AAS Meeting Minutes 2/4/13
Meeting Begins: 8:30 PM
I.Attendance (Noah Gordon ‘14)
II.Public Comment
a.Open to all students on any topic
III.BC Recs
a. Black Solidarity Conference: Feb 14 – 17 at Yale. Asking for $585 more for registration. $2,037 more for hotel.
b.Discussion about club soccer
Guests: Dean Fatemi and Mr. McBride of the Athletics Department
Bill McBride: I’ve been here 24 years. Early on, coaches among our facilities were among the most bleak in the NESCAC. We also had JV programs. We extended the roster instead of cutting people, since we didn’t have a JV program. I tried to do the same thing with women, but it was a difficult situation. Students would like to have a club sport where there is a varsity sport already existing. We don’t have the resources to have a club sport of a varsity sport that already exists. We will try to accommodate every request; we don’t want to say no to any student. However, there is protocol. It is unfair and irresponsible for students to ignore protocol. Our facilities have changed and become better. If you’re on the soccer team and you don’t make it, we encourage you to look at other options. Other options within the policy will emerge in the athletic department. We’ll hopefully make better decisions collectively and openly.
Abigail brings up on projector a list of clubs that were approved
Dean Fatemi: I’ve been here for seven years. I work with the students to bring in how the money is managed. If soccer was funded along with other club sports, we need to improve upon communication between AAS and student activities and athletics. While the AAS has the autonomy to manage the funding, we have a duty to ensure that AAS appropriately approves funding. Club sport funding must be approved through the Athletics department. There’s a responsibility of the AAS to work with student activities. All clubs are approved first by student activities. Hockey, for example, had to be reviewed for too much ice use. Student activities had to review it, even though AAS funded it.
Matt deButts ’14: Bill, you mentioned in the past, there were no fields or advanced facilities. Is there justification for what the rule is now?
McBride: What we’re doing in Pratt field will put a damper on our Spring sports.
deButts: The reason that club sports cannot exist, it’s due to not enough facilities, correct? Why is the rule banning certain club sports from receiving funding from the AAS? Is there any way we can get access to read these rules?
McBride: If you come by my office or look online, you can see the document with the rules. “Banning” is a strong word and can be misleading. The association with varsity or Intramurals (IMs) don’t fit with everyone. We don’t ban anything; we listen and take some steps.
George Tepe ’14: The AAS did not realize that we couldn’t fund these things and we were basing our decisions off of what we did in the past. It was a miscommunication failure rather than an attack on the Athletic department.
Dean Fatemi: When students want to start a club sport, they meet with me. I explain to them what the policies and practices are. After I meet with students, the first person I meet with is Mr. McBride. Once the AAS funds something, there is a level of oversight necessary for student safety. There are many layers to running athletics programs.
Amani Ahmed ’15: We fund non-varsity sports. Wondering what sports are not supposed to be funded by us?
Dean Fatemi: As students seek to fund ideas, perhaps I can meet with the BC to sort out how we should fund. An activity with any sport factor in it needs to be a club sport that should be approved by student activities and the athletic department. Students are independent and have autonomy, but the college needs to give approval for safety reasons.
McBride: No predetermined list of who can approve funding and who cannot. The AAS and the athletics department should be in contact.
Amani: We’re concerned about the students who don’t get access to sports of their level.
JJ Hoffstein ’14: Something that’s been blurred in this conversation is the definition of a club sport. I don’t think that this request is the request of a club sport. To me, a club sport is registered with student activities. Secondly, Amherst students (possibly wearing Amherst team garb) will be at Northampton playing their sport? That doesn’t seem like a club sport to me!
Dean Fatemi: Whether it’s Amherst students grouping themselves together, they’re receiving funding from the AAS. It’s the activity that we’re addressing, not the name.
McBride: We are responsible for your health when you leave this college campus.
Dean Fatemi: The activity needs to be sanctioned. If we can support a group of students getting together to do an activity, we will. The name (whether it’s called a club sport or not) does not matter. We’re trying to give as much access to students to play sports within the reach of the Athletics department. Whenever we can say yes, we will!
Hoffstein: I understand the Athletic department wanting to limit their liability. We fund huge swords for the fencing team! I don’t think there’s much of a liability with a soccer team.
McBride: Great analogy! We’re not here to turn anybody away. A lot of things (including new athletic director) have changed in our facilities.
John Yarchoan ’13: I know that there are club soccer teams at every other NESCAC schools. I would ask if we have been funding “Sticks and Pucks” for people playing hockey at Orr Rink, we’re not sanctioning the activity. It’s not clear to me that there is a rule or that we’ve been observing it.
Chris Friend ’14: The varsity soccer coaches have been sending their teams to the AAS to get funding. I think we all feel strange that while we’re doing the same opportunity for the club teams, they’re getting shut down. There’s a concern about the reasoning for it as well. How did people find out about this and why after a few years this isn’t getting funded anymore? Is it also just liability reasons (why we’re stopping the funding)?
McBride: You said, “The soccer coach chose you to go get this money…” ?
Julian Aoyama ’14: The soccer coach does not do that. I will go far to testify for this man.
Dean Fatemi: The fact that this happened for multiple years signals that we need to review what the AAS can fund. I’m not a lawyer, but I have the responsibility to assess the athletic programs. Liability is one slice of the pie. The folks at athletics determine what sports are suitable to play on campus. Athletics have the ultimate oversight over club sports.
Chris Friend: I’ve heard liability and safety… are there other layers?
McBride: You’re trying to make it seem like there’s a glitch here. I take offense to that because those words shouldn’t be attached to extracurricular activities. We need to consider everything: medical funding (in case of emergencies), space, etc.
Abigail: What steps can we take to move forward?
McBride: This spring, we’ll take club sport leaders and IMs leaders to talk about how we can move forward. This is very simple…we’re making it much more complicated than it already is.
Noah Gordon: I’m on the Mixed Martial Arts team, considered a club sport. We have practices three times a week and we prefer to practice in the gym. When our preferred spaces are taken, we improvise (it’s part of what it means to be a club sport at Amherst). We lick our own wounds because the school doesn’t have liability. I don’t understand why because this is soccer, it changes (because we have varsity soccer team). What’s the reason we can’t have another soccer team?
McBride: Field space. We cannot do it because we just don’t have the space. We can never hold a NESCAC track meet because of the structure of our facility. As we move forward, perhaps we can move in that direction. And I don’t make those decisions, but as a department, we at Athletics feel this way.
Noah Gordon: What if the club soccer team could just ask for space at a certain time? For instance, what if they asked to use a field at some point?
McBride: Different type of upkeep (making sure fields are mature, manpower, etc.)
Tierney Werner ’16: Crew needs to rent an off-campus boat house every year. They operate off-campus and BC funds them.
Dean Fatemi: Students ask for a lot of things in writing. The institution is moving forward to create things that are written. If Athletics has a document, it may not have caught up to being easily accessible on the web.
Abigail: I discussed the issue of Crew and the process of making Crew a varsity sport, as it used to be. It is possible.
Tierney: Has the boathouse existed since the BC and AAS started funding it? Why was the athletic department okay with knowing it all along?
Amani: It’s a club sport. The soccer club that was off-campus, we funded a field for them. We’re confused as to why these students on Crew get funding, but another group with equally talented and capable students don’t get funding.
George: If the athletic dpmt has ultimate oversight over club sports in collaboration with student organizations and the athletic dpmt determines which club sports can be funded…. my question is: why is the AAS funding approved club sports?
McBride: We’re not making decisions for anybody who requests.
Dean Fatemi: AAS should not fund non-sanctioned activities.
George: But it’s not in our rules…
Dean Fatemi: AAS should not disperse the funds…I’ve given you my best advice explaining how the process works. I hope that you as the AAS can respect the policy that exists.
Shruthi Badri ’16: Why is coverage different among sports? Why is different just because we have a varsity program?
Dean Fatemi: If students want to go play sports off campus anyway, they can. But when you request college funding, even if you receive a dollar, it is college sanctioned.
McBride: There’s a lot of why, why not, how come, not fair… but I think what needs to take place is for you to contact facilities, Dean Boykin-East, etc.
Eric Steinbrook ‘15: Dean Fatemi said we can exist as a club soccer team. Unfortunately, we never had any pretense of asking for funding. We were planning on funding ourselves to get field space off-campus. When we tried doing that, one of my other friends let an athletic director know about this plan and there was a lot of push-back from the athletic department.
McBride: I respect how anchored you all are in your voices. To make this work for everyone, however, we need to work together. There are a lot of people involved in this.
John: I think symbolically we should fund this. I think the student body will be happy if we fund this because we represent them.
Tania Dias ‘13: I think the students involved should sit down with athletics and only afterwards should we then continue.
Abigail: I think the idea of funding to see what happens is the most absurd idea ever. I think we should see student body input perhaps.
Amani: I don’t think we should motion to fund it because the full conversations haven’t been held yet.
Servet Bayimli ‘16: I think the only legitimate argument made today was liability. I also feel that symbolically, it is the right thing to do to fund it right now.
Tania: I think the symbolism we want to attain can be obtained in a week or so. It is wrong to go about this without having more discussion yet.
Sam Keaser ’16: I can’t think of a large group of students against club soccer. What we should do is impose some kind of timeline on this. We’re already under scrutiny with our funds.
Julian: If we all sign the waiver, would that be appropriate? What if we had a member of the athletic supervisor to oversee the sport?
Richard Park ’16: Right now, we have the opportunity to work with the athletics department. We’re just going to make the athletics department angrier if we refuse to take the opportunity to talk to them.
Dean Fatemi: From what I’m hearing, you still have questions. Please keep communication open. If what Billy and I have said haven’t satisfied your questions and requests.
McBride: If you take all this positive energy and if you really want to make this happen, it’s about collaboration. Symbolism is great, but you’re going to still have to talk to us. We need to move forward.
Amani: I encourage you all not to fund this because it’s disrespectful to the representatives who came here today as guests. They are encouraging further discussion and we should honor that.
Chris Friend: Negotiations to make club soccer a team for months have not gone well. Negotiations are nice to talk about, but we are often told no.
Motion to Allocate Money
Yesses: 14
Nos: 11
Abstentions: 1
Passed.
Risalat Khan ’13: SILT conference. Requesting $350.
IV.Reports
a.Committee Reports
Matt deButts: CEP still discussing open curriculum. Met with faculty. Also considering sexual misconduct advice. Read the report.
Peter Crane ’15:Committee on First Year Life: Valentine’s Day event organization. Open to ideas.
George: 5-college student coordinating board met to discuss Zimride. It fell apart because UMASS doesn’t have money. We told Zimride it fell apart and that we can’t do a three-year contract. For now, it’s on hold. We’re currently investigating a secret ride-share program at UMASS.
Jared Price: When something’s funded by the body, after you vote to fund, how to you verify where those funds go?
Abigail: Yes, because I submit receipts and process paperwork.
Jared: It seems that there weren’t substantive liability issues that they got into… other than the headline club soccer?
Amani: Dean Fatemi described it as an activity!
b.General Announcements
Christina Won ’15: We had a great speech night. Vote this Thursday!
Richard Park:Tomi Williams is running? CHYEAAAHHH.
Peter:The programmer for Scrutiny has disappeared.
c.Officer Reports
Abigail: The discussion ran a bit long, but I think it was necessary. I will be talking and trying to move things along to make Crew a varsity sport again. Richard: If Crew is made a varsity sport, when would it happen?
Abigail: Students are definitely on board and the coach is on board. Athletics generally wouldn’t be against it because prospective students to Amherst are looking for Crew as a varsity sport and this may affect their decision to attend Amherst.
George: Julian, who plays varsity soccer, came up to Abigail and I and thanked us. He was pleased to know that there is a group of students fighting on behalf of students.
V.Club and IM Sport Special Committee (George)
VI.AAS Website policy (Noah)
VII.Approve Minutes, 1-28-12 (George)
Minutes Approved.
VIII.New Business
IX. Adjournment: 10:27 PM
Attendance policy: Members will be permitted 3 unexcused absences per semester. Arriving at the meeting 30 minutes after roll call or leaving 30 minutes before the end of the meeting counts as a half-absence. Leaving earlier than 30 minutes amounts to a full absence. Excused absences will only be available to students who cannot control the circumstances of their absence; this excludes having too much school work to do. This policy applies to the Executive Board and the Senate.