The University of Connecticut’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) recently issued their funding policies for the 2025-2026 academic school year, which included a change in travel funding for Tier II organizations.
USG provides financial assistance to Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) that travel for club-based activities, which includes travel and lodging fees. USG’s former funding policies stated that any hotels within a 50-mile radius of the UConn Storrs campus will not be covered by USG funds. This year, the radius has been extended to a 75-mile radius. A $7,500 funding cap on all travel and lodging expenses was added as well, which is equal to half of an RSO’s $15,000 total funding cap.
The changes in funding policies were first presented to RSOs over the summer in a town hall meeting, where members of USG presented the proposed changes to RSO members. After all changes were decided on at the town hall, the USG Senate voted to approve them.
“We ran a report back in [the] spring, just kind of identifying some of the big funding categories that were taking up a large percentage of the Tier II funding budget,” USG Comptroller Billy Lipinski said. “What we found was that travel, coaching, those are two really big-ticket items that we fund.”
USG’s Office of the Comptroller is responsible for Tier II funding, as well as USG’s inventory and budget. Lipinski is in his first term as USG’s comptroller after his election in the spring and is a fifth-semester political science student.
“We want to make it a more equitable system and try to preserve that funding for everybody for as long as possible,” Lipinski said. “You know, there are clubs that don’t travel, but that do submit funding requests for things like equipment and whatnot. And it’s frustrating for those organizations when the bulk of funding goes toward travel and coaching.”
Lipinski also added that USG usually begins to run out of Tier II funding by January. The summer town hall acted as an opportunity for RSOs to give their opinion on various policies, and those who couldn’t make the meeting were able to send their thoughts to USG before the senate made their final decision.
“The 50 miles to 75 miles, the conversation that we had had, actually, was to go from 50 to 100,” Lipinski said. “At the funding town hall, we had students voice their concerns, and we lowered it to 75. So, that was one that I was really happy about. We got some really good feedback, some information.”
One of the groups that attended the funding town hall and voiced their concerns was the Mock Trial Society. The organization’s treasurer, Carson LaFemina, asked for the change in distance out of concern for his club’s operations.
“We’re an organization that tends to use close to the maximum amount that you’re allowed to request for,” LaFemina said. LaFemina is a seventh-semester student studying business management. “So, every dollar matters. Not being able to get funding for some of those crucial invitations we have in the spring […] it’s a big hit to our organization.”
The Mock Trial Society sends out each team to at least two invitationals per year, with trips to regional competitions. Last year, this included Boston, Connecticut College in New London, Conn., Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., and Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., according to LaFemina. All of these locations are within USG’s 75-mile funding block.
“We often have to fundraise and crowdfund, with things like GoFundMe,” LaFemina said. “We also have to do fundraisers a lot just to keep our organization able to continue attending events like these. So, when things move like this and we don’t get as much funding as we used to, it can be particularly difficult.”
LaFemina had known going into the fundraising town hall that USG was planning to propose a 100-mile radius for hotel funding, where he spoke with USG about lowering it.
“On the one hand, I am happy that Billy [Lipinski] and the rest of USG listened to our concerns and took that into account when they made it 75 instead of 100,” LaFemina said. “At the same time, you know, we’re getting less funding every year […] it is difficult for us. We do have to look into new ways to try to fund the things that we would like to do in this club, but I understand that, you know, USG has to work with the budget that we’re given.”
While discussing policy changes, Lipinski did note that, by extending the amount of time USG has access to their budget, RSO board members have more time to complete the SOLID trainings required to guarantee them funding. According to Lipinski, many veteran board members of RSOs will do their trainings and funding requests immediately, which leaves less money for newer board members of different organizations.
“Another policy that we had changed as well was kind of placing an internal cap on funding,” Lipinski said. “So, Tier II RSOs are eligible to fund up to $15,000 on a first-come, first-serve basis. We’ve placed an internal cap on that $15,000 to be $7,500 for any travel-related funding requests.”
Although RSOs were notified about the summer’s town hall meeting, they were not notified about the new funding policies when the year began, which are displayed on the USG website.