Members of KAMP Student Radio may not have the opportunity to represent the UA in a national trivia contest this April after miscommunications about funding.

The team is the regional champion in a game called College Bowl, in which teams of four compete to see who can answer questions more quickly and accurately on topics ranging from sports to science.

This year, the KAMP team, composed of five radio employees, earned a chance to compete at the national competition in April at the University of Hartford in Connecticut after winning the UA and regional competitions. However, the team’s ability to attend rests on whether it gets the funding it needs.

The KAMP team consists of Chase Gilbert, a journalism junior, Emily Kraft, a journalism senior, Ingrid Lindstrom, a senior majoring in British literature and ecology and evolutionary biology, Josh Romero, a non-degree-seeking student and Elliot Magruder, a political science senior.

University Activities Board President Bridgette Gallagher said she was under the impression that Student Union Administration would pay for the travel costs of any winners because of the financial constraints of UAB, which helped organize the event last weekend.

“”We don’t have that sort of money,”” Gallagher said. “”That was sort of an underlying understanding from the beginning.””

TJ Willis, the UA coordinator of union recreation, said the College Bowl team and winners of other events like billiards and table tennis were never promised any funding, although they are still searching the budget for extra money.

“”Since we didn’t promise anything, we’re being really nice in looking (for funds),”” Willis said.

The UA played host for the regional competition for the College Bowl and a variety of other games simultaneously, including billiards, chess, table tennis, poker and 3-on-3 basketball.

Romero, KAMP’s general manager, said although he knows the team’s victory was unprecedented, he assumed the team would get funding to go to nationals because it’s the only prize the winners receive.

“”At this point I have no idea what’s going on with our funding, but I think we deserve to go,”” Romero said. “”I would think it would be particularly embarrassing for the UA (not to send us) because they hosted the regional.””

Romero said the game of College Bowl consists of a series of questions deemed either, “”toss-up”” or “”bonus,”” that range in levels of difficulty. Romero described the game as something similar to the 1950s-era game shows.

“”It’s kind of like trivia, but it covers pretty much all realms of knowledge,”” Romero said.

Lindstrom said she knew that her fifth time participating in the College Bowl would be a charm.

“”We were confident that we would do well,”” Lindstrom said. “”Each one of our team members specializes in one area, so we knew we had all of our bases covered.””

Gilbert, KAMP news director, said the process of getting on the team and earning a spot to compete at that national level was relatively

effortless.

“”I just happened to be there when they were putting the team together,”” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said many other schools have official College Bowl clubs or even coaches, but his team did little to practice.

“”It was pretty cool we were able to pull that off,”” Gilbert said.

The College Bowl started in 1953 as a radio show on NBC.