IUOA funding cut to $0 per semester

IU’s Committee for Fee Review has voted to cut IU Outdoor Adventure’s funding from more than $25,000 to $0 per semester for two fiscal years beginning July 1, 2013 and ending June 30, 2015.

The committee cut the program’s funding due to a lack of transparency about the amount of sponsorship the group receives from the Indiana Memorial Union, IUOA Leisure Programs Coordinator Dustin Smucker said.

“When they told us that, we provided our previous two years’ financial statements and budgets,” Smucker said. “We weren’t able to understand what additional transparency they needed.”

The committee never responded to the IDS to comment.

IUOA is financially supported by the IMU, which serves students and the campus community.

The IMU allocated $100,000 to help IUOA, but Smucker said it’s not enough to provide deals to students like IUOA has in the past.

Students would normally pay a discounted price for things like tent rental and memberships to state parks, but they now have to front the full bill.

The $100,000 provided by the IMU will be used just to keep the program running, Smucker said.

“Primary expenses from this are travel expenses for participants, salary compensation, space rental in Eigenmann and equipment,” he said.

Last year, IUOA served more than 5,800 students, or one in every six students on campus, Smucker said.

He said he thought this showed the importance of their group.

“It shows there is some kind of demand we are meeting,” Smucker said. “We give students the chance to participate in challenging activities that stretch students to do more than they believed they could.”

Leader-in-training and sophomore Adri Valtierra helped plan and lead a trip to backpack the Florida Trail during winter break — a duty usually reserved for full trip leaders.

“I wanted to go somewhere warm for winter break,” Valtierra said. “I was told to look for a trip and start planning, so I did.”    

She said she finds the trips encourage teamwork.

For her, being in the outdoors with new friends is a way to learn to lead people and accomplish group tasks.

Both Smucker and Kivland said they see a trend in the opportunities IUOA provides being valued less and less, but can’t conclude if their financial cuts are a result of this fact.

They are more focused on helping students, Kivland said.   

“We’ve been figuring out how to make these trips more affordable for students,” Kivland said.

IUOA plans to request funding from the committee again, but in the meantime they continue to plan trips.

This spring break, they will travel to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park to backpack, to Colorado for a climbing trip and to the Rio Grande to go paddling.

Valtierra’s parents help her finance the adventures, but not everyone is as lucky, Kivland said.

Kivland said he thinks parents today have hesitations about letting their children spend too much time outdoors.

He said he thinks society is more immersed in technology than nature.

But it doesn’t scare him or the IUOA into thinking they will no longer be needed, he said.

“It’s not a fear, it’s a motivation for us,” Kivland said. “I like knowing that if the power were to go out and I couldn’t recharge my phone or turn on the fridge, I would still be OK. We provide ways for people to get a little bit more comfortable with the real world.”