Every semester, each undergraduate student is charged a $230 Student Activity Fee (SAF). This SAF is then put at the discretion of the Student Government Association (SGA) to distribute around school to help run, as the name suggests, student activities. A conservative estimate of 4000 undergrads creates $920,000 to be spread around. This means that every year the SGA and its budget committee manages just shy of 2 million dollars. However, as much as that sounds, the fund is having a harder time every year to supply all of the student activities that want to be put on. The school is expanding significantly in terms of club participation year after year. Once we consider that inflation is having a significant effect on how far 230 dollars for each student goes, it’s no wonder that we’re starting to see some budgeting problems.
How the budget works in simple terms is that there is a list of “line items” that must be paid for with the SAF. These include the Entertainment Committee, which must make up 16% of the budget, and diversity programs such as the Lore-El center. These line items make up well over half of the operating budget the SAF allows for. The remaining ~400,000 is to be split up between Club Sports, Registered Student Organizations (RSOs), and certain non-RSOs like Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity. Having a pooled resource for clubs is a smart way to make sure clubs have the resources they need to make activities possible for all Stevens undergrads. However, one of the major reasons that the budget is starting to run into problems is club sports.
In recent years, club sports such as lifting, men’s lacrosse, and climbing and mountaineering (CAM) have been significantly subsidized by the SGA, as they do technically count as a student activity open to all undergraduates — a requirement to receive funding from the SAF. The controversy begins when we consider just how much money club sports receive given the size of their teams. 60% of a club sport’s budget can be subsidized by the SGA, the remainder must be paid for in dues. The sum subsidized for the coming semester(Spring 2024) has totalled up to nearly $150,000. The amount of funding received by club sports ranged from $4910.84 for Crew, or as much as $37,215.00 for Ski and Snowboard, but most clubs received around 7 to 9 thousand dollars. If we consider that many clubs have a relatively small membership, most club sports members end up receiving a lot more in terms of subsidies than they end up paying with their student activity fee, meaning those not taking advantage of club sports are essentially subsidizing those who do.
On the other hand, arguments for having large subsidies for club sports are pretty clear. A lot of students are not qualified or willing to play sports at the varsity level. Subsidizing club sports lowers the financial barrier to entry and opens the opportunity to join to a larger demographic. These students still want to compete for their school, and club sports offers them a venue to do so. Sure, it costs more money per person than other clubs, but it is simply a part of the cost of college to pay for club sports. Furthermore, if we subsidize club sports now, hopefully more members will join, which will make them cheaper in the future — if dues remain the same.
Both sides have good arguments, but it is something that has yet to be discussed in an open forum by the student body. Should club sports be subsidized is a question that must be answered in coming months if we want to maintain ever-increasing RSO costs.
