Club sports grapple with budget issues

This past weekend, the women's Ultimate Frisbee team squeezed into two vehicles belonging to team members and traveled to Delaware for a weekend tournament.

Unlike the Ultimate team, the rugby team does not even have the option of using its own vehicles, as NESCAC rules for rugby demand that vans must be rented for away games. As a result, the team competes in only three away games a season.

These transportation issues highlight a larger problem facing club sports at Tufts, a general lack of funding.

"The budget is just adequate enough to cover the season, but we always have a tough time making ends meet," rugby coach Kara Yimoyines said. "And we never have enough money to participate in tournaments or special events."

For all student activity groups on campus, including club sports, the source of funding comes from the student activities fee -- a set dollar amount each year that all Tufts undergraduates must pay. This year, the fee was $216, giving the TCU treasury board approximately one million dollars to allocate to the 145 TCU-recognized organizations, including club sports. Meanwhile, varsity-recognized sports enjoy a separate allocation of funds from the university budget.

A club sport holds a unique position as a marriage of two types of groups. A varsity team is required to have a coach and a captain, while a TCU organization is required to have officers designated to perform different duties. A club sport is required to have both.

The men's club volleyball team was unable to hire a coach due to financial constraints, so senior Dan Coleman currently holds the positions of captain, coach, and president for the team.

"We need money, because we need a coach," sophomore teammate Angel Nieves-Negron said. "[Coleman] does everything."

Coleman described a vicious cycle: the team needs increased funding to increase numbers and success, but larger numbers are needed if the team is to see an increase in funds.

"The bottom line is that we need funding and recognition from the school. Without funding, we can't grow," Coleman said.

The athletics department, specifically Nancy Bigelow, the director of club sports, determines if a club sport will be recognized and allocates funding. However, the athletics department does not provide those funds.

Instead, senate bylaw number 21 states, "money shall be allocated at the beginning of the fiscal year directly from the student activities fee to the athletics department for the sole purpose of funding for club sports."

Executive Administrative Dean Wayne Bouchard saw to this arrangement after he was approached a couple of years ago by the TCU treasury and several members of club teams with a request for University money, to increase funding.

"We gave serious consideration to the proposal, as we do with any reasonable request," Bouchard said. "It was well thought out and, based on the numbers participating and their increasing popularity, an increase was warranted."

The University was unable to directly provide funding, but a compromise was reached: to take two dollars per student from the $216 each student contributes to the student activities fund and transfer it to the athletic department to use for club sports. This was done for two years. This year, four dollars from each fee was allocated to club sports.

Bouchard has not received any complaints about the system, but still feels that the agreement will be revisited in the next five to ten years. Senate Treasurer senior Josh Belkin appropriated $19, 235 to club sports this year, a fixed figure under the current system.

After receiving that amount, Bigelow distributes 30 percent equally among the clubs as a flat rate, 60 percent based on the number of participants in each sport, and 10 percent is left over to distribute based on each sport's budgetary needs.

This system is favorable for a team that attracts a large number of players every year, like men's ultimate frisbee.

"We have a large number of people on our team," senior co-captain Andy Valen said. "That number is always increasing. We get more money each year because of that."

This system however, does not leave much money for expensive sports, such as skiing. The ski team spends $45,000 annually on a week-long training camp, ski race training during the season, race registration, transportation, accommodation, food, and ski passes. Only $3,000, less than ten percent of the team's expenses, is covered by the school.

The team raises about $7,000 to $10,000 a year, but the gap still exists, and the roster usually dwindles from about 60 to 70 students at the start of year to about 45 because of expenses.

"We sell t-shirts every year," junior Erin Johnson said. "We write to companies for donations, sell hats and clothes for them, we do raffles."

"There are a lot of things that I feel the University could deal with much better in terms of club sports in general," coach Rob McCune said. "However, my view is that [skiing] is a recreational club sport just like [any other] would be. The funding just doesn't seem exactly well laid-out to me."

According to Bigelow, however, calling a club sport recreational is misleading, because competitions are formally organized, and the team has to register with a national organization. Hence, a recreational group such as Tufts Snowboard can be considered a TCU recognized activity, while the ski team shares its funds with the other club sports.

"It would be great to have more money, but we don't," Bigelow said. "I have to keep things as equitable as possible. My primary concern is that each team gets enough money so they can at least compete."

And though it may mean piling into cars for road trips and existing solely on a diet of PB&J at weekend competitions, clubs sports find ways to compete. The women's rugby team shares uniforms between players. The Ultimate Frisbee team just returned from a tournament in Baton Rouge, LA that was paid for through fundraising and by team members. And two years ago, when the same team earned the right to go to Nationals, they were able to have their trip funded by the university through buffer funding.

"The University has always been generous when we have asked for money," said Matt Abbrecht, senior co-captain and treasurer of the Ultimate team. "There just isn't a lot of money to go around."

Jesse Gerner and Stephen Johansen both contributed to this article.