Student groups struggle to secure trip funding

“This is the stuff you have to see. This is the stuff of inspiration,” said Rachel Nesbitt ’10, Princeton University Orchestra (PUO) violinist who participated in the group’s Intersession tour of central Europe. Trips like these, she added, are “priceless to musicians, to actually go to these places where these composers came from and where these composers were actually writing.”

Travel has always been an attractive aspect of membership in many campus extracurricular organizations. But as the economic downturn continues to affect every segment of the Princeton community, many of these organizations are struggling to make ends meet.

PUO has made trips to Europe every other year since 1994, but funding for this year’s Intersession trip was particularly difficult to attain, noted Michael Pratt, the conductor of PUO.

“We’re looking at an across-the-board 5 percent budget cut and endowment incomes reduced by 8 percent,” Pratt explained, adding that PUO “can’t expect families to come up with as much [money].”

PUO draws on funds from concert revenue, its own endowment, alumni, the music department and other friends of the orchestra to help finance its trips abroad, Pratt said, but students are also expected to contribute. Even after University subsidization, the costs of airfare, concert production, lodging and meals for one week in Europe amounted to $1,680 for each student, Pratt added.

“We’ve never yet left anybody at home because they couldn’t afford to go,” Pratt said, explaining that the amount students pay depends on the financial situation of each family. “Some of the families can afford the whole cost; some of the families can afford more. What they give above and beyond is a donation to the University,” he said.

Resources for upcoming trips, though, will be tighter, Pratt noted. Though the orchestra has been able to balance its budget so far, Pratt said it might not be possible this year.

International tours are an “important part of the educational mission of the orchestra,” Pratt said, but orchestral events at Princeton will take precedence over possible future tours when allocating funds. Repeating trips such as this year’s — which cost the University a total of $145,000 — every two years might not be possible.

“We tend to go to locations in Europe which are musical centers,” Pratt noted, adding that being able to walk in the footsteps of these composers makes “the music [come] alive in a greater way.” The loss of such an opportunity would be unfortunate, he said.

Club sports teams are also suffering in the current economic climate. The men’s and women’s ultimate frisbee teams travel to Georgia every spring break for a week-long training session and tournament. Because of increased costs, however, the teams have been forced to charge each of their players more.

Each player on the women’s team has been asked to contribute $300, roughly a $50 increase from last year, to accumulate the $10,000 the team needs, said Dhwani Shah ’09, president of Lady Clockwork, the women’s ultimate frisbee team. Only 24 of the 37 girls on the team are attending, Shah said, citing financial concerns for the decreased level of participation.

The team usually draws from alumni donations and funds from the club sports office allocated for general operating expenses and special travel initiatives. These funds are insufficient to keep pace with the team’s growth, Shah noted.

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“The team is three times larger than it was three years ago,” Shah said. “We are getting more money, but growth has increased even more.” The club sports office did not respond to requests for comment.

Shah explained that University regulations require traveling teams to use a charter bus and not private vans. There are few low-cost options available, Shah said, noting that renting a single bus for a week costs between $9,000 and $12,000. The men and women’s teams are sharing a bus this year to minimize expenses.

University regulations have also complicated access to sports funding, Shah said. Money for travel initiatives does not apply to trips made during academic breaks, she explained, adding that additional fundraising opportunities such as stuffing footballs for an hourly wage are restricted to clubs already in significant debt.

“The worst part of this is that we have to limit the number of people who are able to attend [the tournament] because of space and cost,” Shah said. She added that if the team’s funding problems continue, the team might have to restrict the frequency of its trips.

Not all student groups are feeling adverse effects from the economic climate, however.

Shere Khan takes two trips every year, one to Long Beach Island for a pre-freshman week retreat and a larger trip during Intersession, the a cappella group’s president Alex Krupp ’10 said in an e-mail. Unlike other extracurricular organizations, Shere Khan “[has not] seen any major decrease in fundraising,” Krupp noted.

Krupp explained that the group raised $12,500 for its most recent trip to Hong Kong in fundraising campaigns, CD sales and performances throughout the year. Of the four members who did not attend, three were athletes with commitments to remain on campus, and one was planning for a semester abroad.

“Since I’ve been in the group,” Krupp added, “I’ve never been aware of any students who have been unable to go on tour due to financial concerns.”

Representatives from several other a cappella groups did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Not all singing groups have been so lucky. Like PUO, the Glee Club takes biannual international trips, traveling to Buenos Aires this year over Intersession. While choir-coordinated fundraising was “difficult but not more difficult than in past years,” outside contributions from friends of the Glee Club have decreased significantly from previous years, Glee Club director Richard Tang Yuk noted in an e-mail.

Each member was asked to contribute roughly $1,400 to cover trip costs, Tang Yuk said. He noted that “[f]und raising goes exclusively to assist those students who cannot afford the entire cost.” He added that students have taken out loans to fund Glee Club trips.

To ensure that students do not take advantage of the Glee Club’s financial aid provisions, members who receive aid are required to sign a contract binding them to continue singing with the group for the following two semesters, Glee Club president Maya Srinivasan ’10 said in an e-mail. “[I]n the past, certain members received generous aid from the Glee Club, then promptly quit the club as soon as we returned from tour,” she said. “This contract was put into place in order to prevent that from happening again.”

The Glee Club purposely chooses destinations that are “economically depressed” to gain an advantage with tour costs, Tang Yuk said. It also does its own planning and organizing for the trip instead of hiring an agent to lower expenses.

If the economic situation does not improve, though, the Glee Club might be forced to travel less frequently, Tang Yuk said. This “[wouldn’t] be the end of the world,” he added.

“It’s good to remind ourselves that we are very privileged here at Princeton,” Tang Yuk noted.

The Chapel Choir already does not anticipate repeating its international Intersession trip, Chapel Choir president Peter Severson ’09 said. This is not, however, due to the current financial situation.

“We are not a group that [normally] travels,” Severson explained, adding that this year’s trip to Spain was an anomaly.