Volume 27 · Number 4 · Summer 2010
Sports
Athletic Cuts Take Human Toll
Budget cuts eliminate four teams, and student-athletes mourn the loss.
Faced with a severe budget crisis, UC Davis made one of its most wrenching decisions ever this spring when it eliminated women’s rowing, men’s wrestling, men’s swimming and diving, and men’s indoor track and field intercollegiate sports. The four teams have been discontinued as of July 1.
(Cheng Saechao/UC Davis)
Chancellor Linda Katehi described her decision to reduce the number of Aggie athletic teams from 27 to 23 as “one of the most difficult and painful decisions of my short tenure at UC Davis.” Afterward, she received hundreds of phone calls, e-mails and letters from students, parents, alumni and other friends of Aggie athletics urging her to reconsider the action.
“It is important for all of you to understand that in reaching my decision, I did so with what I believed to be the best interests of the university and our Intercollegiate Athletics program in mind,” she wrote in a letter to the campus community.
Going forward, the chancellor noted, the new Intercollegiate Athletics budget model offers the least impact to student-athlete participation and provides the “most realistic approach” to supporting continued academic and athletic excellence in the program.
“We recognize that UC Davis’ coaches and student-athletes are proud, talented and dedicated. We all appreciate that the student-athletes and their coaches and Aggie fans are in mourning for the loss of the teams, and what those losses mean to them as individuals,” she said.
Impact of Cuts
Founded in 1909, the UC Davis Intercollegiate Athletic program fields teams in NCAA Division I and the Big West Conference. Aggie squads have made NCAA postseason appearances in 14 different sports since moving to D-I in 2007. After the four team eliminations, UC Davis will have 23 intercollegiate sports with 536 student-athletes.
“I share that sense of loss,” Katehi added.
Students, coaches told first
On the morning of April 16, Director of Athletics Greg Warzecka informed the coaches of the discontinued teams, and the department sent e-mails to all student-athletes on active rosters. At a news conference later, Fred Wood, vice chancellor for Student Affairs, talked about the human toll of the team cuts.
“What’s happening here today,” Wood said, “is a very real, very significant and very personal impact of the budget crisis in California and the resulting financial position of UC Davis.”
The decision directly affects 73 female and 80 male student-athletes and their coaches and spurred several protests (for more see page 23).
Katehi said that dropping athletics teams and losing opportunities for student-athletes is regrettable but necessary. “The UC Davis community is confronting enormous financial challenges,” she said.
In February, Katehi and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Enrique Lavernia assigned $36 million in budget reductions campuswide for 2010–11, including a $1.79 million cut to Intercollegiate Athletics. With associated benefits and additional reductions, the athletics cut amounts to about $2.4 million.
ATHLETICS BUDGET PLAN
Warzecka said the team cuts would reduce costs by a little more than $5 million over the next five years. Over the past few years, Intercollegiate Athletics has already made across-the-board reductions to its sports and administrative unit budgets. Employees are subject to furloughs, and positions have been lost. Athletics has reduced the funding for facility repairs and renovations, cut team and administrative travel, and more. When the fiscal year ends in June, the department will have an accrued deficit of $1.4 million.
Warzecka said the new budget plan would require the department to generate higher levels of revenue and gifts and absorb another $400,000 in annual operational cuts as the campus continues to struggle through an unprecedented financial crisis.
Overall, the plan would eliminate the $1.4 million deficit and return the department to fiscal solvency in three to five years.
HELP FOR STUDENT ATHLETES
The welfare of student-athletes has been front and center in the discussions and decision-making about the cuts, Wood said.
For student-athletes of discontinued sports who choose to continue their studies at UC Davis, the campus will continue their annual grants-in-aid as they make normal progress toward their degree. At UC Davis, in 2009–10 full grants-in-aid are worth $21,513.
UC Davis made the announcement as soon as possible so that current and prospective student-athletes can make their choices about where to study and compete in the future. The National Letter of Intent signing period for some sports — including men’s swimming and diving, rowing and wrestling — began April 14 and ended August 1.
UC Davis will assist the student-athletes who choose to continue their athletic careers at other institutions. On behalf of UC Davis, the Big West Conference issued a blanket contact release that will allow any institution to contact affected student-athletes regarding possible transfer. UC Davis’ Compliance Services and Student-Athlete Academic Services will provide information and other assistance to student-athletes.
Campus leaders said the planning had to take into consideration the requirements of federal gender equity Title IX, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, athletic conferences, student referenda and more.