While all of the ASUO senators agreed that Club Sports athletes deserved money, there was disagreement as to how much should be given out Wednesday night. The $25,000 request was a sizable chunk of the $72,039 funds left in surplus.
The Club Sports Executive Board was the one requesting the money and explained that the $25,000 would be strictly for sending any teams that qualify for national competitions. Last year they sent 14 teams.
Senators were throwing around a $20,000 figure, asking if that would be detrimental to Club Sports.
“Is $25,000 just to survive?” Sen. Ben Rudin said. Club Sports President Erin McConaghy explained that it was just to survive because their budget was based off an estimate of sending 14 teams to nationals, which would cost around $63,100.
“Even if you gave us $63,000 we would still have out-of-pocket costs,” McConaghy said.
Total expenditures for the program are $1,015,773 for teams like lacrosse, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s ultimate Frisbee and running.
Sen. Lindy Mabuya was one of the senators asking to cut the request to $20,000, even though she recalled Club Sports getting “screwed” in the past.
“The people that were making the decision that night could not look past the math,” Mabuya said. She was talking about a few years ago when the women’s ultimate Frisbee team asked to get funds from Senate to defend their national championship but were denied.
Sens. Chase Salazar and Amy Jones were major advocates for funding the request as a whole.
“I know it’s a lot of money, and I know that our surplus funds aren’t as high as we would like to see them at this point in the year, but that being said, this is a group that has fundraised more than the 50% that we like to hold groups accountable to,” Jones said.
Sen. A.J. Gorton was another to make the body aware of how low the Senate’s surplus funds were getting, pointing out that there is also a $10,000 request in the works for male a cappella group On The Rocks.
Salazar pointed out that the money will be benefiting hundreds of students and that he believed if they had filed the request during fall term, they would have funded it right away.
Ultimately, the request was voted on by a roll call vote at the full amount and passed 15-3-0.
Surplus funds are now at $42,039 for the remainder of the year.