Indiana University Student Government had an annual budget of $271,059.19 for the 2024-25 academic year according to Leo Cavinder, the recorder for Congress, falling toward the bottom of available funds compared to the rest of the Big Ten. IUSG’s largest expenditure is discretionary funds.
IUSG provides funding to iniatives including the Crimson Cupboard, the student laptop loaner program and an emergency contraceptive program. They also split $32k a year across IU’s cultural centers.
Every year, universities allocate thousands of dollars to student government budgets across the Big Ten, but some student-body elected officials have more funds to control than others. The Indiana Daily Student attempted to source the most recent budgets, but many have not been made public.
UCLA has the highest student government budget in the Big Ten, followed by USC, a private school. IUSG has the third-lowest annual budget, followed by Penn State’s student government and Purdue Student Government.
A significant number of Big Ten student governments determine the distribution of student activity fees, and some provide funding to student legal services, campus recreational facilities and other services. At IU, the funding for these services is administered by the Office of Student Life, which makes decisions based on recommendations from the student-led Committee for Fee Review. The provost then has the ultimate say in distributing funds.
Additionally, club support at IU is traditionally allocated by the IU Funding Board, which is a student-run organization separate from IUSG. The board receives funds from student activity fees, but its financial accounts are managed by the university.
There are differences between how each student government determines its budget, as some list the entirety of student fees as the annual budget, while others only consider operating budgets to be a part of the student government budget.
UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association has the largest student government budget in the Big Ten based on available data, with an annual budget of $10,596,556 for the 2024-25 academic year. The largest expenditures are student services, including campus retention committee fees, which funds the campus student retention center, in addition to operational budget expenditures.
Penn State’s University Park Undergraduate Association budget for the 2024-25 academic year was $150,798.83, the second lowest in the Big Ten. The largest expenditure is attributed to assembly discretionary funds.
Purdue Student Government’s budget for the 2025-26 academic year is $110,529, the lowest in the Big Ten based on available records. The largest expenditures are the cabinet and board of directors' budgets, but they do not specify additional details.
One of the two private universities in the conference, USC’s Undergraduate Student Government, had an annual budget of $2,525,100 for fiscal year 2025. The concerts committee and student stipends were the largest expenditures.
The IDS was unable to source public records of the student government budgets for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; University of Maryland, College Park; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Northwestern University; and the University of Oregon.
