As club sports finalize their budget proposals for the 2025–26 academic year, their student leaders say they are navigating growing financial uncertainty that has led to concerns about the future of team travel, equipment, and social events. While restrictions on funding are not new, leaders claim that Campus Recreation (Campus Rec) has become stricter with how and where these funds can be used in the past couple of months.
As clubs finalize their submissions ahead of the April 25 deadline, recent policy clarifications have left some students worried about what funding will look like in the coming year.
Evan Najimian, Coordinator of Recreational Programming, shared in an email sent to all club sport leaders on April 10 that Campus Rec would “start enacting measures to ensure fiscal responsibility to keep pace with the changes of our current economic climate,” effective immediately.
These stated changes included a clarification that club sport meals can no longer be covered using the main allocation from Campus Rec, which is reserved for competition-related expenses such as travel, equipment, and league fees. However, clubs may still use separate funds from dues or fundraising for team meals, with prior approval from a club administrator.
Additionally, the email stated that teams are now limited to using the A0000 account — the only fund that does not carry over year-to-year — for purchases related only to activities taking place within the current academic year. This means that clubs are unable to stockpile sports equipment for the following year.
“These policies are in place to ensure that club funds are being prioritized for competition-related expenses,” Najimian continued in the email.
Following funding cuts to research and a hiring freeze on most faculty and staff hiring, the total operating budget for Princeton’s 2025–26 academic year was not announced by the Board of Trustees in its budget plan press release. The University, however, announced plans to increase its financial aid for undergraduates and graduates by eight and seven percent, respectively.
A follow-up message on April 18 from Dianna Clauss, Associate Director of Campus Recreation and Programming, clarified that the restriction on team meals has been in place since the beginning of the academic year and reiterated that club leaders are expected to consult their sport club administrator before making purchases.
Campus Recreation did not provide additional comment but confirmed that these policies have been in place since the start of the year. Still, leaders expressed surprise at the reminder, with some perceiving the policies to be newly implemented.
“I was very shocked right when I got the email,” Mikey Graham ’25, former president of Princeton Club Baseball, told The Daily Princetonian. Graham continued, “It was not something I was expecting.”
“I think [Campus Rec] is trying to be very conscious of their budget, because there’s obviously a lot of uncertainty around University funding right now in a lot of respects,” Madison McNeal-Martinis ’27, president of the Women’s Wrestling Club, told the ‘Prince.’
Currently, Princeton Athletics funds the University’s 40 sport clubs, each of which submits an annual budget request to Campus Recreation. While the department allocates core funding, clubs are expected to fundraise roughly one-third of their annual budget. Many clubs receive alumni donations or host events to help close the gap. Additional funding may be granted for teams that qualify for national tournaments to help cover travel and entry fees.
“There’s a lot of areas in which using our budget is becoming much more restricted,” Reema Choueiri ’25, president of the Women’s Basketball Club, told the ‘Prince,’ reflecting on her time on the basketball team over the past few years. “Our club would lose out on three or four hundred dollars left over, which we could put towards supplies we really need,” Choueiri said, addressing limitations on purchases using the A0000 funds. Choueiri explained that in past years, the club had purchased basketballs in April to save them for the fall.
“As we got closer to championship season, it seems like [Campus Rec] has also added the new restriction that you can’t use [funds] so much for social activities anymore,” Charlie Krieg ’26, the captain of the Rock Climbing Team, said.
Club leaders noted that many students are drawn to club sports for their social and non-competitive nature. However, they shared that restrictions on using funds for team meals have made it more difficult to build a strong sense of community within the teams.
“As a non-varsity sport here, a lot of the attraction to people joining it in the first place is the sense of community they get, and the ability to have fun,” Krieg said. “I think the way that we maintain our membership and maintain our community is through having a lot of social events.”
For Graham, team dinners and other social events are of primary concern when it comes to potential funding cuts. “It’s super important to bring everyone together outside of a baseball setting, where we all get together to chat,” Graham said.
Ongoing communication on budget restrictions has some student leaders voicing concern about funding amid pre-existing financial challenges for club sports.
In November 2024, Choueiri canceled what would have been Princeton’s first Women’s Club Basketball Tournament after being unable to fund essential costs like ambulance fees, even after charging $350 entry fees and foregoing referees.
However, others are not so concerned. “We have our equipment, and we only play so many games … per semester; it’s relatively cheap,” Graham said.
Sport club officers are currently in the process of filing a yearly budget request to be submitted to Campus Rec before the April 25 deadline.
McNeal-Martinis explained the importance of a sufficient budget, stating that the Women’s Wrestling Club’s funding allocation, combined with alumni donations, has historically enabled the club to charge no dues for its members, allowing the club to “be accessible to a wider portion of undergraduates.”
“There's a lot of uncertainty right now about how much that yearly allocation will be [and] what that will look like in the current economic climate,” Micah Burton ’28, treasurer of the Princeton Running Club, told the ‘Prince.’ He explained that the Running Club relies “pretty heavily” on the yearly allocation to cover entry fees and transportation for meets.
“We’ll have to keep track more closely of funding, in particular, when we go to meets and have team meals,” Burton continued.
Sena Chang is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’ She typically covers campus and community activism, the state of higher education, and alumni news.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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