The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate is closing in on a deal with administrators and members of the Athletics Department to create a club sports advisory board to oversee the recognition and funding of club sports on campus. The groups plan to sit down next week to hammer out the details.
"We're entering the final stages, the logistical phase," TCU President Duncan Pickard said. "The new council would deal with the questions of what is a club sport and how they should be funded."
The creation of a new committee would mark the culmination of two years of talks between the Athletics Department and the TCU Senate over how to best address the issue of club sports.
Currently, Tufts has an official policy of not recognizing club sports teams for sports in which a varsity team exists, such as soccer, baseball or lacrosse. Director of Athletics Bill Gehling told the Daily in an article published on March 4 of this year that the policy was a matter of resources.
"We face challenges of limited resources," Gehling said. "These can include not just money but field space, indoor facility space, sports medicine, support staffing ... They all set a limit on how many programs we can support at a reasonable level. Adding too many programs can force you to diminish what you offer."
The policy has forced members of unapproved club sports teams to fund their own accommodations.
"We've had to pay for referees and look for alternatives for field space," said junior Dalton Swing, who is captain of the club soccer and baseball teams. "Not having facilities on campus like the turf field made it difficult to schedule home games, and I had to go through the Medford City Hall to reserve park fields."
This year, however, has seen improvements for club sports teams that remain officially unrecognized. The Athletics Department has become more lenient in allowing those teams to use field space, and Swing has been able to find other means of funding.
"I was able to secure a sponsorship by Dr. Pepper-Snapple for the club soccer team," he said. "We are promoting their new Venom energy drink, and they've provided us with $5,000 worth of jerseys and $500 for transportation."
The main goal of the new board would be to improve communication between the TCU Senate, the administration and the Athletics Department.
"We all just need to be on the same page," Pickard said. "There are three main issues: the Athletics Department doesn't think there are enough field spaces and other resources, the administration is concerned about safety and issues of liability, and funding and recognition are our issues."
"I work in the Athletics Department, and there are plenty of times when different fields on campus, like Kraft Field or Bello Field, are available," Swing added. "If this committee is created, then the communication would allow us to work out a master plan with the Athletics Department for the use of fields and with the administration over waivers and legal responsibilities. It can only help."
While the board will likely be staffed by a combination of TCU senators, administrators, representatives of the Athletics Department and the Office of Campus Life and the captains of various sports teams, the exact composition of the committee has yet to be worked out.
"We're not sure exactly what the make-up of the board will be yet, but we're going to fight for as many student spots as possible," Pickard said.
Ultimately, Swing said he believes that the creation of a club sports advisory board to reform the existing rules would allow all levels of athletic competition at Tufts to better coexist.
"Duncan's been keeping me up-to-date on his meetings with [Dean of Students] Bruce Reitman, and I would love to be a part of this committee and see it come to fruition," he said. "We're not looking to take anything away from the varsity programs. Eventually funding may come. But we just want to play and to have the opportunity to play under the Tufts name and use facilities we think are also rightfully ours."
