Many of the Student Association's club sports are struggling to acquire the necessary funding to keep their teams afloat and competitive -- a trend that, according to the sports clubs, has reared its ugly head each year.
Unlike varsity sports, which are funded by the Division of Athletics, club sports rely entirely on the money allocated to them by SA. The amount of each team's allocation is determined by the number of SA requirements met, like participating in SA events and community service.
Many club sports members say that with all the requirements to meet on top of the games they must play, the current system that determines funding is unfair and needs to be reconsidered.
"When it comes to budget time, club sports in general get shafted when compared to the other SA organizations," said ski team president Gregory Rhoads, a junior business major. "They really don't feel that club sports are a priority. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like a real sports program in comparison to other schools."
The SA organization created to deal directly with the allocation of funds is the Sports Council. The head of the SA Sports Clubs Council, Jessica Dangler, declined to comment.
But according to SA Senate chairwoman Cheryl Rozario, the club sports' discontent over their budgets is news to her.
"I didn't realize they felt like this," she said. "And if they do feel this way then they need to speak to their coordinators."
Rozario said that she would be more than willing to hear the club sports in the Senate, but to her knowledge, no club sports have submitted new budget proposals.
"If the clubs aren't putting in proposals to their coordinators then there's nothing I can do for them," she said.
Many club sports presidents said they keep in close contact with coordinators and the SA Sports Council, but the result has not been any more money than the little they already receive.
Rhoads said, though, that the clubs are grateful for what SA does for them.
"SA helps us out a lot," said Rhoads. "We get the use of the vans, free advertisement - and those are things we wouldn't want to lose. But still it would be nice to get a little more support, especially financially. Every single meeting, every single practice, you're wondering where the money is going to come from. We have just enough money to finish our season."
Like the ski team, the women's rugby team also was not given additional funds.
"This season we actually went before them and we got denied any funds," said women's rugby President Laura London, a junior media study and history double major. "I think the Sports Council in general is short changed. When we go before SA we don't always get appreciated."
Even though London's team was able to do enough fundraising this season to continue functioning as it has in seasons past, she said she always worries about where the team will find its next few dollars.
"I definitely believe that they don't give us enough credit," she said of SA. "Its hard to balance everything, and I don't think they really realize that when it comes down to deciding between going out to fundraise and giving your team a good rest so you can go out and win the next day -- you don't want to have to choose between the two."
Rhoads had a similar opinion.
"We have busy schedules," he said. "In the middle of the season, we're skiing five days of the week and traveling for more. It's hard to really plan for anything else."
Unlike academic and cultural clubs, club sports must work around their game schedules to meet SA requirements. Furthermore, according to women's ice hockey president Ashley Heyd, other clubs are able to raise money through their events and competitions. Club sports' events are their games, from which there are no financial gains, yet they are still considered no different from other clubs by SA.
"I think that a lot of the time, because of the varsity sports at the school, they overlook club sports, and so they give the money to academic or cultural clubs instead," said Heyd, a sophomore business major whose team has had to cancel games this year due to a lack of funds.
Heyd added a club sport like hers is at a further disadvantage when it comes to fundraising because it has fewer members than many of the cultural or academic clubs.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
