Club sports
A club sport is an athletic team at Columbia not recognized on the varsity level as recognized by the NCAA. These teams compete against similar teams at other universities.
Columbia currently hosts 40 club sports as listed in the "club sports" category. Club Sports are open to all university students, faculty, staff, administration, and alumni who have access to the Dodge Fitness Center. Clubs are organized on recreational, instructional, and competitive levels, and their activities range from informal play to regular practice or instruction, to intercollegiate and tournament competition.
Funding
Club Sports at Columbia are funded jointly by the Athletics Department and Student Development and Activities (SDA). Student activity fees collected by SDA are given to the Club Sports Governing Board (CSGB) each spring, which, in turn, allocates the money to the different clubs.
Program structure
Club Sports is very unique from other athletic organizations on campus because it is completely student run and controlled. Governing the program is the Club Sports Assembly which consists of representatives from all club sports. The Assembly is led by the CSGB (Club Sports Governing Board). Each Assembly member is responsible for reporting back to the officers of each individual club sport. The officers of each club governs over each individual club sport, which then hires or contracts other employees.