Change from AS to Athletic Department may give some club sports less money than last year

By Rachel Schwartz

Nine club sports that previously fell under the direction of Associated Students may not receive as much money this year because of their association with the Athletic Department.

Under new legislation that moved all club sports out of AS and into Athletics, in total, the teams will receive $20,000 each year.

At the club sport council meeting on Oct. 29, the council voted to reserve 79 percent of the budget, $15,800, for a national travel fund, which covers postseason tournament travel, leaving just $4,600 for teams during the regular season. While established teams like women's lacrosse or men's volleyball have good chances to make nationals and would benefit from the fund, smaller clubs that were formerly under AS may receive a significantly smaller amount of money.

The clubs which moved were ultimate Frisbee, disc golf, Shotokan Karate, triathalon and the sailing, paintball, equestrian, cycling and swim teams.

In order to remain a competitive team, the ultimate Frisbee team was forced to move to athletics, team president Alex Seber said. Last year, the team received $2,150 from AS, according to AS records. This year, they will receive only $250, unless the team makes play-offs in their league.

"Maybe it's the school's fault for not giving enough money to club sports, but I'm just frustrated that the money is gone," Seber said.

The move was a result of an AS task force, headed by a former AS senator Rudy Savio, '06, which was convened because of concerns from senators that sports teams were taking a significant amount of money allocated to all student clubs under AS and following a January proposal by some club teams to evaluate club sports' organization.

"We wanted to put the focus on things that weren't already offered," said Savio. "A lot of it had to do with resources and allocation of space and money."

Savio's task force presented their ideas to Jeanne Rosenberger, vice provost for student life, and Athletic Director Dan Coonan. The task force recommended that competitive sports be moved to athletics, a club sport council consisting of representatives from all club sports be formed, a full-time club sports director be hired to monitor the sports, and a $40,000 budget allocated to the teams. The budget would be divided into supplements for individual teams and for travel in post-season play.

Rosenberger and Coonan decided to move nine sports to the athletic department, joining men's and women's rugby, men's volleyball, men's and women's lacrosse and co-educational boxing, which were already under athletics, and create a club sport council. However, they only gave the club sports a budget of $20,000 to be shared among 15 teams and created a part-time club sports director position.

According to Erin Patchett, club sports coordinator, most of the budget is set aside because of the caliber of some club sports teams.

"We do have a lot of teams to consider the possibility of going to nationals, so that's why we set aside so much of our money for nationals, because that's usually the most expensive part of their season."

While a majority of the money is set aside for travel, Patchett said there are safeguards in place to ensure one club does not take a majority of the travel funds.

"We can't fund them fully and teams know they need to get money in other ways," Patchett said. "No team can request more than they fundraise."

Teams under club sports are divided into tiers, according to the type of games they play, the number of away games and their leagues. Tier A sports receive $500 a year, tier B receive $250 and tier C, teams which are "mostly recreational in nature," according to the task force recommendation, get $150.

Ultimate Frisbee was placed in tier B.

"Last year we got money from the school and it wasn't an issue, and this year it's a big drop off," Seber said. "I just don't like the way they allocate the money,"

Even more established teams, like men's volleyball, a tier A sport that made nationals last year, feel like they are receiving less money than they had in the past.

"The funding is definitely not there this year," Scott Clark said. "Their intention was great but it just didn't work out this year."

Still, others thought the allocation method would work out for all club sports teams.

"You get your way through the regular season, we'll help you out in the postseason," said Salman Shariat, president of the club sport council.

Contact Rachel Schwartz at (408) 554-4546 or rschwartz@scu.edu.