Team struggles to fund efforts

Temple’s Mock Trial team continues to seek out funding from tight-budgeted colleges.

As Temple’s Mock Trial team prepares to attend Opening Round Championship Series in Washington, D.C., members must find new funding to cover the costs of the trip.

Recently, the student organization began appealing to the College of Liberal Arts Alumni Board, with the help of academic adviser Dr. Paul Crowe, director of undergraduate studies in the department of philosophy.

“[Crowe] said our current balance based on the fundraising we’ve done is $1,468, and there’s possibly another donation coming in,” Mock Trial President Eric Horst, a senior economics and political science major, said.

Donations make up for expenses not covered by Student Activities’ allocations to registered organizations.

“[Crowe has] been working on it since the end of last semester,” Horst said.

“CLA Development – the branch of the CLA Dean’s Office that works with [alumni] – has been interested in supporting Mock Trial for quite a few years now,” Crowe said in an email. “They’ve worked to let [alumni] know about the hard work and successes of the team and the interest and support of [alumni], especially the lawyers among them, has followed fairly naturally.”

“Until recently, the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies was a great source of support, but cuts to their budget have made this more difficult for them,” Crowe added. “The College of Liberal Arts has been our most consistent supporter over the years.”

Mock Trial members earn money periodically posing as jury members for the Law School’s LL.M. in Trial Advocacy program.

As per its policy, Temple Student Government, which distributes allocations to student organizations for events and activities, does not fund out-of-state travel expenses. This school year, TSG received about $123,000 in allocations for student organizations. As of Feb. 17, $47,467.55 remains in available allocations. The money is a portion of the General Activities Fee paid by Temple students within their tuition.

Organizations request funds separately for each of their events.

Temple attended its first round of regional competitions on the weekend of Feb. 4 to 5 at the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center, placing eighth and ninth, out of 30 schools. To proceed to ORC, schools had to place in the Top 8.

Horst said Mock Trial primarily uses allocations for registration and permission fees at competitions. Typically, the registration cost for each team is around $100 to $200. Horst speculated in December 2011 that the trip to ORC would cost anywhere between $1,500 and $3,000 to send both Temple’s A and B teams.

Mock Trial has attended competitions in Washington, Pennsylvania and Upstate New York. This year, the American Mock Trial Association National Championship is in Minneapolis, Minn.

“If we want to go there, we would definitely have to start back up fundraising right away,” Horst said.

Amelia Brust can be reached at abrust@temple.edu.