Student Assembly

11/03/2011
Presented by: Tom Hayford ‘12, Dan Goldberg ‘14

CLUB SPORTS TEAMS- SUMMARY OF CURRENT STATUS

Introduction Competitive club sports are a major part of student life at Cornell representing over 30 teams and over 900 student athletes. With such strong participation, it is clear what an important role club sports have in the Cornell community and how they enrich the lives of Cornell students. Furthermore, these teams represent Cornell on a daily basis. Funding and support from the university is critical to these teams’ success and performance.

Position within SAO Club sports teams are listed among the 832 other student organizations through the Student Activities Office. The SAO has a “Club Sports” category which includes 64 undergraduate student organizations. Of the 64 organizations listed, many do not partake in intercollegiate competition. The competitive sports teams have much greater financial/resource needs than do many of the other student organizations due to the constant need to travel, maintain practice schedules, pay officials, pay tournament fees, etc. Additionally, being indistinguishably grouped among the hundreds of other student organizations makes it difficult for the teams to gain exposure and garner support from the student body.

Finances Club sports teams have four main sources of funding:

• SAFC funding
• Dues
• Alumni Donations
• Fundraising Each team has very different financial needs that are a factor of the sport, league, team size, etc. All organizations listed within the SAO are allotted up to a certain amount of funding regardless of actual team needs, size, or other factors. Dues are used mostly to cover the costs not covered by the SAFC allotted amount. Dues average at around $200 per player per year but can be up to $1000 per player depending on the team and the needs of that particular season.

Some teams rely regularly on alumni donations to lower dues and to cover costs not funded by the SAFC. The process for getting alumni donations to the teams is not very well documented nor is the process by which teams can access that money. Fundraising is a final resource for club sports funding. It is also an under-utilized source, as made apparent by the lack of club sports fundraising events occurring on campus.

Resources Similar to finances, a team’s need of university resources is largely dependent on the individual factors associated with that sport. Teams can request the use of certain facilities for practice. These requests are subject to varsity, intramural, and physical education priority. Additionally, many facilities are deemed unusable by club sports regardless of availability. Due to the limited availability of university resources, many teams must look to non-university provided options. Use of outside facilities contributes enormously to the funding needs of many teams as the use of these facilities is very costly.

Fall 2011 funding cuts for club sports As it currently stands with the recent budget cuts, many club sports have been effectively rendered inoperable. Without immediate action, club sports as a whole will not be able to continue at Cornell. Funding decreased from $5,750 per semester to $2,700 (Fall 2010 to Fall 2011), a 53% decrease in funding.

CLUB SPORTS AD-HOC COMMITTEE The planned actions of the Club Sports Ad-hoc Committee will be in four main areas of focus:

• Team Finances and Funding
• Allocation of University Resources
• Fundraising and outreach
• Alumni Relations

The committee will meet weekly to evaluate the status of club teams and to determine problem areas. Members may be divided into subcommittees to work on one of the specific focus areas listed above. The most pressing matter facing the committee is the current financial situation for club sports this academic year. This committee plans to meet with the SAFC to see what changes, if any, can be made to the funding process before next semester. The committee will also be looking for alternative sources of funding for the teams in the interim (fundraising, grants, alumni donations, etc.).

The committee will work with teams to try and lower budgets, but doing so without sacrificing team performance, league participation, etc. For example, facility expenses (both on and off campus) tend to be a large component of team budgets. If these expenses could be minimized, a large financial burden would be lifted from the teams, therefore decreasing their overall budget needs.

One of the first actions of the committee will be to develop a “roadmap” for the next two semesters. The roadmap will outline, in detail, the problems to be addressed and the plan of action for addressing them. The goal of the committee is to plan and implement these changes in a way that will result the smooth transition to a permanent governing body for club sports.

NEW GOVERNING BODY FOR CLUB SPORTS Year to year, resources and funding for club sports have become increasingly restricted. There exists no centralized representation to protect the interest of club sports at Cornell. In order to protect the interests and continuing GROWTH (not just survival) of club sports on campus, the Club Sports Ad-hoc Committee will work to create a new governing body to represent competitive club sports at Cornell. This organization will serve to provide a voice for the numerous competitive club sports teams on campus. It will correspond with SAFC, Student Activities Office, Alumni Affairs, and the Athletics Department on behalf of the club sports teams.

The new governing body will work with these departments to help manage funding, alumni donations, outreach, and resource/funding allocation. Determining the specifics of how this new organization will operate and how it is to integrate with existing processes will be a central task for the ad-hoc committee. The ad-hoc committee will implement the framework for the club sports organization during the Spring 2012 semester with the goal to have it in full operation by Fall 2012.

CURRENT REPRESENTATION The creation of this ad-hoc committee is currently supported by the following club teams:

• Men’s Baseball
• Men’s Basketball
• Men’s Hockey
• Men’s Lacrosse
• Men’s Rugby
• Men’s Soccer- Arsenal
• Men’s Soccer- Mundial FC
• Men’s Ultimate-Buds
• Men’s Ultimate- the Shake
• Men’s Water Polo
• Men’s Volleyball
• Men’s Fencing
• Women’s Lacrosse
• Women’s Rugby
• Women’s Soccer
• Women’s Softball
• Women’s Ultimate- Thorny Roses
• Women’s Ultimate- Wildroses
• Women’s Club Volleyball
• Women’s Volleyball- Lady Bears
• Women’s Water Polo
• Women’s Hockey
• Women’s Basketball
• Synchronized Skating
• Field Hockey
• Figure Skating
• Kendo
• Roller Hockey
• Tennis
• Squash