University Union reassures SU students on 2025-26 lineup
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The student-led organization promises dedication to the student body in the wake of the recent funding cut announcement.
Even after university-wide budget cuts have made it harder for student organizations to hold events, the fan-favorite University Union is confident that it will be able to bring students content they’ll enjoy.
In a recent post made to Instagram, UU announced that the 2025-2026 school year’s list of events, including campus-wide movie nights, comedy shows and concerts, will look a little different because of significant cuts made to their annual funding.
“What can we do with the budget we still have to make it a worthwhile event? We’re kinda just taking each event by each semester right now,” said Kate McKenna, UU President.
UU was notified of the spending cuts to the 2025 fall semester in May. This comes just one semester after Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) were notified via email of significant funding cuts in February 2025 by the Syracuse University Student Association (SA).
The SA stated the 2025-2026 school year RSOs will be allocated funds on a “first-come, first-served” new fiscal policy.
UU board members told The Newshouse that they couldn’t give an exact number for how much the budget was slashed, but said it was a pretty significant decrease from the prior year.
Mckenna wanted to reassure students that even with a decrease in funding, the student-led organization hoped not to cut any annual UU-sponsored events.
“As of right now, we’re looking to have the same amount of programming,” McKenna said. “So we’re gonna continue to have comedy shows, cinema screenings, Block Party in the spring, all of those things are still happening.
“It’s just more of different scales, maybe looking at different venue spaces and the amount of money we can spend on talent.”
Arts and Sciences sophomore Lucy Flemer’s first UU concert experience was the 2024 Block Party, with headliners Latto and Role Model.
“Role Model at that time was really on the rise and gaining a lot of popularity,” Flemer said. “So I was very impressed to see that they were able to get not only Latto but Role Model too.”
Flemer noted that while it was sad to hear about the funding cut, she still plans on attending this fall semester’s Juice Jam concert, taking place on the Quad.
UU issued the funding cut statement on Sept. 3. Just two days later, UU announced its Juice Jam lineup, the annual back-to-school concert, with headliners Ashe and Jordan Ward. Previous headliners of Juice Jam include Playboi Carti, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, and Flo Rida.
“It was important to us that we announce how the budget would be affecting this year before announcing any of our events for the year,” McKenna said.
“We are trying to be transparent with everything we are saying,” added Lachlan Sartison, UU Co-Public Relations Director. “Since we are a student organization, we really felt the need to be transparent at this point.”
Telvision, Radio and Film senior Erin Flack has attended UU events since she was a freshman, going to the 2022 Juice Jam concert with headliners Yung Gravy and Doechii.
“I remember thinking freshman year it was so crazy to see the people performing that I’d never thought I would get to see,” said Flack. “I think people at UU are very tapped into what students at Syracuse like to see, which is something super special about UU.”
Despite what may look like a slightly different year of sponsored events for students to attend, UU promised to keep each student’s best interests at heart and come out stronger from the adversity faced.
“I think if students see we are working just as hard, if not harder, it will provide that clarity for them,” said Charlotte Wall, Co-Relations Director. “They will understand that while things might look a little different, we’re just as dedicated.”
