Within the next few weeks, the Club Coordination Council (CCC) will disburse funding for the University’s clubs, CCC president Jimmy McEntee said. The CCC is a student government organization that approves new clubs and allocates funding for each club. “We have each club submit a budget, and essentially, each club will meet with their division representatives and go over their budget,” McEntee said. “Two weeks from [Monday], we’ll allocate the funds to the various clubs.” McEntee said the CCC has approximately $300,000 to allocate to the more than 500 clubs at the University, and the CCC rarely allocates the full amount of a club’s request. “It’s very, very rare for a club to receive one hundred percent of their requested amount,” he said. “We go from their requested amount down to the amount that we feel we can give. It’s a tough process, and we try to be as fair as possible.” The number of new clubs has increased, while the amount of money available for allocation has remained relatively the same, McEntee said. “For example, two years ago, the University changed its policy that if there was a varsity athletic team for a sport, there could not be a club,” McEntee said. “Now, that rule has changed. For instance, there is club lacrosse and club soccer, which we really love and think is great for those who want to participate in sports but not as varsity athletes. But athletic clubs in general need a lot of money to participate.” McEntee said the CCC anticipates club requests to be a combined $450,000 for the upcoming year, although only $300,000 in funding is available. “As the CCC, we’ve struggled to solve the problem of not having enough money for our clubs, and I don’t see the University giving us any more money,” he said. “To be fair, I did a little research and compared the funding available at various universities on par with Notre Dame, and Notre Dame was one of the most generous, if not the most generous.” The CCC tries to support clubs that submit their budgets in a timely manner, as well as clubs that fundraise well, McEntee said. “All undergraduate clubs are required to fundraise ten dollars dues,” he said. “We think there are tons of resources available, whether it’s alumni or bake sales, and especially bigger clubs can fundraise to the point where they are really self-sufficient without University funds. “If a club fundraises a lot of money and does a lot of work outside and doesn’t rely solely on university funding, we’re much more likely to help them out because of that hard work, but also because they probably won’t need as much money because of the fundraising. The two go hand-in-hand.” Clubs are divided into six different groups, categorized as academic, athletic, cultural, performing arts, special interest or social service. The funding is not pre-allocated to any of the divisions, McEntee said. “When going through, it really doesn’t matter what division the club is in,” he said. “We do look at what divisions are getting more, and we do try to keep it across the board in terms of the percent cut from their initial request, so there is consistency.”
