Student Union passed a memorandum to fully endow the Opportunity Fund with $300,000 Feb. 15.

The Opportunity Fund provides low-income students with stipends to help them afford extracurricular activities. SU first launched the fund November 2017 as a pilot program for the 2017-2018 school year.

According to SU president senior Grace Egbo, a 2016 survey found that approximately 81 percent of respondents said they couldn’t participate in certain extracurricular activities because of financial barriers.

“As part of SU, we care about all aspects of student affairs across campus,” Egbo said. “Our goal is to advocate and allocate for all aspects of student affairs on campus so they are able to do that. There is a problem and so really the creation of the fund is help to realize the goal and move forward the mission to break that barrier.”

The Opportunity Fund is a partnership with Student Financial Services (SFS) and the Office for Student Success (OSS). Egbo says that she hopes the endowment will allow for the fund to keep growing. She says that ideally, the Opportunity Fund will fully cover a student’s financial needs for extracurriculars.

“The Office of Student Success will be really help[ful] with executing the fund,” Egbo said. “So they will ensure that the students are able to receive the fund and determine the amount per year, and solely increase the fund for each student. We want a long-term sustainable solution.”

Once a student is determined eligible, SFS will directly contact the students about how to access and use the fund. SU will inform students of the specific extracurricular activities that can be subsidized with the fund.

According to Assistant Provost for Student Success Anthony Tillman, more students have requested access to the Opportunity Fund in its second year due to expanded publicity through the SU network, an increase in the funds a student can request and a more streamlined application process.

“Last year, the maximum [request] level was $50.00. This year, that level was increased to $250.00. And the process to apply to the SU Opportunity Fund was centralized onto a central portal operated by the Office for Student Success,” Tillman wrote in a statement to Student Life. “This central portal makes it easier for students to find and apply for the SU Opportunity Fund.”

According to Tillman, the Office for Student Success is “honored to support the forward-thinking and student-facing SU Opportunity Fund.”

“We are pleased to play a small role in this wonderful initiative that began as a quiet whisper two years ago, has emerged as a loud roar supporting students in the Wash. U. community,” Tillman wrote.

Egbo said that she hopes the endowment will ensure that the Opportunity Fund is a sustainable resource for students.

“The goal of the funding is to empower students to achieve how they would like to define their extracurricular experiences and help them make that happen,” Egbo said.

Ther will be a formal celebration of the fund as part of SU Inauguration, March 19 from 6:30-8 p.m. The celebration will kick off the endowment for the fund and act as a forum for student feedback.