On February 18, 2026, Office of Student Life (OSL) director Patrick Fina sent out an email to all student organization leaders regarding the behavior of some leaders following the spring 2026 budget release.
“It has come to our attention that multiple members of the Finance Board (FB) and OSL staff have reported incidents of intimidation, bullying, and/or harassment by student organization members who disagree with the allocation decisions,” says Fina.
Behaviors listed were as follows: “repeatedly spamming an individual’s personal social media account(s), following them around campus to “demand” answers, and/or attempting to remove someone from an event to intimidate them into changing the budget allocation”.
This is not the first time that this has happened, but this is the first time in a while that organizations are outraged regarding their budget approvals and rejections. Multiple student leaders have mentioned events or conferences not being funded, many of which also saying that no comments were provided as to why they were rejected. For many more experienced organization members, it would have been a good idea to reach out directly to their Finance Board advisor, as they are assigned to each organization to be a representative and vouch for our budgets. Instead, less experienced leaders chose to harass FB and OSL staff, something that breaks many school codes of conduct.
Acting immaturely is NOT the way to get things done in a professional setting (yes, you should look at your organizations as professional settings, as you are representing people other than yourself). Instead, you should use your resources that are provided to you by OSL and FB to figure out what you may need to do.
In the case of this semester, it was stated both prior to budgets being released and in the email that Fina sent out that more money was requested by organizations than what was allocated, meaning not everyone can get approved in full. However, I personally do believe that funds shouldn’t have been cut for events and instead cut for individualized items, as events are one of the only ways to bring in outside people. It’s understandable that some organizations are upset about this, especially the professional organizations that rely on conferences for professional connections. However, it’s unreasonable to assume that your organization is more important than any other organization on campus.
Allocating money to over 100 organizations is a tough job, mostly done by volunteers. Treating these volunteers with disrespect is the fastest way to get people to stop volunteering, thus dragging the process on longer for everyone. Most importantly, DO NOT talk down to or poorly about those who are PAID to do this work. Yes, it’s in their job description to help you in any way they can, but building a bad rapport with the people who are meant to help you isn’t doing you any favors. The number of times I’ve heard people say negative things about people they know nothing about (nor how their job or process works) is genuinely frustrating to me. Getting to know someone or, at the very least, being kind and respectful towards those you don’t understand or agree with is the bare minimum for adult life. It’s better that you learn that now than in a few years when you graduate.
If you or anyone else you know is complaining or harassing anyone regarding the Finance Board, Student Government Association, or Office of Student Life, I implore you to sign up or volunteer for a semester to understand how truly hard their jobs are.