Dozens of Student Organizations Experienced Funding Delays From HUA in Fall

At least 20 percent of student organizations experienced delays in receiving funding from the Harvard Undergraduate Association last semester, prompting changes to the payout system ahead of the spring semester, according to HUA co-treasurer Daniel Zhao ’28.

Several club leaders said they waited weeks — and in some cases, months — to receive their allotted funds after the stated October disbursement date, often resulting in delayed programming for clubs and pushing students to front costs out of pocket.

Zhao acknowledged that the HUA has historically struggled to meet funding deadlines and said the Finance Team is currently working to standardize payout options in hopes of speeding up the process in the spring.

For the last several years, student organizations applying for funding have been able to choose from three payment avenues: Venmo, Zelle, or a wire transfer from the Harvard Federal Credit Union. But this spring, the HUA will eliminate the Venmo and Zelle payment options, with leaders citing repeated delays associated with those platforms.

“Throughout many of the administrations, there’s always been a funding delay for certain members of clubs,” Zhao said. “We noticed that the data shows that this is concentrated among people who usually use this Venmo, Zelle payment platform.”

Mia F. I. Lupica ’26, the president of the Harvard Forensic Speech team, said the club — which was set to receive $1,600 from the HUA in the fall — has still not received the funding.

“It’s been hard for our team not getting HUA funding because it’s a big source of support for us,” Lupica said.

“I always think HUA funds are a little bit delayed, so I wasn’t really expecting to get them by a certain day per se, but I would say usually they come at some point in the semester,” she added.

Several clubs that selected wire transfers as their payment option also saw delays in the fall. Two of those organizations are still awaiting funding from the Harvard FCU, according to Zhao.

Tanvir A. Haque ’28, co-president of the Bengali Association of Students at Harvard, said his club received the wire transfer around a month and a half after submitting the application.

“It was kind of hard, just because we didn’t have the funds in our bank account for a while,” Haquee said. “We would have to dig out of our own pocket to pay.”

“But it wasn’t as bad, just because we were given it at some point,” he added. “I know there were more delays on other organizations.”

Chase M. Bourbon ’27, co-president of the Harvard Psychedelics Club, said the group also received funding late through a wire transfer in the fall, though he expressed satisfaction with the HUA co-treasurers’ efforts.

“They corrected their mistake quite promptly, they were in communication with us,” Bourbon said. “I had a member of the HUA reach out to our club specifically to make sure everything had been taken care of. And at the end of the day, we paid all of the bills that we had set out to pay.”

Zhao said the HUA has been working to streamline funding through the Harvard FCU as clubs begin applying for funding this semester. Applications for spring semester funding opened on Jan. 29 and will close on Feb. 8.

“We had office hours like every day — basically 24/7 — for the entire winter break. The goal was to help people transition to a Harvard FCU banking account,” he said.

“Even though there’s still obviously going to be some technical difficulties involved with that, we think that the percentage of technical difficulties will substantially get reduced when people use this banking system,” he added.

But some club leaders remain skeptical that the changes will fully resolve the issue.

“I feel like the timeline is always a little bit unclear,” Lupica said. “I mean, maybe they might say online or something that you should expect to receive funds like this. This is not necessarily a new issue.”

—Staff writer Theresa F. Bartelme can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at theresabartelme.15. Follow her on X @theresabartelme.

—Staff writer Alma T. Barak can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at almabk.54. Follow her on X @almabk_.