Of the 10 groups of Dartmouth students that applied to receive money from the Dartmouth Outing Club's Wolfgang Schlitz Adventure Fund, six were selected on Monday following the termly Schlitz directorate meeting, according to DOC treasurer Mackenzie Murphy '15. The Schlitz committee granted a total of $2,500 to the chosen recipients.
The Schlitz Fund, named for the main character of the film played each year at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge as part of DOC First-Year Trips, offers money each term to partially sponsor students' self-guided outdoor trips. Proposals this term included a course in Patagonia, Argentina with the National Outdoor Leadership School, a non-profit organization offering programs in outdoor education; climbing trips in China and the United States; an avalanche training course; an outdoor sports medley in Costa Rica that includes spearfishing and surfing; and hiking expeditions in Nepal, Peru, New Zealand and Israel.
Committee decisions are made based on the potential of proposed trips to contribute to the club and to personally benefit the participants, according to former DOC president Robert Collier '13.
"Basically, it exists to try to give students the chance to have adventures from which they can benefit and the DOC can benefit," Collier said. "A trip will be pushing someone's boundaries personally and ideally pushing the boundaries of the club."
Student applications, which were due on Oct. 21, were evaluated for their safety plans, feasibility of execution, attention to detail and the applicants' proposed contribution to the DOC upon return, current DOC president Joanna Schneider '13 said. This contribution can come in various forms, such as leading trips for DOC sub-clubs like Cabin and Trail or writing for Woodsmoke, the DOC's trip report publication.
Students who applied for funding this year lauded the program as a way to gain new experiences while giving back to the DOC.
"Our costs sort of build up, so any help from the DOC would be great, and we have a really good plan to give back to the DOC as far as making the trip worth it and documenting it," Chris Zhao '13, a member of the group proposing a trip to Costa Rica, said. "We're actually filming a video documentary."
Due to changes in the academic schedule and an extended winter break, more students than usual applied for Schlitz funding this fall, compelling the DOC to expand available resources, Schneider said. With the exception of one team, all proposals featured trips planned for the winter interim or Winter term.
"This year, to meet the growing amount, we decided to draw from the reserves of the DOC," Schneider said. "We're taking 5 percent of the reserves and adding that entirely to the Schlitz fund for just the Fall term because we had such high requests."
Money for the Schlitz Fund comes from both the DOC budget, funded by the Undergraduate Finance Committee, and donations from Friends of the DOC, according to Schneider. Friends of the DOC matches the DOC's contribution up to a certain amount.
Since the Schlitz Fund only partially funds trips, many applicants also apply to the adventure funds of the DOC's individual sub-clubs, according to former DOC president Brian Seitz '12.
Students are only eligible for Schlitz funding if they have not received it before, but exceptions are occasionally made if an applicant receives a very small sum for their initial trip, according to Piotr Teterwak '14. Teterwak received funding for hiking trips in both Iceland and Scotland and said he enjoyed the individual aspect of Schlitz funding.
"A lot of the things the DOC does, it organizes for [students]," Teterwak said. "This allows people to be a little more creative about what they do and be a bit more exotic about the places they go."
At Monday's meeting, the applicants delivered five-minute presentations to the DOC directorate comprising the DOC president, vice president and treasurer and the heads of the DOC sub-clubs and answered questions about their itineraries and safety plans.
While members of each trip requested a certain sum of money, only one group received the full amount of funding requested, according to Murphy. Whether or not the groups receive funding, however, all of the trips are still likely to occur, Murphy added.
"This is sort of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to China and hopefully get subsidized so we don't break the bank," Jon Guinther '13, a member of the China climbing trip, said after presenting his proposal at the Schlitz meeting.
The trips granted funding will meet with the DOC's safety committee to ensure that their plans include College-approved risk management and safety precautions. The safety committee includes representatives from the Outdoor Programs Office, the Office of the General Counsel, the Office of Risk and Internal Controls Services and the editor of the American Alpine Club's Accidents in North American Mountaineering, according to Brian Kunz, deputy director of the Outdoor Programs Office.
Past trips funded by the Schlitz Fund have included a biking expedition through Nova Scotia, rowing on the Allagash River in Maine, an Arctic Circle ski race and mountaineering in the Dominican Republic, according to the DOC's Schlitz guidelines. Unusual and unprecedented trips stand a better chance of being selected, according to Collier, who cited an ultra-marathon race through the Sahara Desert that received money from the fund.
While students who receive funding must become members of the DOC, membership is not a prerequisite for application, Collier said.
"This is open to anyone, and it's really a way to get people out in the outdoors and an effort on the part of the DOC to reach out to a wider segment of campus," Schneider said. "You don't have to be a club leader to go on a trip. Anyone can apply."
