Update - 2/3: This afternoon, we received a generous donation that will allow us to run a full 2026 Spring Break Program, while maintaining historical trip fee costs. Once again, we appreciate the support, and hope that this program continues to thrive for future generations of students!

Update - 2/2: The College Council has heard our appeal Monday and updated our funding to $4376.05—an improvement but still a lot less than needed and less than prior years. We plan to run at least two of the trips, and are figuring out how to set trip fees to make everything possible. We really appreciate all the support.

Best,

OAC Board

Original Petition:

Nearly every year since at least 2015, the SGFC(Student Government Finance Committee) has given the UChicago Outdoor Adventure Program $10-$15k to run our spring break trip program, in recognition of the value of affordable outdoor trips to the university community, and especially to those who may not have had the opportunity to explore America's national parks. For the 40 or so students per year who we've been able to take on these (over 350 students in the program's existence), these have been life changing experiences, often a cornerstone of their time at UChicago. These trips have also been provided at incredibly good value; effectively 9 days of food, transportation and housing at a cost to the University of around $300 per student.

Unfortunately, it seems likely that the OAC will have to permanently discontinue or drastically scale back our spring break trips. We submitted our budgets for the trips 2 weeks ago, which is the timeline we have followed every year. This year, however, the SGFC pushed our hearing back by an additional week and revised their rules in the meantime to reduce travel funding from 50% to 20% and not fund gas anymore.  On Thursday, we heard the result of this: We are only receiving $2373.18 for the entire program, less than 20% of what we requested and much less than our funding for past years. There is no clear reason for this: the SGFC's total budget for RSOs is the same as it was last year. This program has incredibly good value compared to other budget needs; one day events with a similar number of people sometimes cost $10k between speakers, catering, etc. so the fact that we stretch it over 40 people for weeklong trips including food, lodging, and transportation should be recognized and supported; instead, we're seeing a drastic budget cut.

For you, as a member of the OAC community, this means three things:

- We may not be able to run Spring break trips at all. The entire purpose of this program is to be accessible to students on a budget who may not have the opportunity to travel to America's outdoor sites otherwise. This is impossible with the funding we have received. 
- Any trips that we do run would have significantly higher trip fees, around $400-$600/person. 
- We'll be left with less funding for Spring quarter events, like kayaking and weekend camping trips. We may have to cancel these as well.

However, there's still a chance. We are appealing this decision, and this appeal will be heard by the college council on Monday. Whether you've been on an OAC trip in the past, were hoping to go on a spring break trip this year, or are just passionate about the outdoors, we hope you'll sign our petition and help save this important part of the UChicago experience!