The University of Missouri is cutting off direct funding to five multicultural student organizations in an effort to comply with a demand from the Department of Justice.
But the student groups say that by reclassifying them as “registered student organizations,” or RSOs, the school is taking “calculated steps to push minority students further away from the Mizzou stratosphere.”
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The groups will have to apply for funds through the Organization Resource Group, which oversees funding for most of the university’s organizations.
Organizations respond
The five organizations affected are the Legion of Black Collegians, the Association of Latin American Students, the Asian American Association, the Queer Liberation Front and Four Front.
“This change is effectively a defunding of our organization,” the Latin American group wrote in an Instagram post Sunday.
“This news is disheartening, especially following the removal of the Department of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity last year,” the Asian American Association said in its own statement. “However, we will continue to support each other and keep our community thriving. We will continue to show up, speak out and build spaces where we belong.”
The Legion of Black Collegians said it was “hurt, frustrated, outraged, disheartened, and much more.”
“Attacks such as this diminish not only our legacy, but our continued ability to serve and uplift the students that the University neglects,” the group wrote on social media.
What the university is saying
The university has responded to backlash, saying the organizations are not being defunded. Rather, they will have to apply for a different stream of funds.
“These five groups will be classified as RSOs beginning in Fall 2026, which means they can apply for Organization Resource Group (ORG) funding on an equal basis with the vast majority of other student organizations,” Mizzou spokesperson Christopher Ave told the Columbia Missourian.
According to local Missouri TV station KOMU, the money now budgeted to go to these organizations will go to the ORG and be distributed among more than 600 organizations on campus.
When explaining why the change was made, the university said it determined it had to change the way it provided funds to the five organizations “to comply with federal requirements and avoid jeopardizing crucial funding.”
Ave said Mizzou had to make the changes sought by the Justice Department to “avoid jeopardizing crucial funding for student financial aid, research and other university programs.”
However, the Latin American student group said that while the university received a memo from the Justice Department, “a memo is not a federal law, thus this decision was at the hands of the University of Missouri and the University alone.”
