Congress of the South 40 passed legislation for an Opportunity Fund that allows students to request money to attend CS40-sponsored events. The fund comes following inspiration from a similar Student Union effort to make participating in activities more feasible from students from low-income backgrounds.

CS40 does not charge more than $15 for any event, but the group’s executives realized that further steps could be taken to ensure that students could afford the cost of attending events. Through a new confidential online form, any student can obtain funding to go to paid events.

In addition to increasing students’ abilities to go to events regardless of financial status, CS40 hopes there will be an increase in the discussion of socioeconomic diversity on campus because of the Opportunity Fund.

CS40 has been fulfilling requests for compensation the whole year, but the burden was always put on the students requesting funds, according to Valronica Scales, CS40 advisor and associate director of Residential Life.

“In the past, you had to ask if CS40 could cover it, and while the answer was always yes, this [online form] is a way of making it across the board so students know where to go,” Scales said.

Students also may have been uncomfortable reaching out, either over email or at a table in Bear’s Den, according to Director of Finance and sophomore Daniel Grossman, but he said that problem is solved with the Opportunity Fund.

“We decided to set aside a chunk of money for an opportunity fund and then have an actual process with an application that only our advisers would be able to see, so that it would be more private, confidential and accessible,” Grossman said.

Sophomore Kyle Jeter, the Speaker of CS40, said he, along with the rest of the organization, has been trying to implement the Opportunity Fund for most of the year, conducting research of peer institutions over winter break and working on writing legislation and finding money from the budget this semester.

Most of CS40’s paid events have happened already so the $1,000 budget taken from CS40’s discretionary fund—which has a total of $5,000 for the exec board to draw from whenever it feels it’s necessary—should be enough for the rest of this year and part of next year, Jeter said.

“One of the biggest events I see this Opportunity Fund being utilized for is our formal in the fall,” he said. “That has been a consistent issue for several students, and I really feel like it’s our responsibility to respond to that need so it’s available for everyone.”

“We have our budget assembly at the end of April, where we’ll go over how [the Opportunity Fund] was utilized so we can decide how much we need to make this a successful program,” Scales said.

While this is the first legislation CS40 has passed to increase the discussion about socioeconomic diversity, the body has been working on educating students on the matter in other ways, Grossman pointed out.

“We’re currently partnering with [service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega], and we did this last semester too, to do a diversity and inclusion roundtable event where we talk about different kinds of diversity on campus,” Grossman said.

Jeter, who ran on a platform centered around increasing the students’ and school’s tolerance and knowledge of socioeconomic diversity, thinks he’s been doing a good job working toward these ends.

“It’s not feasible for me to get a position and say, ‘I’m going to fix socioeconomic diversity,’” Jeter said. “It’s not realistic, so instead, we can educate students. This Opportunity Fund is one step to fix the problem.”

CS40 advisor Roo Hiremath noted that the governing body, made up solely of students, was able to successfully create an agenda and work toward specific goals.

“It’s a really great initiative that they came up with and took the full lead on,” Hiremath said. “It’s a wonderful example of students advocating for other students.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the Congress of the South 40 was inspired by Student Union’s Opportunity Fund, but did not work together to establish it.