By: Rachel Keeley, senior

When Friends University sophomore Kayla Loper heard about a shoe company called TOMS, she knew it was a company with sole.

 “I got my first pair last summer, and I also got another pair for Christmas,” said Loper.

Her love of the shoes inspired her to start a TOMS club on campus. But current University policies put the club on hold.

TOMS shoes, a company that started in May 2006, donates a pair of shoes for every pair bought online. The donated shoes are given to impoverished children around the world.

After hearing about opportunities with the organization such as going to Africa on internships, Loper thought Friends would be a perfect fit for a TOMS club.

“People at Friends are the type that like the shoes and that scene,” said Loper.

Loper then began the process of applying with the TOMS company to get approval for a club at Friends. After waiting three months, she received the OK from the company, which sent her information to help get started.

After receiving the green light from Falcon Student Organizations President Erin Tombaugh, Loper set up a booth Jan. 13 at this semester’s CommUnity Fest for clubs and organizations. The math and computer science major soon discovered the potential club wouldn’t start out on the right foot.

Loper and the members of TOMS club were asked to take down the booth. After receiving messages from both the FSO adviser, Gary Rapp, and the vice president of Student Affairs, Carole Obermeyer, Loper found out why her TOMS club idea was put on hiatus.

Obermeyer said the reason the booth was taken down was because of the nature of the club.

“Friends University has never had a club that raised money for something that’s not just for Friends University,” she said.

Rapp agreed.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s exciting to have special interest groups coming forward for giving purposes, but with that comes challenges, too,” he said.

One of those challenges for FSO and administrators is to figure out how to handle special clubs such as TOMS, whose sole purpose is to spread the word and raise money about a cause that is not Friends related. Friends Univeristy is careful about not allowing solicitations on its campus. Solicitations are one concern administrators have about special interest groups.

“Is this a type of solicitation for someone else’s mission? We are a giving campus. Pretty soon it becomes a lose-lose situation if we give too much,” Obermeyer said.

Rapp shared a financial concern. Friends is responsible for knowing where fundraising money comes from and has to report that information to the IRS. Forms must be filled out before any fundraising event.

Because of the nature of the TOMS club, the fundraising policy is being reviewed. To address service groups, a tentative plan is to include another step in the process of becoming a club. A draft of an additional form for fundraisers will be included for people such as Loper to fill out, but only if the group or fundraising event reaches a certain level of money raised.

The criteria for the more advanced level of money earned is currently being discussed. Rapp said quite a few questions need to be answered before they will know if, or how, such clubs can exist.

“Right now we don’t have a way for the group to exist,” Rapp said.

Both Obermeyer and Rapp said the official procedures should be decided upon by the end of February.

Another issue is such groups’ place in FSO. One proposed plan is to have another branch of FSO for such clubs as TOMS. One branch may be the one currently in place, led by Tombaugh. This branch would be clubs and organizations as they have existed that ask for money from the SGA budget. Another branch would be just for special interest clubs like TOMS that wish to be a club and do not request SGA money.

Tombaugh said she would welcome that idea.

“It would be definitely something we would look into,” she said.

Obermeyer doesn’t want Loper and other students to lose heart.

“We haven’t put the kabash on the club. I’m not against what the club is for. They have really cute shoes,” she said.

Loper has activities in mind for the group to pursue and not all of them include raising money.

“It’s kinda frustrating. In my mind, the group was not going to be just buying Tom’s Shoes. It was more of people who liked the shoes and the cause hanging out. The mission is to spread the TOMS’ story throughout the world. You can do that without buying shoes.”