasurer's branch, then a staff member in the Leadership and Service Center looks at it for risk assessment, then the student body treasurer approves it and sends it to the Senate Finance Committee, which will vote on whether the funds should be allocated or not.
Lycan said the the treasurer’s branch checks requests for technical accuracy, while the Finance Committee makes judgment decisions. If the Senate Finance Committee approves a request, its chair writes a bill recommending that the Finance Committee allocate the funds. If the student senate passes the bill, the organization is allocated the money- and all approved student organizations are notified by email..
"What students can then do is pay for their event, and then they use that email as proof to receive reimbursement," Lycan said. "So then they go to the university's Student Life finance team, and they submit their reimbursement request, and they submit a screenshot of that email and that's their proof that we allocated them to fund."
Lycan said she has seen university material which states that reimbursements are expected to take up to six to eight weeks. As of the most recent student senate, some student organizations have been waiting on their reimbursements since October. Some measures are currently being taken in an attempt to alleviate the wait time.
Lycan said that thanks to Hinds, a new method was created to monitor who on the finance team is supposed to be claiming reimbursement requests. She said this way, reimbursement requests will be easy to keep track of. Members of the finance team, their bosses and Hinds will have an easier time seeing requests with this method.
"We are also working to create a comprehensive reimbursement guide and tutorial. Some of my staff members are working on that. In particular, (Press Secretary) Jacob Whisenant is helping create a video walkthrough of what the reimbursement form looks like, what the (Travel Authorization) form looks like and then also putting together, like I said, a comprehensive guide of what they need as far as receipts," Lycan said. "(For receipts) you need the last four digits of the credit card that you used, and it has to show a zero balance. Things like that, that way we can alleviate the back-and-forth between students and the university finance team members; that way, the first time students submit it, it's good to go, and we don't have to have any delays there."
Lycan said there are two reasons for delays in reimbursements. She said the first reason revolves around the fact that some students do not submit the reimbursement forms correctly.
"Sometimes finance team members will reach out to students, and sometimes students can be slow to respond if they're not checking their emails," Lycan said.
Lycan said the second reason is that after reimbursement requests pass through Hines, the university finance team is not promptly claiming them to start processing.
"Part of this is because of software incompatibilities where the software in which they do the reimbursements on their end is not compatible with Garnet Gate," Lycan said. "It's difficult to navigate Garnet Gate. It's difficult for them to look up which requests they're supposed to be looking at, and so sometimes those reimbursement requests sit unclaimed for a long amount of time."
Lycan said that last semester, the problem of delayed reimbursements became more apparent after Student Government received a significant amount of additional funding. She said some student organizations were denied funding due to request requirements.
"Student organizations only have one chance to request money. This pigeonholed a lot of organizations, specifically graduate organizations ... Student Government is largely made up of undergraduate students, but we exist to advocate for the entire student body,"Lycan said. "We needed to find a way to make sure that they had an equal chance to receive funding. Secondly, we had to deny a large amount of requests for the 15 University Day policy, which has since been adjusted. However, ... the Senate Finance Committee had to deny over $30,000 in one committee meeting, and those students then had nowhere else to go. So that was kind of the buildup to the, 'We need a solution to this problem.'"
Hinds said student organizations' travel is an example of expenses that typically take longer to process than others. He said travel comes with a unique two-step process; student organizations have to get approved with a Travel Authorization, and the reimbursement will happen after the organization receives a Travel Authorization. Every student, staff member and anyone traveling at the university must have a Travel Authorization, Hinds said.
SOFAB will be a committee of five students and two university members. There will be an application process. Students will be interviewed and then chosen.