Matthew,
I know because I studied German for about four years. I still want to go over there one summer.
To answer you're question, at my school we are finaccially independant, but with out the school we would have no place to meet regularly, and it would be almost imposible to recruit new members to join without their support. And they don't really support us here. Its more like they give us "permission." For lack of a better term.
