After three years of discussions, Oakland University’s Student Congress (OUSC) passed a bill that will increase Club Sports’ funding from the current annual average of $50,000 to a projected $98,000. The bill still awaits the student body’s majority vote and the Board of Trustees’ approval. 

“We receive $50,000 on average throughout the year, and our clubs take, according to one of my program assistants, around $343,000, which runs 24 clubs,” Sports and Recreation Program coordinator, Kyle Reece said. “The only way to start closing that gap is by raising our allocation. This is imperative, because if it is not raised, it is not a matter of if people will lose clubs, it is a matter of how many we will lose.”

On Monday, March 10, OUSC voted and approved bill C.B. 67-23, “to amend the Student Activity Funding Assessment Committee (SAFAC) allocation distribution and raise the Student Activity Fee,” Jimena Garcia, student body president, wrote in the document. 

The bill is composed of three proposals:

•  To raise the Student Activity Fee (SAF) — a  $27.50 fee included in tuition to fund organizations like SPB, Club Sports, OUSC and student organizations — to $40.
• To decrease SAFAC’s Special Projects Fund from 1% to 0% and pass that percentage to Club Sports.
• To decrease the allocation of the Student Activities Funding Board (SAFB) from 27% to 26% and increase Club Sports percentage by 1% of the SAFAC funds.

All OU students can vote yay or nay to this bill from March 31 until April 4 — OUSC’s voting season. If two-thirds of the votes are in support of increasing Club Sport’s current 6% to 8%, the bill will move along for the Board of Trustees’ approval, going into effect in upcoming semesters. 

SAFAC and Funding Percentages

SAFAC is composed of presidents and advisers of OUSC, SAFB, Club Sports, SPB, Student Video Productions, Student Life Lecture Board, WXOU and The Oakland Post. They decide what percentage of the SAF money each organization gets.

“We were at 6%, that agreement was made by SAFAC, 11 years ago,” Reece said. “At the time, I can understand why they did it, we had 10 clubs. We’ve now more than doubled in 11 years, which is really good but it’s not enough anymore.”

SAFAC’s Special Projects Fund reserves 1% of the funds for special projects, whether for getting the goalposts at the soccer fields or a spontaneous need for extra money in case of emergency. The bill proposes the dissolution of this allocation as it has not been used in recent years and SAFAC organizations also have their own reserves for special situations. 

SAFB finances student organizations, they approve budget requests for food at events, purchase items with OSI money and document the spending of student organizations. They currently have 27% of the SAFAC funds and will be giving 1% to Club Sports. 

Projected Effects for Club Sports

“Taking 1% away, or about $4,000 over hundreds of clubs is going to be a very minimal effect,” Lance Markowitz, OUSC Commuter Support Chair and Division I ice hockey player, said. “I’m all in favor of every single club on campus being funded to the maximum, so it’s not like we’re putting ourselves in a position where clubs can’t get what they need anymore. Especially with all these three passing it will actually lead to a net increase in SAFB funding.”

The money will be used to allow students to go to national competitions, replace old hand-down uniforms and finance new gear for many clubs from equestrian to rugby, Reece said. Markowitz explained that for his hockey team, the increase in funding would mitigate the out-of-pocket money the players pay for gear, training and traveling — going from around $700 to $350 per player. 

For more information on the bill and its projected effects, SAFB will host a financial information session on March 20 at 4 p.m. in room 126 of the Oakland Center.