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By Amanda Riddle
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 6, 1997

ASUA rations funding for club sports

After a decrease in sport club funding from ASUA this year, UA sport clubs will start following the same fund appropriations process next year that all other clubs follow, ASUA's vice president of clubs and organizations said.

Erin Russell and Associated Students adviser Jim Drnek met Friday with Mary O'Mahoney, coordinator of recreational sports, and Mirum Washington-White, assistant director of recreational sports.

"It's a reallocation of how they will get funding," Russell said.

In the past, ASUA has transferred money to the Student Recreation Center at the beginning of the year for allocation by O'Mahoney.

In a memorandum summarizing Friday's meeting, Russell stated that ASUA will not hear travel requests for club sports. However, the ASUA Appropriations Board will be able to fund for membership dues, event registration fees and set-up fees incurred for a campus event.

"Travel paperwork is taken care of through the Rec Center and we don't have a hand in that. But we still want to be able to help (sport clubs) out," Russell said.

Russell said other clubs also have limits on which activities they can request money for from the Appropriations Board. They cannot request money for philanthropic or academic activities, she said.

O'Mahoney said she is concerned that sport clubs cannot request money for travel or equipment - the two main expenses for sports clubs - under the new process.

"I'm concerned some of the smaller clubs will get lost in the shuffle, like boxing, which usually spends their money on equipment," she said.

O'Mahoney said she allocated $370 to the boxing club this year and they used it to purchase equipment, including mitts and boxing gloves.

Boxing club coach Tony Pinto said it costs $100 to equip each boxer. Students pay $25 in dues and also have to spend their own money on equipment and travel.

"Before, the sport clubs knew by October that they had 'X' amount of money. Now it's up to subjectiveness of the appropriations board to decide if they will pay their membership dues," O'Mahoney said.

Russell's decision came three months after she announced ASUA would transfer $10,000 to the Rec Center this academic year for sport club funding, a 30 percent decrease from the previous year. Russell also said ASUA would not hear sport clubs' requests through the normal Appropriations Board process.

The November announcement also said ASUA would not transfer any money to the Rec Center in the 1997-98 academic year for sport club funding.

"We said we wouldn't transfer any more money to the Rec Center and we're still holding to that," Russell said.

In November, she attributed a 30 percent cut in ASUA's budget and the high liability associated with funding sport clubs as the reasons for cutting sport club funding.

However, Russell said Tuesday that the budget cut, and not liability, was the only reason for the decrease in funds this year and the change in appropriation for next year.

"Transferring 'X' amount of money to the Rec Center becomes a bigger and bigger chunk of ASUA's budget each year," Russell said.

She said she will hold a forum this semester to explain the appropriations procedure to sport clubs.

O'Mahoney said she would make sure members from all sport clubs attend the forum.


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