Club funding drops 75 percent

By Chris O'Connell

At 3 p.m., instead of enjoying the afternoon sun, senior Bill Blackburn sits in front of his computer briskly typing the constitution for a proposed student organization.

His improvisational theater club, The Dumb Dumb Club, will be one of many proposed clubs considered this week by the campus Senate Student Affairs Committee (SAC).

He is not the only one.

Dean of Student Life and Leadership Jeanne Rosenberger said 53 clubs were registered in 2001, 68 in 2002 and 94 clubs at the end of the spring quarter last year. Such increases in campus clubs caused a budget shortfall.

Rosenberger said because so many new clubs are forming, there is less money to allot to each club.

"With this significant increase in the number of clubs," said Associate Director for the Center for Student Leadership Raquel Hackley, "We wondered how to strategically organize a budget with an optimal use of money; but we realized that many clubs didn't use all of their allotted funds."

Instead of allotting more capital to compensate for the rise in sponsored clubs, Santa Clara and SAC revaluated the budget for student organizations. This fall they decided to cut club allotment to individual clubs, previously set at $200, to $50 per quarter and to put the rest of the money in a large pot for discretionary funds.

Hackley said the new budget plan is designed to prevent frozen assets within individual clubs, which will make money more accessible to clubs that need it. If a club runs out of money or needs funding for a special event, they can petition for discretionary funding through SAC. Petitions under $200 which meet the university's mission, the club's mission and serve the student body are reviewed by the SAC. Petitions over $200 are presented to the Student Senate.

The student activity fees allotted to clubs comes directly from student tuition, thus it is the responsibility of SAC and the Student Senate's to ensure that each petition serves the interests of the student body.

"The new funding plan leaves us with nearly $40,000 to give in discretionary funding," said Associated Students of Santa Clara University (ASSCU) President Taylor McClure. "It is a good way to free up money and deal with shortages in university funding."

Though some believe the new funding plan will be good for registered student organizations, many leaders of larger the student organizations, such as the Ultimate Frisbee Club and the Ruff Riders, say they find the new budget plan troubling.

"It's pretty discouraging, especially considering that during the club fair we had the second biggest turnout of people interested in our clubâ€"approximately 152 signaturesâ€"second only to SCCAP," said Paul Kieffer, the co-chair of the Ultimate Frisbee Club. "I think we will make most of our money this year fund raising, which shouldn't be much of a problem since we've got a good group of dedicated players."

Brett Waller, the co-president of Ruff Riders said the discretionary funding makes operating the organization more difficult.

"We see the cut in the funding as pretty detrimental to all clubs on campus because it causes us to apply for and use more of the discretionary funding to pay for trips to watch games off campus," Waller said. "Fifty dollars is really nothing for a club the size of Ruff Riders. Because we have so many members, anything we do is done on a much larger scale than any of the smaller clubs."

With an increase in clubs and an expected increase in petitions for discretionary funds, Waller said he fears the Ruff Riders and other clubs will suffer and need to find more creative ways of finding money, such as fund raising.

Chartered Student Organizations (CSO's) on the other hand, experienced little to no budget cut back this year. There are eight CSO's, including Santa Clara's most popular student organization, the Santa Clara Community Action Program (SCCAP).

"The school nearly matched our proposed budget for the 2003-2004 school year," said Blair Thedinger, a SCCAP officer. Thedinger said he believes the disbandment of the Inter-Greek Council two years ago freed up funds for the eight remaining CSO's.

SCCAP's popularity requires more financial responsibility, often including liability insurance for many of the service projects and social justice events off campus.

By the end of this week, the SAC is expected to announce a list of this year's RSO's. It is expected that nearly 95 clubs will be approved and will share the $56,000 budget.