STUDENT Council's appropriations process has been the equivalent of a four-letter word in recent years, and is in dire need of reform - especially in the way funds are allocated to club sports. The winner of the unprecedented four-person race for vice president for organizations must lead the way in doing this, but only one candidate has enough foresight and experience to carry out any notable change: Garrett Majdic, the current Appropriations Committee co-chair.
Chief among the problems inherent to the appropriations process is the way in which club sports are represented. It is a problem that has plagued Council for years and has gone essentially unacknowledged by Evan Shields, the current VPO and Council presidential candidate, prior to this year's election season. The growth of club sports has become too large a cost for both individuals to handle and the Appropriations Committee to fund. Although club sports comprise only 13 percent of CIOs, they absorb a disproportionate and astounding 55 percent of the over $700,000 allocated to CIOs annually.
Brendan Whittington, 2007-08 Appropriations Committee co-chair, believes club sports were never meant to be a large part of CIO funding. "The funding was really supposed to be more for the niche groups or 'academic activities,'" Whittington said. In essence, club sports are overwhelming a system that was not built to accommodate their needs.
The increasingly hefty cost of operating a club sport and the dearth of revenue have been major contributors to the problem. Unlike varsity sports - whose costs for equipment and practice space are subsidized by the athletic department - club sports must foot these bills on their own. At the same time, club sports have no way to gain revenue to become self-sustaining. Consequently, club sports have become much too dependent on appropriations funding. Currently, the Appropriations Committee operates under the informal and undisclosed rule that it would not allocate more than $15,000 to any one club during the academic year to be fair to all clubs. But that figure alone is an absurd amount to allocate to a single club.
Shields, who has focused more on ensuring CIO business managers learn the basics of creating and submitting a budget during his term as VPO, has overlooked the fundamental principle of appropriations: SAF funding is only meant to be a start-up fund, not one that clubs ought to depend on long-term. Sure, Shields has claimed to have pushed for the creation of the Virginia Club Sports Council, but in reality it was solely the brainchild of Council's Athletic Affairs Committee. The VCSC was created as a central hub for publicity efforts and does little to mitigate the aforementioned problems that club sports face. In his platform for president, Shields pledges to find alternative ways to meet the financial needs of club sports, but he has done precious little as VPO to aid these groups.
As evidenced by the dearth of reforms during Shields' term, it is most important to have a VPO who has a pulse on the appropriations process. Majdic said the old appropriations formula penalized groups for charging dues, but he has been working to create a monetary incentive for doing so. Specifically, he has crafted a plan whereby if a group collects 15 percent of its overall budget, it will receive an extra 20 percent fundraising bonus. And if 30 percent of its budget is raised, the group will receive an additional 40 percent from Council.
Majdic's opponents, however, only have a loose understanding - at best - of the complicated appropriations process. Third-year College student Aneesha Rao's platform only lists superficial changes to the appropriations process. She wants to change what she sees as an "impersonalized and detached method of analyzing budgets" that leaves CIOs "feeling unsupported and underfunded." But with over 800 student groups and a limited number of funds, it is unrealistic to expect Council to meet the demands of all organizations.
Zain Shaikh, Majdic's co-chair, is also in the running for VPO. Shaikh wants the VPO to be an advocate for student organizations, but Council's constitution specifically states the VPO must "oversee" CIOs
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