Club sports are now one step closer to being directly funded by student tuition money instead of going through an intermediary.

Currently, club sports get about $25,000 a year from the $25-per-student-per-semester student activities fee through the directly-funded student organization Student Activities Funding Board.

At the last Student Activities Fund Assessment Committee meeting on Monday, March 1, SAFAC members passed a referendum to take 5 percent from SAFB’s current 29 percent from the activities fee money to club sports with a vote of 6-3 with one voting member absent.

As it is students’ money, students get the final say of whether this referendum will be passed.

It will be on the ballot of the student body elections.

If students vote yes on the change, the amount of money club sports get would stay roughly the same but “would provide a slightly more secure funding option” for club sports since the amount currently fluctuates from year to year, said Mark Medaugh, SAFB chair.

Medaugh said another option to provide a more secure option is to change the bylaws of SAFB, which distributes its money to other non-directly-funded organizations.

“The current system is working fine,” he said, but he didn’t want it to be up to the whims of the future SAFB chairs.

Voting members were representatives from the current seven directly-funded student run organizations and three students-at-large.

Some think that the percentages shouldn’t be changed because directly-funded orgs are supposed to provide a service for the entire student population and not just a small group.

Student Video Productions, The Oakland Post and WXOU voted no on passing the referendum.

At the previous meeting on Feb. 15, many said they don’t think club sports represent the campus as a whole and thus doesn’t meet the criteria and guiding principles behind SAFAC.

“Why should a restrictive group be receiving funding that will not encompass the entire campus?” said Heather Haughey, faculty advisor for SVP.

“I would like to see a change of 100 percent student participation before directly funding (club sports),” said Colleen Miller, editor in chief of The Oakland Post.

Club sports council president Kyle Nieporte, a junior, said all students can participate in or spectate club sports and that the clubs’ achievements in tournaments bring visibility to Oakland University.

“We allow anyone to come and start a club,” Nieporte said.

He also said if one club team is full, students can start a D2 or D3 club for the same sport.

Another concern raised at the Feb. 15 meeting was the lack of awareness for club sports.

“Why is it not more visible on campus?” questioned Jean Ann Miller, advisor for Student Life Lecture Board.

Nieporte said at the March 1 meeting that advertising for club sports could be better and that the council is planning to increase it to let students know about the club sports’ events.

Another concern raised was the difficulties of students to spectate the events as almost all the events take place off-campus, even if it’s a home game.

Nieporte said events need to be off campus because OU “doesn’t have the facilities to hold them all” and that providing transportation to off-campus events is “almost impossible.”

Club sports teams can also consist of up to 40 percent of non-students.

“This is the first step in the right direction,” Nieporte said. “As enrollment increases, our funding will too.”

Colleen Miller, Editor in Chief of The Oakland Post requested money from the Special Projects Fund to upgrade The Post’s computers, send a reporter to cover the men’s basketball team if it makes it into the NCAA tournament and buy a photo/video camera.

SPF receives two percent of the student activities fee, and currently has about $16,000 left this semester.

It’s a reserve that the directly-funded organizations can try to tap into for special circumstances.

The Post requested $17,696, more than what the fund contains.

Colleen Miller said she requested more than what she thought would be ultimately approved, including nine iMac computers to replace the current miniMac ones because they don’t support necessary software and future upgrades.

The request also includes a scanner.

Because The Post spent about $4,300 upgrading software recently, it’s “unrealistic” that it would also upgrade its computers within the next year from its own funds, she said.

The computers, combined with the camera, would give a way to provide more multimedia content for The Post’s website, Colleen Miller said.

She also said that The Post didn’t anticipate the possibility of the Grizzlies going to the NCAA on this year’s budget, which was determined in June of 2009.

The Post’s request was tabled to another meeting, possibly next Wednesday.

The scheduling of the meeting was due to the possibility of a budget change dependent on a travel request to the NCAA tournament.

Colleen Miller has since retracted the funding request for travel because of the high possibility of a student bus trip that a reporter could go on.