Sunday, April 11, 2010
WTF is up with club funding
When I was an ASUN Senator--my first time around, nearly four years ago--the UNR Rugby club was just starting to become something exceptional. They were gaining national recognition, had managed to get a very good coach and were looking for opportunities to improve their name recognition. They came to ASUN for money to augment their travel fund. Their budget request was heard at the same meeting as a request from the Apple Boppers (a club dedicated to destroying apples in the pursuit of Nirvana or some such BS).
I made the argument that support of a club like the Rugby Club, because of the recognition it could garner for the school, is probably more valuable than support for a club like the Apple Boppers (especially in an environment of scarce resources).
Sandy disagreed. All clubs are created equal. Who are mere senators to create distinctions, she argued. A reasonable ideological distinction to be sure. It was not some form of the philosophy I argued at that meeting that became the dominant one in the execution or drafting of club funding policies over the next few years. It was Sandy's.
I believe this is a fundamental flaw in ASUN. Not all ideas are created equal. Not all pursuits are equally valid. Not all clubs are equally beneficial. A club like the Pack Patriot or UNR-SFL or RHA or AASA does much more for the campus culture and the students directly involved than clubs like the Apple Boppers or Club 1457, but the funding procedures don't recognize that. They don't even hope to attain a level of awareness that would allow intelligently directed "investment" in the campus' future.
This is unfortunate given the high demand for funds in the face of the limited supply. The ASUN should seek to achieve a funding structure that supports campus community, education and development.
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ASUN hired a consultant, in the early 1990s I believe it was, who recommended ASUN cease club funding because of its limited benefit to the Association as a whole. Spending $1,000 to send a few students to a conference has little potential to affect more than those students directly and perhaps the members of the club to which those students belong, the consultant found. The consultant said it is more fair to spend money on campuswide programming because each student has an equal opportunity to participate than to spend it on clubs.
ReplyDeleteSince then, ASUN has done little more than, year after year, to increase funding available to clubs. One thing that rubs many people the wrong way, including UNR SFL, is that even ASUN programming spending is wasteful. I can't recall them ever articulating what would be a better use of the funds other than to say, in UNR SFL's case, ASUN shouldn't even exist.
With respect to creating a funding system that supports "campus community, education and development," I think the challenge is creating policies in such a way that minimizes the potential for ASUN to engage in content and viewpoint discrimination, which ASUN is prohibted from doing as a result of being funded by a mandatory student fee.
As one of UNR SFL's members recently pointed out, it is a joke that seemingly the only criteria for receiving funding is whether the applicant has crossed all the T's and dotted all the I's. But I suspect there is a reason for that: students are uninterested in implementing a policy that would require the decision makers to make specific findings as to the benefit to the Association before handing out the money. That's hard work. But simply checking to make sure some bureaucratic steps have been followed is quite easy.
I think most agree ASUN club funding policies need significant change, but I fear change will be stymied simply because it's too hard to make more restricive policies, especially when your underlying is, as you point out, all clubs are created equal.
The only genuine content neutral approach is to allow students to keep their money and use it in a way they think is beneficial and appropriate.
ReplyDeleteWithout ASUN, clubs would look towards their membership (by charging club fees) or the broader community to finance their activities. This would have the beneficial effect of encouraging more interaction between UNR students and Reno businesses and organizations.
Eliminating ASUN would, in my opinion, be preferable to see it continue in its present form. Failing that, a discontinuation of club funding would be a large improvement.