Last week, the Undergraduate Council of Students endorsed a proposal to move administration of club sports from the Student Activities Office to the Department of Athletics and Physical Education, allowing for the allocation of increased funding to club teams to provide them access to varsity athletic trainers. However, club sports teams have expressed a mixed response to the proposal, reflecting the complicated nature of the issue at hand.
The resolution was drafted in response to some club sports teams' complaints that they had inadequate funding for and insufficient access to athletic trainers. The Department of Athletics and Physical Education says it currently lacks the funds to provide club players with access to these trainers.
Sarah Saxton-Frump '07, UCS student activities and clubs chair, spearheaded the proposal, awhich also supports the creation of a club sports council - to be implemented for the 2006-07 school year - which would address a lack of funding and support granted to club sports at Brown, she said.
The proposal stipulates that club sports will still be governed by students, but will also receive the same benefits granted to varsity sports.
While many teams - newly established ones, in particular - support the proposal, seeing the opportunity for better access to needed resources, other club teams would prefer not to move under the jurisdiction of the athletics department.
Club sports teams currently receive funding from the Undergraduate Finance Board through the SAO, but the University does not pay for access to athletic trainers.
The SAO provides the men's club lacrosse team with $90 in social funds per semester, but according to David Meisner '07, president of the club, this amount is negligible given the team's other financial needs. Meisner said the SAO money is used to offset the cost of providing trainers for the team, an expense the University does not cover.
The University requires men's club lacrosse to have a trainer present at all official games in case of athlete injury. Trainers must be hired at $75 per game. In addition, the team must pay up to $100 a game to hire a referee. This money comes straight out of the lacrosse players' pockets, Meisner said.
In addition to the cost, Meisner said the availability of trainers limits the number of games the team can host - Sunday's game, which the other team eventually cancelled, was in doubt because the team did not know if the varsity trainer would be able to make it, he said.
The scarcity of trainers at practices is also a problem, as injuries are not limited to competition. "There's obviously no way we're going to have trainers at practices, so anything that happens there, we'll have to shuttle them down to Health Services," Meisner said.
Still, Meisner is fairly optimistic about the future of Brown club sports. "It seems like they're making some progress. I've been pleased with the things I've been hearing, but I'd like to see some real action taken," he said.
Head Athletic Trainer Russell Fiore said the sports medicine division of the athletics department only has the resources to be responsible for varsity sports. For Brown's 900 varsity athletes, the department has eight full-time trainers and six part-time trainers with limited availability, which Fiore said is barely adequate.
"Now if you put club sports into the mix, there's just no way you could do it," Fiore said.
Fiore said the same problem plagues club sports at universities throughout the country. The lack of trainers puts players of club contact sports in acute physical danger, he said. "Those club sports players are athletes, and they get hurt just as much as my varsity kids, and I think they need care," he said.
For teams with other sources of funding from endowments and alums, the level of funding from the SAO is irrelevant.
Jay Fluck, coach of the men's club rugby team, said that although his team suffers from a lack of reliable trainers, they do have sufficient funding both from Brown and from alum donations. Alum donations alone total $10,000-20,000 annually, he said.
Men's rugby is different from other club sports at Brown, Fluck said, in that the team was established 45 years ago, and is part of a "highly organized league." Therefore, men's club rugby is not unlike a varsity sport in terms of organization, he said.
Fluck expressed concern about implications of Saxton-Frump's proposal, saying, "It would seem to me that that's not necessarily a good use of the University's money."
According to Fluck, there is a great field shortage at Brown, and that only teams who prove they have great structure and a body of regulations should be eligible to be placed under the athletics department. "I just don't think it makes any sense to allow any team to spring up," he said.
Over the course of the past few seasons, numerous club athletes have experienced serious injuries, from a torn ACL to a broken collarbone, without any trainer on site to provide care or assistance, according to Will Cunningham '07, UCS appointments chair.
"We're in dire need (of trainers)," Cunningham said.
Currently, club athletes can access varsity trainers, but only between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and with a referral from Health Services. Saxton-Frump said her new proposal will "cut out this unnecessary middleman" that acts as an impediment to injured club athletes. Under Saxton-Frump's proposal, injured club athletes would be able to access trainers without going through Health Services.
Chris Talbot '06, who started the men's club hockey team this year, said he is "very intrigued to see how (Saxton-Frump's) proposal goes."
Talbot said the club hockey team has suffered this year from a lack of funds and trainers, but that it has benefited from having responsible players. Being transferred to the athletics department would be "certainly scary," he said, but also the "ideal solution" for the men's club hockey team.
Even with University approval, club sports athletes would have to wait until the 2006-07 academic year to see these changes take hold, because the University Resources Committee has already determined Brown's budget for 2005-06, said Ben Creo '07, UCS Campus Life Committee chair.
Fiore said he anticipates some problems even if these changes are implemented. Treating an athlete is "a whole dynamic program," he said.
For example, a good trainer should know who on a given team is allergic to bee stings, who has had prior concussions or dislocations and what type of equipment each player is wearing. All of these factors are extremely relevant, as they influence the type of emergency care that is provided. If a lacrosse player suffers a head injury, the trainer must pull off his or her helmet quickly, but the procedure for doing so is different depending on the type of helmet.
Therefore, a trainer's capabilities are severely limited if he or she does not intimately know the medical history of every player on a team, Fiore said.
