A Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate resolution passed on April 10 calls on administrators in the School of Arts and Sciences to improve its financial oversight of the club sports program, citing a lack of transparency and misallocation of Student Activity Fee funds meant to go towards Tier I club sports.
The resolution, authored by TCU Treasurer Kate de Klerk, asks the university to fund a new athletics business manager position that would administer the finances of the university's club sports program, which is currently under the jurisdiction of several different athletics department staff members.
A lack of communication between the athletics department, the Senate and the administration has prevented financial transparency and led to a situation in which a sum of $10,000 that was supposed to be allocated for use by Tier I club sports was instead never used, according to de Klerk.
"It was essentially just sitting there," she said.
The Senate has since 2000 allocated a portion of the Student Activities Fee to the athletics department for distribution to club sports . The body currently contributes $53,000 toward club sports programs, according to de Klerk. The administration does not contribute any money to these programs.
Assistant Director of Athletics Branwen Smith−King said that miscommunication between the athletics staff and the Senate led her to reserve the money for Tier II club sports, which are not traditionally guaranteed Student Activities Fee funds or practice space, she said.
"I was told that [the $10,000] was supposed to be used for club sports as a whole, not just for Tier I, so I was setting it aside to be used for Tier II club sports to build awareness of their needs," she said.
In the interim, $10,000 of the annual $53,000 the Senate gives to the athletics department for distribution to club teams has built up, unspent, over the past two years, de Klerk said.
Misallocation −− or lack of allocation −− of funds is a symptom of larger problems of financial transparency, accountability and miscommunication within the department, which could be alleviated with additional oversight, de Klerk argued.
Tufts is the only university in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) without a single individual responsible for managing the finances of its Athletics Department, according to the resolution, which passed in the Senate on with a vote of 27−0 with one abstention.
In addition, the document also states that all other Tufts departments with comparable budgets to that of the athletics department have business managers.
Smith−King and de Klerk both said that the administration of club sports' finances and logistics is often given secondary priority among the athletics staff.
"They've been working really hard and seem to be doing on the whole a good job, but the problem is that the job is too big, and the resources they have don't allow them to function properly," de Klerk said. "[The School of Arts and Sciences] needs to meet us halfway and acknowledge that club sports is a very important part of Tufts athletics and the Tufts student experience."
A small step in increasing transparency came last semester with a new system within Athletics by which the department can track the funds allocated to each Tier I club sport with a separate account and I.D. number, de Klerk said. This allows students to access records of how the department uses its club sport funding.
"Until this year, there was no reliable way of tracking the funds we gave Athletics," de Klerk said.
Yet she stressed that additional oversight is still needed to administer the program and give support to the more than 620 students who participate in club sports.
"When there is a lack of communication and misallocation of funds, people end up having to pay more out of pocket," de Klerk said. "Teams are limited in terms of the kind of equipment they can have. Students get in trouble because they don't know the rules, and they don't take advantage of resources because they aren't communicated to them."
Alex Cooper, a captain of Tufts men's ultimate Frisbee team, said that while he thought the allocation process was fair, additional funding requests can take a long time to get approved. He said it took the athletics department three weeks to approve a request to enter a Frisbee tournament.
"Discrepancies happen. ... Unfortunately, the administration is very bureaucratic; it's completely understandable, but it's frustrating when the money is needed for certain things, and we don't get access to it," he said.
Tufts' club sports program began adding Tier II club sports while most NESCAC schools were cutting such programs, adding to the burden placed on the athletics department staff, according to Smith−King. Last year, she said, three new sports were added.
"We've been adding programs without adding staff, but we do it in the spirit of being a team player. We want to help the students," Smith−King said.
She supported the idea of increasing administrative support of club sports.
"Additional oversight needs to accompany additional programs," Smith−King said. "It just makes sense. ... Extra help would make a difference in our office."
De Klerk said it is the administration's responsibility to ensure that its athletics programs function properly. It has taken a major step toward this in breaking ground on the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, but should not continue to let club sports fall to the wayside, she said.
"It's not appropriate for the Student Activities Fee to pay for someone's salary. [Arts and Sciences] has the responsibility to step up," de Klerk said. "With the new gym, the administration is showing that athletics is important, but if they don't take care of this element of athletics, my fear is that most of the resources aren't going to be used optimally."
De Klerk believed that additional administrative help would allow club sports athletes and athletics department staff to work together more effectively in the future.
"We're all trying to accomplish the same thing −− to run a smooth program that benefits students. It's just hard when wires get crossed."
