Presiding Officers of the General Assembly during a Undergraduate Student Government meeting on Nov. 19. Credit: Daniel Bush | Campus Photo Editor
The Undergraduate Student Government General Assembly passed the spring 2026 budget in a virtual meeting Wednesday.
The budget, totaling around $240,000, which helps funds student groups and activities, was first heard and passed by the allocations committee on Sunday, led by Senator Christopher Cade, a third-year in public policy analysis and political science, before coming to the assembly and being proposed by Chief Financial Operator, Rohan Patel.
President Jessica Asante-Tutu, a fourth-year in psychology, recognized the work of Patel and his team amid the looming exams.
“A lot of people put a lot of hard work into this,” Asante-Tutu said. “Please take this with patience as well as mercy. It’s finals season, we all want to make sure that we’re also doing the work we came here to do in a relatively nice time.”
Patel outlined the budget to the senators and general public, describing how allocations to each activity was made, and how the finance team has continued allocating for previous events.
“The spring 2026 budget reflects a strategic allocation of funds toward long standing, high-impact initiatives, while acknowledging the unique operational constraints of this period, all events and items included are scheduled to occur by April 28, 2026,” Patel said.
The budget is made up of 68-line items, with the largest costs of the budget coming from six main items, making up over 50 percent of the budget.
Those costs include the Buckeye Road Trip, Student Organization Allocations, Clean Up Columbus, the Leadership and Civic Engagement Summit, the African American Heritage Fest and the Buckeye 5k. These six items total over $124,000, according to the budget.
Student Affairs remains to be almost 30 percent of the budget, totaling at $66,800 that funds on-campus events across Ohio State, aiming to target affordability, accountability, accessibility and advance-ability. The Undergraduate Black Caucus has a total allotted amount of around $42,000, according to the budget document.
Student organization, group and club allocations are the third highest cost budgeted for this upcoming spring, with a base of $40,000, and an additional $5,000 from an amendment proposed by Cade and passed by the assembly.
When the budget was finalized, Speaker Terrell McCann, a third-year in business administration, among other senators in the Zoom chat, congratulated the finance team on their hard work and the swift passage of the budget.
