One of the largest questions that the Undergraduate Student Government receives is how is the Student Activity Fee fairly used to represent students with Registered Student Organizations?
We believe that transparency is one of the most important items to strive for, and we've created ways to track the usage of the Student Activity Fee that you can find and return to on this page!
There are many things that we feel important to publicize about the Student Activity Fee for your information. Please keep in mind that all information on this page focuses on the ~50% of Student Activity Fee money going to Registered Student Organizations, and does not feature information about the Special Budgetary Groups or Tech Initiatives mentioned elsewhere.
#1
Registered Student Organization Aggregate Budget Use
Spending throughout a fiscal year is important to understand how organizations are spending their budget overall. In addition, it can help note how much money will be going into the Reserve Fund at the end of a fiscal year (as Registered Student Organizations do not have a rollover in their budget).
In addition, it helps give the Undergraduate Student Government the ability to review overall spending and determine whether or not a Student Activity Fee increase is warranted (which must be reviewed and passed by the Board of Trustees)
#2
Opportunity Fund Request Tracker for the Fiscal Year
As part of the Undergraduate Student Government Bylaws, each Registered Student Organization receives one Opportunity Fund request per fiscal year. An Opportunity Fund request may be used for new opportunities not already on an organization's budget, or to cover an unexpected increase in cost.
Tracking this information allows the public to see who is using the requests and a potential reason for why an organization might receive an increase in a future year (as their event / opportunity may garner a lot of support from an untapped source on campus).
In addition, this allows undergraduate students to have a check on the Opportunity Fund requests submitted, and to participate during public comment at our meetings if they have a concern.
#3
Reserve Fund Request Tracker for the Fiscal Year
Similar to the Opportunity Fund, each organization gets one Reserve Fund Request per fiscal year. The Reserve Fund may be used for equipment replacement, any form of safety equipment, campus initiatives, or building improvement projects as deemed important for the Student Assembly.
Since the Reserve Fund is much larger and much more broadly applicable to campus, we feel it's very important to show the projects and equipment being charged to it. In addition, this allows all students to observe more closely what's going on around campus.
We do want to note that even though the Reserve Fund is higher, that does not mean that it should all be spent at once! We keep this number slightly higher in case of emergency, and we are working responsibly to find good uses for it (outside of RSO requests).
Please view the report below for the most up-to-date information. In order to ensure accuracy of information, the Undergraduate Student Government Treasurer reviews all numbers before publicizing them, so numbers for a given month may be delayed for a week or two before being posted.
Official Tracking will begin on August 25th, 2025 for the 2025-2026 Fiscal Year!
If you have any issues viewing the data or any questions, please contact usg-treasurer@mtu.edu!
usg@mtu.edu
(906) 487-2406
The Undergraduate Student Government is a Special Budgetary Group of Michigan Technological University. The Undergraduate Student Government's website is hosted on Michigan Tech property, and any and all logos that contain the Michigan Tech brand are owned by the university itself.
