Every year, club sports cost the student body $122,000, in addition to informal member fees and alumni donations. In total, I estimate that the full enterprise costs closer to $170,000. Club sports require more than 10 percent of our student budget and attract about 30 percent of students as participants. Clearly how they are funded is worth our attention.
Club sports add significant value to campus. Teams create webs of social connection, give students competitive and athletic outputs, and provide a wealth of social happenings throughout the year. However, to make club sports truly accessible to all students, we need help.
The idea of a club sports endowment has been floated in every funding conversation as a magical solution to managing the cost of club sports. It would in fact fix all of our funding problems. It would also require a donation of at least $1.4 million.
Endowments work by collecting a large sum of money, investing it, and living off the interest. The college hopes to run its endowment by only releasing five percent annually. If the SGA were to follow that same five percent principle to fund the entirety of club sports, we would need to amass a total of $3.4 million. The $1.4 million estimate is if the SGA commits to contribute about $100,000 each year, or about what we are spending already.
A club sports endowment would give sustainability to one of the greatest student institutions on this campus. It would be a very worthy cause, but we’d need a very generous donor.
If you are that donor, I can see to it we name a crew shell after you.
