Notre Dame Club Coordination Council

The Notre Dame Club Coordination Council (or simply the Club Coordination Council or the CCC) is the branch of the Student Union of the University of Notre Dame responsible for communicating issues facing undergraduate club issues, providing funding for undergraduate clubs, serving as the representative body of undergraduate student clubs, and working with student clubs to ensure that clubs can coordinate their programming of activities. The CCC is responsible for overseeing around 400 student clubs, each of which serve a unique purpose. The Club Coordination Council contains six divisions that each represent different groups of clubs, namely Academic, Athletic, Cultural, Performing Arts, Social Service, and Special Interest. The approval of the council, along with that of the Notre Dame Student Activities Office, is a requirement for official recognition of student clubs.

History
In recent years, the Club Coordination Council has become a vocal organization in the Notre Dame community. In 2014, when the council was mired in relative obscurity, the then-President Jimmy McEntee sought to make the council more widely-recognized through public transparency. In December 2014, he said "Many people do not know that this council exists, let alone what it does so by being transparent we will raise awareness of the CCC and help to provide insight into how we operate." During that year, the Club Coordination Council became responsible for funding Notre Dame's club sports, moving several organizations, some of which were founded as early as 1923 under their funding umbrella. Previously, the Notre Dame Department of Athletics had helped to defray the costs of club sports.

There are currently a wide variety of student clubs on campus, including nine for students from different states, about three dozen clubs that represent different nationalities and origins, as well as clubs dedicated to Catholic theology, diverse faith practices, social service, political advocacy and awareness, competitive athletics, professional development and networking, performing arts, academic debate, foreign affairs, fraternal brotherhood, women's empowerment, and many other interests.

Club Funding
In 2003, the Club Coordination Council came under fire after multiple student clubs received cuts to their funding. For the 2003 fiscal year, the Council was responsible for providing funding to about 200 student clubs, of which all but 45 made funding requests. The council was able to allocate $286,258 to clubs (an increase from $258,194 in 2002), though several clubs received budget cuts due to an increase in the total number of clubs.

Due to changes in the constitution of the Notre Dame Student Union during the 2005-2006 fiscal year, the total amount of funding allocated to clubs was cut approximately 9.5% during the 2005-2006 academic year (during which clubs received 36.75% of all Student Union funds available for disbursement) and the 2006-2007 academic year (during which that clubs were designated to receive 33% of Student Union funds available for disbursement). Then-President of the Club Coordination Council, Beth O’Shaughnessy, proposed an amendment to the student senate to restore club funding to its previous status. During the senate debate on the proposed amendment, a student noted that funds were easily available to cover all expenses for his club, and the amendment failed by consensus. As a result, the cuts to club funding were made effective for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Beginning in 2008, partisan clubs became eligible for funding from the Club Coordination Council. Each recognized partisan club must receive the same amount of funds as each other partisan club in a given year.

Over the next dozen years, the number of clubs rapidly expanded. By 2011, the University of Notre Dame recognized 250 clubs. By 2013, the number of clubs recognized increased to 300. During the 2018-2019 academic year, Notre Dame recognized 400 active student clubs.

Student Government Groups and Funding
At the end of the 2018-2019 academic year, Student Government organizations reported a $77,000 surplus of unspent funds. During the 2019-2020 academic year, the Notre Dame Student Union Board was provided funding to cover 77% of its expenses, while the CCC was given enough money to cover 16% of club expenses. The total amount split between clubs and Student Government organizations sums to just over $900,000.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Game Day Concession Stands
The Club Coordination Council is responsible for allocating concession stands to student groups on days where Notre Dame hosts a home football game. These allocations are based on a club's demonstrated need, and clubs are able to use the profits from the stands to fund club events throughout the academic year.

Club Approvals
The Club Coordination Council is partially responsible for the approval of new clubs at the University of Notre Dame.

The amount of club applications received by the CCC varies significantly from year to year. In 2003, over 300 groups applied for recognition at the University of Notre Dame. A mere three years later, in the fall of 2006, only 15 club applications were submitted.

Controversy
In the spring of 2014, the CCC denied recognition to Students for Child Oriented Policy, a student group whose goal was described by its advisor as a club which sought "to do in public policy about the family exactly what the Church has asked all Catholics to do: namely, to do what it can to make sure that children are raised by their mother and their father and to make this case in the public square on reasonable grounds accessible to anyone who cares to think about the issues". The Club Coordination Council claimed that the club was denied because it "closely mirrored" the mission an purpose of an already existing club. The decision drew criticism from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which wrote that the Club Coordination Council's "rationale is often cited pretextually to prevent a politically unpopular group from gaining recognition," and that the justification provided in the group's denial was, "bogus".