Saeed Husain
Sports Editor
The men’s and women’s Ultimate Frisbee teams, RamJam and BettyGoneWild (Betty) respectively, received 60 percent less funding for their programs than last year.
Following changes in budgeting guidelines by Campus Council (CC) this year, an exhaustion of surplus funds in the 2016-17 cycle, and ramifications of the Galpin Call-in last year, both teams say that they are in danger of having students leave, and participating in limited tournaments.
Julia Kowala ’19, president of Betty, spoke of how the large decrease affected their club.
“Getting more women involved becomes increasingly difficult with less funding. One of Betty’s main attractions is the fact that anyone, regardless of skill level or financial means, can join. We would like to keep this tradition, but lack of funds poses major obstacles for this goal,” she said.
Both teams have looked to generate funds themselves for this year, especially since besides the funding cuts, all club sports were asked by CC to self-finance 25 percent of tournament and hotel fees. Betty is in the process of designing merchandise to sell and asking for donations.
“There are a lot of people on the team who cannot afford to pay for tournaments. That is why the 25 percent self-generated funds is problematic for us. We are working to fundraise so much so that everyone can still participate,” said Kowala.
Kowala and Gabe Gerry ’19, president of RamJam, both discussed how, after reaching out via surveys, they found that over half their players would be less invested in the club, or cease to be members at all. “We immediately appealed the decision [of reduced funding] because the money they gave us was not enough for us to have a season. They only funded one sanctioned spring tournament. You need at least 10 sanctioned games to rank at sectionals, which is the tournament the team works for all year,” said Kowala.
Jordan Griffith ’19, former chair of Campus Council who oversaw the budget allocations last year, commented, “With Frisbee specifically, they requested funding for multiple off-campus invitational tournaments that were not clearly different from each other per their own description on the application. It’s a policy of Council to not fund multiple identical events.”
Kowala explained, “Every tournament we asked for has a specific purpose. Fall tournaments serve as learning opportunities for rookies and help start to gel the divide between the A team and the B team. Spring sanctioned tournaments are necessary for ranking.”
Griffith explained that surplus funds given out to groups last year had been exhausted, and that with more organizations requesting money, there was less of it to go around. He also commented how the Galpin Call-in affected budget allocations for this year.
“…the Galpin Call-in highlighted the need for funding for groups that focus on diverse topics, meaning external pressure was on Council and SGA to fund diverse groups,” Griffith said.
Isaac Weiss ’20, co-chair of last year’s allocations committee with Ethan Barham ’18, added that in the previous cycle, most clubs had seen an inflated budget, due to the emptying of surplus funds that year. According to Weiss, the one the Frisbee teams had received this year was “roughly the average they had received previously, less a couple thousand.”
On the matter of appeals, he added, “[The Frisbee teams’] was probably the most comprehensive one we received in the appeals process.”
However, Weiss agreed with Griffith in saying that there were fewer funds this year.
“It all came down to how much money there was,” he said.
In an example of budget cuts, both teams had requested funds for a spring break tournament at Myrtle Beach, N.C., which CC completely denied. In the reason for rejection to RamJam, CC said that they would not fund more than four days of the tournament, with the bone of contention being transportation.
Gerry explained how this would be problematic.
“The reason we do not drive back immediately after the tournament is because it would be irresponsible and unsafe to have players drive back 10 hours after four days of tournament play,” he said.
Kowala shared the same sentiment, saying that the only thing they asked for over four days was rental cars, due to the College’s car rental policy.
“Unfortunately, there is not really a way around this. Games start Monday morning at 9 a.m. This means that we would need to pick up rentals by 4 p.m. Friday so we can leave over the weekend to arrive in time,” she said.
Both presidents stressed how Ultimate served the campus community in a positive way.
“It’s our inclusivity and reach across campus that makes us such a special group. In 2016-17, we were asked by FiveUltimate to be ‘Funbassadors.’ They heard about our nationwide reputation and reached out to us, giving us prizes to give to other teams when they showed exceptional sportsmanship and spirit,” said Kowala.
To show their role on campus, Gerry explained how the teams have previously been asked by Admissions to host events for prospective students.
“Both men’s and women’s teams hold Ultimate workshops in the Scot Center on admitted student weekends to entertain and introduce incoming students to an open and amazing part of campus life,” said Gerry.