Lil Muddy’s Fun Bunch, the only ceramics club at the USF Tampa campus, has been around since the 90s.

However, a turn of events at the end of the spring semester threatened the club’s existence.

Chuck McGee, the club’s advisor, announced in the semester’s final meeting that the club would no longer be allowed to use USF’s ceramics facilities due to a “space issue.”

The problem? The ceramics classroom at the Fine Arts Building became “overcrowded” with Lil Muddy’s members and studio art majors working simultaneously.

Kate Burns, the assistant director for the dean’s office at the College of the Arts, said the space will continue to function as a ceramics class space — but only for students enrolled in ceramics courses.

But the loss of its space has endangered the club’s future.

A Lil Muddy’s Instagram post from April 12 reads: “Unless we find another space to operate, we will no longer be an active organization.”

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Kailey Geu, Lil Muddy’s president, said she thinks the eviction was less of a “space issue” and more of a disconnect between the club’s members and studio art majors.

“For a long time, the club had just ceramic majors, and now there’s not a single ceramic student in the club,” Geu said.

Burns said that student enrollment in the School of Art & Art History has increased over the last six years. This means that more students need access to the ceramics facilities for class credits.

“We’ve got students who are pursuing a degree and having trouble because they’re overlapping with Lil Muddy’s members,” Burns said.

John Byrd, the head of the ceramics department, said he received complaints from studio art majors who said they couldn’t fit in the classroom to finish their school work.

Geu said that in spring 2023 Byrd advised the club to limit the number of people in the facility to 10 at a time so it wasn’t overcrowded.

The club’s solution was to split its meetings into morning and afternoon time slots. However, with 585 members on BullsConnect and around 30 regulars on top of signing up for the spots, it was hard for everyone to participate, Geu said.

“Many people didn’t get to join us with only 10 people being allowed in the room,” Geu said. “Some people never got a time slot because we used to post them, and they were all booked within a minute.”

Burns said the signups weren’t successful because some of the club’s members would return to the facilities when they needed to move to the next step in the pottery process, and it would get overcrowded.

Now, Lil Muddy’s is seeking out assistance to look for a new home.

In the last three weeks of this spring semester, the dean and assistant dean of the College of the Arts helped Lil Muddy’s members put together a survey, Geu said.

The survey was created to provide the club with data to present to the Student Government  (SG) and show the level of interest in the club, Burns said.

Geu said that if enough people participate in the survey and write about why the club is important to them, SG will be more likely to help Lil’ Muddy’s find a new space.

There isn’t a deadline or an exact number of people who need to participate in the survey for the club to get a new space since the results still have to be presented to SG, ​​Burns said.

Kalyn Webber, an officer in the ceramics club, emailed SG on April 13, saying that Lil Muddy’s would no longer exist without a space.

“I am pleading that you help us find a room since that is all we need to keep our club running,” Webber wrote in the email to SG. “Please don’t ignore the needs of USF students by letting this club perish.”

Geu said she met with the former Student Body Vice President Elizabeth Volmy at the end of the semester, who planned to go to Danielle McDonald, dean of students, and try to get the club a new room.

However, Geu said she is still waiting to hear back from Sumit Subhash Jadhav, the new student body vice president.

Jadhav told The Oracle that he was briefed about the situation by Volmy and received a slide deck from Geu. However, he said he did not want to make any “haphazard” statements to The Oracle.

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Burns said that any space for the club would need certain requirements, including a specific type of flooring to accommodate the clay and machines used in the ceramics work.

A space outside of USF might not be out of the question for Lil Muddy’s.

Mike Severy, the director of the Center For Leadership & Civic Engagement, said that Google and Yelp have several local pottery studios, and Lil Muddy’s might need to build a relationship with one of those businesses.

Severy also suggested another possible solution: the club could approach the art department and rent the ceramics space for a certain number of hours on weekends.

Byrd said because there has been a huge demand for crafts after the pandemic, it is important to find a new space for the club to operate this fall.

“Right now, more than ever, it is important to think about the mental health of our students,” Byrd said. “I know the club is important for them, and I hope we can get the university involved and get something done.”