Unlike varsity sports, which receive funding from the Department of Athletics, club teams are funded through Student Activities Funding Committee (SAFC), which must divide funds among over 100 student organizations.Men’s rugby and rowing are the only exceptions to this rule and are funded partially by the athletic department, the SAFC, and through other means.
The SAFC has $680,000 to divide each between the 110 College student organizations, including non-varsity sports such as the ultimate frisbee, volleyball, cycling, alpine skiing, men’s rugby, rowing, and equestrian teams. The SAFC meets every Monday, and is comprised of the treasurers of all four classes, two at-large members, and is chaired by the treasurer of the BSG.
While the hybrid teams like men’s rugby and rowing must submit budgets to the SAFC like other club teams, they have a coach hired by the College and have other expenses taken care of by the athletic department.
“We work together to make sure the programs are supported in the best way that they can,” said Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan.
The SAFC is the sole source of funds for all other club sports on campus.
“Our funding process, with about ten exceptions is that money is allocated on a rolling basis,” said Director of Student Activities Allen Delong. “So teams can come in wanting to buy new equipment, and if they make a cogent, compelling case to the SAFC, they get the money.”
Delong does not believe it is a necessity for club teams to fundraise in order to compete and function.
“This is not a place where students have to compete for money,” he said. “680,000 dollars is an incredible amount of money for 110 organizations, and they spend it in essentially eight months. So it is this really compressed amount of time. But you all [students] are not used to having those kinds of resources for your athletics or co-curricular endeavors, and it takes a little bit of time to condition you out of that.”
Delong feels students should be able to try new things without worrying about the financial burden. However, in some cases students are asked to chip such as for a dance instructor.
“We ask students to pay a percentage because we want them to be committed because it’s such a big ticket item,” he said.
Delong affirms that the process is “pretty easy;” however, different clubs have varying perspectives on the process because of their differing experiences and expenses. Captain Alex Fogarty ’13 of the Alpine Ski and Cycling teams agrees with Delong’s sentiment.
“You plan out your budget ahead of time, so it’s pretty rare to go over budget,” said Fogarty. “I think it’s a really good system, and for the ski team we’re not used to being funded so any money is a huge plus.”
Chair of the SAFC and captain of the cycling team Charlie Cubeta ’13 has seen the funding issue from both sides of the dilemma.
“Being on cycling for four years, I’ve never felt that our activities were compromised by a lack of funding,” he said.
Captain of the ultimate Frisbee team, Michael Ben-Zvi ’13 said that his team has for the most part received adequate funding. Its biggest sacrifice is that they occasionally are forced to send just one team to certain tournaments.
“We got to go to nationals last year and there was a bit of a struggle to get enough money since it’s obviously not factored into our budget and [it’s] an additional $15,000 at least because it’s in Wisconsin,” said Ben-Zvi.
Delong and the SAFC are more than willing to work with teams whose success causes greater expenses.
“We say to them, ‘Here’s the money; go have a great season and if you make nationals come back and talk to us and we’ll figure out how to fund that,’” said Delong.
Of all the club teams, the athletic department is most involved with men’s rugby.
“Our expanded relationship with the men’s rugby program developed out of a desire to provide athletic training services to the members of the team given the nature of the sport, ” said Ryan.
Rugby captain Hunter Rusack ’13 said he found working on funding with the SAFC challenging.
“It’s never easy,” he said. “The school gives us a fair amount of funding, they help pay for our coaches. We also ask them for about $5,000 to $6,000, to cover equipment, referee fees and additional insurance to the USA Rugby Association.”
However, the men’s rugby team also receives funding from alumni.
“Bowdoin Rugby Forever is an endowment for the rugby team,” said Rusack. “It has amassed tens of thousands of dollars in the last couple weeks. But it’s not just to use whenever we want, it’s to make sure the Bowdoin Rugby program isn’t going to lose funding.”
According to Rusack, the team wanted to attend a tournament last week that was not in the proposed budget and did not get funding from the SAFC. The alumni fund covered its cost.
Rusack appreciates the school funding but does not believe it is sufficient.
“The school helps, but it’s not enough to function comfortably...our alumni presence is the biggest thing for us,” said Rusack.
However, not all teams are lucky enough to have this second option if they want funding beyond what the SAFC has agreed to give them.
Club volleyball Captain Peter Yen ’13 has also had to deal with budget inconveniences, specifically the limit the SAFC put on housing per person on road trips.
“The SAFC gives $20 for housing per person per night, so we had trouble finding anywhere that was cheap enough,” said Yen. “Generally we’d stay at a motel and stack three or four people per room and share beds. It’s close quarters.”
“We realize they’re not staying in the Ritz,” said Cubeta.
Cubeta has seen the SAFC change over the last four years, noting how clubs can now get more money for food. To help initiate these changes, Cubeta does his best to welcome discussion.
“Unfortunately, sometimes we don’t get that much feedback since groups are scared to talk to us because they feel like if they complain we’re going to get mad at them,” said Cubeta.
The equestrian team has arguably had the most difficult time obtaining SAFC funding this year after an unexpected rise in membership. In the first semester, the SAFC and equestrian team worked out that the SAFC would cover vans and competition fees while members would pay for lessons. According to a member of the team, Kathryn Broderick ’16, this changed when the SAFC cut equestrian funding, arguing that no other sport was year-round.
“In the spring our budget was cut by $271, so that effectively ended our season on March 9,” said Broderick. “We don’t have the money for vans, so we haven’t been to the barn because of that.”
Broderick said she understands how the expensive nature of her sport may affect their ability to obtain funding.
“We try to be understanding because we’re expensive. Crew is probably more expensive, but that’s it for club sports,” said Broderick.
According to Broderick, five girls on the equestrian team had an even worse experience with housing than volleyball.
“We didn’t have enough money to pay for hotel rooms in our budget, so when we went to a show at UVM, the team got our poor coach a room at this awful motel,” said Broderick. “Two of my friends live at the same dorm at UVM so all five of us stayed on the floor and that became our hotel room.”
With the cost that each member pays at around $600, the equestrian team plans to start fundraising by selling concessions and doing ice creams sales in the fall.