When club sports are cleared to return to SUNY Oswego, they will do so with slightly less funding than before. On March 23, the SUNY Oswego Student Association passed a bill limiting the funding for the Club Sports Budget Committee to $110,000 in total.

RES 56.07 states that SA will give the entire sum to the Club Sports Budget Committee, allowing them to distribute it across all club sports on campus. SA stated that they wish to provide them with one set financial sum, a change from previous years.

 “Last year, the Student Association constantly changed the lump amount of money given to the Club Sports Budget Committee, so they had to constantly change the amounts given to the Club Sports,” the bill stated. “To make the jobs of those in the Club Sports Budget Committee easier, the Senate should give them an accurate and definitive number for them to work with.”

According to Director of Campus Life Daniel Roberts, the decision to allow the Club Sports Budget Committee to distribute the money themselves also had to do with Title IX.

“Up until three years ago, club sports were funded like any other SA organization,” Roberts said during the meeting. “SA had uncovered some very broad funding discrepancies, particularly between men’s and women’s club sports, that exposed the Student Association to some pretty significant Title IX violations.”

These included violations in terms of equity and opportunities, as well as funding. According to Roberts, this led to the decision to develop a “three-year transition”. In the transition plan, SA worked with Campus Life in order to ensure a funding process that kept the Association compliant with Title IX.

“The goal at the end of that three-year time period was that SA would move the governance, allocation and disbursement of club sports funding over to the oversight of Campus Life completely,” Roberts said.

Roberts also mentioned that in the past, the Senate had been skeptical about turning over such a large portion of their finances, but called RES 56.07 “a good start.”

Roberts said he is hopeful that the bill will lead to future discussions in regards to the distribution of club sports funding, and whether Campus Life should eventually take over that aspect of SA’s finances.

The $110,000 figure was recommended by the Association’s Director of Finance, Trentin Carentz. This includes a $20,000 “championship fund,” which was established in fall of 2019. The championship fund, as its name suggests, is essentially extra money that can be given to club teams that ascend to the championship level of their respective seasons.

This leaves a working budget for club sports at $90,000, according to SA Vice President Asheem Calixte. Calixte said that in the previous year, the overall budget was $135,000, which gave a working budget of $115,000 for club teams on campus.

The bill referred to SA as “cash poor,” one of the reasons for the decision. Student advisor Dr. Jerri Howland said that SA had consistently overspent in the past.

“There’s been a couple times where we couldn’t make payroll,” Howland said during the meeting. “And it was because every year, SA was allowing a budget to go forward that was in the red.” 

Like Roberts, Howland also referred to RES 56.07 as a “step in the right direction,” but advised the association that they may need to make cuts in other areas besides just club sports.

“That sort of ideal should go across everything you do, and not just one chunk of it,” Howland said. “It shouldn’t be something that’s cut towards club sports, and not cut towards all your spending across the board.”

SA President Lizeth Ortega-Ramirez echoed a similar sentiment, saying that SA will have to carefully consider their finances in the future.

“SA really needs to be smart about how they allocate funding across all fixed expenses, as well as funding for clubs,” Ortega-Ramirez said. She also said that next year is a “critical” year for the association, with a referendum on the student activity fee approaching.

“It is critical that students vote ‘yes’ to [a mandatory student activity fee], because this is what funds clubs,” Ortega-Ramirez said.

Club teams at SUNY Oswego have not played in the past two semesters due to COVID-19. For these teams, the budget decrease has become another disappointment in a year full of them.

“Initially, it was disappointing,” said Christopher Timmons, head coach of the Oswego State ACHA men’s club hockey team. “Just knowing how much I know about how much our players have put into this program over the years.”

Timmons said that while “there is somewhat of an understanding” of the issues that the Student Association is dealing with, it was still disheartening to see the budget decrease yet again.

“Historically, we’ve seen decreases to club sports budgets year over year, so it is definitely disappointing to see that it’s still occurring going into this following season,” Timmons said.

He also said that this could lead to some players struggling to afford the necessary costs to play with the team.

“Unfortunately, when [budget cuts] occur, some guys financially aren’t able to afford to self-fund the team.” Timmons said.

Graphic by Patrick Higgins | The Oswegonian