When Kenny Rogers wakes up at 4 a.m. Saturday, it will be for love of forensics and lack of money. The University’s forensics (speech and debate) team has forgone hotel accommodations at Eastern Michigan’s two-day tournament to keep its budget in check after a successful — and expensive — season.

“We drive up and then down and then up and then down again,” Rogers said.

All the driving means a two-day cost of $500 to $600 dollars, said forensics advisor Paul Alday. Costs would be thousands of dollars for hotel stays, food and registrations at a larger national-level event.

An event like the National Forensics Association tournament in Akron, which the team will not attend.

It’s not for lack of qualifications.

Two weeks ago, the team received first place for a record fourth time at the Collegiate Forensics Association in Montreal. Last week, the team sent three members to the novice state championship: Two came back with first-place category wins.

The team has qualified for the Akron tournament in over 30 events.

But that’s not enough.

“We’re nickel and diming here,” said Michelle Baker, who earned a second-place award in Informative Speaking at the CFA event. “We’d have to fund raise like crazy.”

Fundraising is a priority for another campus group for a similar reason.

Last weekend, the mock trial team’s “A” team was one of three from the region to earn a bid to the national championship in Des Moines, Iowa. The “B” team will attend an event in Florida. Miami Univeristy’s A and B teams earned the other two national bids.

“It’s best to go to tournaments that are not in your region,” said mock trial member Bethany Nanamaker. Her teammate and roommate, Allison Smith, agrees.

“With mock trial, there are very few things you’ll do that are unexpected.”

Smith also said many other teams make travel a priority.

“If we had the funding like Miami, we would fly out to California.”

Nonetheless, says A-team Captain Kevin Minnick, the team has thrived by using cheaper and more effort-consuming methods, managing to beat Ivy League competition in the fall.

“We drove about 12 hours to New Haven the week after Thanksgiving. We broke up into groups in our cars.” The group has also driven to New York, Rochester and Philadelphia out-of-pocket in attempts to find the toughest possible foes.

Minnick says the travel can be an important team-building experience.

“There’s nothing to help create collaboration with people like riding a bus with them for six hours,” Minnick said.

Smith notes that Miami’s flight habit has not made it undefeatable.

“Miami took the top two teams [at Columbia] and we then beat them.”

Both the mock trial and forensics teams rely on a combination of private donations, school money and out-of-pocket spending. Both teams compete with the spoken word, have faculty advisors, and offer the option of course credit to their members.

It’s the final item that causes fund-raising difficulties for Nancy Kubasek, one of the three mock trial program volunteer advisors.

“We originally sought funding for this as a student activity,” Kubasek said, “but as long as there’s anyone getting course credit it can’t be considered in that way.”

“I think that we’re considering not giving course credit for this in the future — turning this into a student activity. Donors can be a little kinder if they don’t perceive it as a class,” Kubasek said.

In the case of forensics, a Greek honorary presence is also vital in paying for trips like the CFA competition, Alday said.

“What they did was put in some money to [Phi Kappa Delta] and PKD paid for some of the rail travel budget.”

Kubasek says there is no easy answer.

“There are lots of different organizations that I imagine each do it a slightly different way,” Kubasek said.