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AD Boeh: OU Compliant with Title IX
Unanswered Letters
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PETITION
Please
sign our petition to save dropped OU sports. Click
here. If
your current circumstances or position with Ohio University do not require
anonymity, we
request that you sign with your name rather than as "Anonymous"
as some have. Thank you and thanks to the Women's Lacrosse blog
for setting up this petition.
MORE
LINKS
EMAIL
CONTACT FOR THIS SITE: SaveOUSports ATgmailDOTcom
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BELOW ARE THE LETTERS WE ARE SENDING
AND HAVE SENT TO PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND OU'S BOARD OF TRUSTEES
This letter -- for your use if you choose to support us and formatted for copying and pasting into officials' webmail message
forms -- is available at the "take action
now" page on this website for your easy use to send to federal
government, state, and local officials.
Links to these officials' webmail forms and their email addresses are provided
in simple, easy to use forms - It is uncomplicated - please consider sending
these letters to officials. It should take no more than five minutes to
reach all of them.
The names of the public officials to whom our supporters are sending this letter
are listed in the salutation. of the letter below.
Subject: Request your intervention in a deeply flawed
Ohio University decision to drop Olympic and emerging sports programs.
Dear Governor
Strickland,
U.S.
Senator Voinovich,
U.S.
Senator Brown,
U.S.
Congressman Wilson (Congressional District includes Athens),
State
Senator Padgett (Athens),
State
Representative Stewart (Athens):
I believe the problem
described below is so serious that it requires intervention by the highest
levels of the Ohio State Government and Ohio's representatives at the national
level. That is why I am writing to you, other state officials, Ohio's
representatives in Congress, and many others.
You can read all the information on it at:
I am writing to you
and to others to
express in the strongest possible terms my deep concern about a January 24, 2007
decision by the Ohio University Administration.
This decision was
arrived at in secret during the 13-month period from December 2005 to January
24, 2007, during which, according to its own, now-published documents that can
be found on our website, OU's
administration formed and conducted secret, closed-door committee work to
determine alternatives to remedy the Athletic Department's poor financial
condition.
This secret,
closed-door committee's decision was announced to the student athletes and their
coaches on January 24. None of these people had any advance warning that
this might happen.
The decision was to
terminate four OU varsity sports programs:
-
Men's Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field (Indoor and
Outdoor Track and Field count as two teams) a team with almost 100 years of
history at OU and an Olympic sport.
-
Women's Lacrosse -- The nation's fastest growing high
school and collegiate sport.
-
Men's Swimming and Diving, a team with 72 years of history
at OU and also an Olympic sport.
The OU
administration violated its own policies in the way it handled this secret
process. No student government or student athlete representatives participated in
the secret committee process that led to this decision. OU policies require
these student officials' participation in such decision processes.
86 Student Athletes
had their OU collegiate athletic careers taken from them without warning.
At this late date in the academic year, freshmen and sophomore athletes are
scrambling to transfer to other colleges to continue their careers. Junior
athletes have almost no options -- most universities do not allow senior year
transfers -- and this could be their last year of
collegiate competition. They are devastated.
During the 13 months
of this secret process, coaches of the dropped teams were apparently
kept in the dark about this decision process and the possibility that their
teams would be cut.
Acting in good faith
as agents of OU, the coaches recruited high school seniors who, in good faith, accepted
invitations and they are now at OU. These
freshmen had other university options but were induced to come to a school which
only a select few knew was secretly in the process of cutting their sports.
The Lacrosse team
was two weeks away from starting its 2007 season when OU broke this news.
So many underclasswomen have decided to sit out this season to retain NCAA
eligibility so they can transfer to other schools that there are insufficient
players to field a team. As a result, the team voted not to play this
year. Senior athletes on the Women's Lacrosse Team played their last OU
game last year but they didn't know it at the time.
This secret 13-month
process prevented stakeholders with the most at stake from participating. If they had known in advance that their teams were in jeopardy, they could have worked
together to save their teams and their OU athletic careers.
Outraged alumni have
stated that they recently gave to a successful OU sports fundraising campaign without the
knowledge that varsity sports might be cut.
The President of the
OU National Capital Alumni Network, a prominent and generous donor to OU, expressed in an open letter to
OU President Roderick McDavis
his displeasure that the alumni were not asked to help save these teams. That
letter can be found on our website at this link -- http://www.saveousports.org/ou_alumni_speak_out.htm
The decision was
announced abruptly. Those affected had little or no time to react.
It was announced during mid-term exams and only two and a half weeks from the
next OU Board of
Trustees meeting in Chillicothe on February 15-16, 2007. This decision by
OU was, as far as we can determine, not on the Board's agenda.
Nevertheless, it appeared on the agenda and the Board voted to uphold OU's
decision.
We do not believe the Board of Trustees
made this decision with
full information. OU conducted this decision process over a period of 13
months. We had only 21 days to prepare our position.
We worked hard to
organize in the limited time we had. We scrambled to accumulate and study
documentation so we could draft and present justification for retaining these
teams.
Documentation
provided by OU following request for public documents was incomplete. A
particularly important document, an OU internal audit of the Athletic
Department, contained only odd-numbered pages. When we received the
remaining pages, we had less than a week to share it among our scattered groups
before the Board meeting.
We believe information used to reach this decision was
incomplete, inaccurate and spun with the help of a consultant to justify what the
university had already decided perhaps as long as a year ago.
The exclusion of these groups worked to the detriment of a valid, equitable,
respectable and thorough analytical decision-making process.
One could hardly expect support of the decisions under the circumstances.
Decisions made behind closed
doors by few seldom win the support or earn the respect of many.
The teams have a
website at -- www.SaveOUSports.org --
where
you can read all the information on this debacle at OU.
Official university
documents are posted on our website at this link -- http://www.saveousports.org/documents_page.htm
-- that explain the state of financial affairs in OU's Athletic
Department.
Also posted on the
website are news reports and other information explaining the deficient state of
OU's finances in general.
The website also
documents how the university still has very expensive and aggressive spending
plans for favored sports despite financial problems. The Athletic
Director explains that "most" of this funding comes from private
donations for specific sports purposes yet OU is willing to provide substantial
amounts of money from non-athletic university coffers funding for activities
that benefit certain sports.
OU President
Roderick McDavis and OU Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt say that cutting these
teams and 86 student athletes will save OU $685,000 a year.
However, as you can
read in news reports posted on the website at this link -- http://www.saveousports.org/it's_party_time!!.htm
-- OU somehow found $277,550 in its non-athletic budget coffers to pay for an
Athletic Department budget shortfall when it flew 261 people to Mobile, Alabama
and paid for their food and lodging to attend the GMAC Football Bowl just 17
days before it cut these teams for financial reasons.
This action calls
into question the responsible management and oversight of OU's finances at many
levels. It is difficult to conceive why OU would spend so much money it
didn't have for so many people to attend an away football game when it was just
weeks away from cutting 86 student athletes and their teams for financial
reasons.
Again, these teams
are:
-
Women's Lacrosse - The fastest growing high school and collegiate women's sport in
the country whose conference schedule consistently includes national champions
and NCAA playoff finalists.
-
Men's Swimming and Diving - A sport with an illustrious 72-year
history at OU and currently has a serious Olympic contender.
Men's Track and Field - A sport with almost 100 years of
history at OU and that produced NCAA hall of famers.
If you choose to
contact OU's administration for an explanation of their side of this story, you
will be told that Title IX of the 1972 Amendments of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 requiring gender equity in publicly funded sports was also an important
constraint in their decision.
This claim that OU
was forced to cut teams for Title IX purposes does not hold up to objective
scrutiny by national authorities who have already expressed their opinions
publicly on this decision by OU's administration.
OU currently ranks
21st in Title IX compliance out of 119 NCAA Division One universities according
to the Women's Sports Foundation, perhaps the leading advocate for Title IX
adherence and national authority in sports and gender issues.
Public statements by
nationally-recognized Title IX experts refuting the claim that Title IX also
forces OU to take this course -- documented on our website at this link -- http://www.saveousports.org/reactions_to_ou_decision.htm
-- include the NCAA, the Women's Sports Foundation, and the Executive Director of the College
Swimming Coaches Association of America.
Over 2,400 students, athletes, parents, and alumni from all over Ohio and, the
country, and alumni from other countries have signed it and the number is growing daily.
1,400 signatures on
a separate petition were presented to the OU Board of Trustees at their February
2007 meeting.
All alumni chapters are weighing in with their displeasure. A disturbing number of
these alumni announced on the petition that they will no longer contribute to
Ohio University.
Stan Huntsman, an OU
alumni member of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame is so incensed about
this decision and the secretive process that led to it that he has publicly
severed all ties with OU. He demanded that his plaque in the Ohio
University Hall of Fame be removed immediately. He mailed his diploma back
to OU President Roderick McDavis. A full report on his reaction may be
found on our website at this link -- http://www.saveousports.org/the_backlash_begins.htm
OU's administration could have
handled this situation much better and all of what is now transpiring could have
been avoided.
The university could have explained
well over a year ago, when President McDavis instructed the Athletic Director to
bring the department's finances under control, that teams were in jeopardy and those teams, their parents, students and
other supporters could
have been brought into the process and given a chance to save them.
They
were not given this opportunity because this decision affecting so many in a
public institution was apparently arrived at by insiders behind closed doors.
We ask you to do the
following:
Demand the teams be reinstated immediately and allowed to continue.
Use your authority to ensure that full
investigations are conducted into OU's finances and the manner in which this decision
damaging so many young lives was determined.
Call for OU to embark
on a more comprehensive effort to explore all the options available by a
less partisan group/committee than was apparently undertaken by the OU
Athletic Department including input from outside sources who are not so
closely tied to the interests of the sports that would benefit from the
elimination of the “non-revenue” sports.
Stopping the
unraveling of these teams now
would also allow OU's vast alumni network time to mobilize to help raise funds
to save these sports as some of its leadership has said it could.
Please support us.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
(Your name here)
(Your OU affiliation here - graduating class, parent, fan, etc.)
LETTER
DELIVERED TO BOARD OF TRUSTEES FEBRUARY 13, 2007
The Team
Coordinators and their team constituents sent a detailed letter to the OU Board
of Trustees on February 13, 2007.
The purpose
of this letter was to tell the Trustees our side of this story before they met
in Chillicothe, Ohio on February 15 and 16, 2007.
They wished
to avoid a hurried Trustees' decision to ratify or otherwise endorse the action
the University has taken to dissolve these teams. They asked the Trustees to
reverse this decision.
In the
letter, the Team Coordinators and their team constituents provide a
comprehensive synopsis of our position and relevant material supporting our
position appearing on this website.
Thank you
for your support of our campaign to Save OU Sports.
Presented
to Ohio University Student Trustees February 13, 2007
To: The Board of Trustees of Ohio University
From:
Coordinators for varsity sports teams recently cut by Ohio University:
·
Lacrosse: Allison Brennan,
Megan Sanders and Catherine Shelley
·
Men’s Swimming and
Diving: Matthew Temple, John Schaefer and the United Swim Parents
·
Men’s Track and Field:
Justin Kempe and Mark Mecum
Subject: Request of the The Board of Trustees to review material submitted
herein and reverse the decision made by Ohio University to cut varsity
sports teams.
Attachments:
Linked Internet documents available on website www.SaveOUSports.Org
Dear
Ms. Allen, Mr. Mitchell, and Ms. Gerthoffer:
We,
the coordinators of the recently dropped varsity teams' working groups --
Women's Lacrosse, Men's Swimming and Diving, and Men's Track and Field –
the student athletes of those groups, alumni, parents, and other interested
parties, are working together in an umbrella organization, www.SaveOUSports.org,
to oppose OU's recent decision to cut these sports programs. A tremendous
amount of work has already begun. We
are in this for the long haul and, if necessary, we are prepared to do far more
to save these teams.
Please
take this action immediately
We
encourage you to review all the material aggregated on the web site at www.SaveOUSports.org
so you will be as fully informed as possible.
IMPORTANT:
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: We
also ask you, as soon as possible via email and phone calls, to invite the
members of the Board of Trustees to read this letter and view the website at www.SaveOUSports.org,
in sufficient time in advance of the February 15-16, 2007 OU Board of Trustees
meeting in Chillicothe, Ohio, so they may be informed of our side of this
situation.
We
hope you will see the merits of our position and support us with a resolution by
the Board of Trustees to:
-
Halt
this decision immediately;
-
Reinstate
the dropped teams;
-
Take
immediate action to help the lacrosse team immediately resume its aborted
season;
-
Embark
on a more comprehensive effort to explore all the options available by a
less partisan group/committee than was apparently undertaken by the OU
Athletic Department including the input from outside sources who are not so
closely tied to the interests of the sports who would benefit from the
elimination of the “non-revenue” sports; and,
-
Implement
the most promising and very practical options already enumerated by
prominent alumni to place OU Athletics on a sound financial and
administrative footing.
There
are a wide array of options open to OU as prominent and generous alumni explain
on our website. OU can solve its Athletic Department financial problems
without resorting to such drastic action. The
Athletic Department, by reallocating resources through a more fiscally
responsible approach, can maintain these sports with very little impact to the
“major” sports programs.
We
believe the Board of Trustees will see that this situation is so serious and so
detrimentally impacts the integrity of the University in the view of many
persons who are supportive of and are ambassadors for the University that they
must act quickly.
Who
we are
We
formed a group named Save OU Sports.Org. Our website can be found at this
link: WWW.SaveOUSports.Org.
We also consist of separate Team Groups under that umbrella that are
comprised of students from each of the dropped teams, team alumni, parents, and
other supporters.
Our
documentation and reference material justifying our position
On
our website, www.SaveOUSports.org and
on the separate team websites linked on our site, we have gathered in one
Internet location, for anyone to review, official OU documents we have
received so far along with a substantial amount of other documentation and
reference material. We are in the process of collecting substantially
more.
The
Ohio Public Records Law requests and requests for official OU documents,
emails, and other correspondence supported by Ohio law are posted as well.
Research
of the first set of these documents used to arrive at the decision to drop these
sports reveals inaccurate and what appears to be misleading information
presented to OU officials charged with either making the decision or endorsing
it.
Inaccurate
information and a flawed process used by OU to make this decision
If
the extent of the erroneous, inaccurate, and misleading information that we
have found so far in our analysis is indicative of the quality of all the
information used in this process, the rigor of research, and the
thoroughness and depth of analysis that went into preparing that information,
then we believe the decision based on it is grossly misinformed.
Here
is but one example of very inaccurate information appearing in official OU
documents that were apparently provided to OU decision makers as they either
made the decision or endorsed it:
The
Executive Committee document says:
...
"[only] 8 high school lacrosse programs in the OH/WV/PA/IN/MI
region."
We
have no idea where they came up with this statistic. Are they referring to conferences or individual high school
programs? There are hundreds of individual high school lacrosse teams in
that region.
According
to LaxPower.com there are 63 high school girls lacrosse teams in Ohio alone.
This number is only for girls’ teams.
There are also at least as many boys teams.
There
are 136 girls’ lacrosse teams in Pennsylvania, 46 in Michigan and we're
working on the number for Indiana and West Virginia. (Source:
http://www.laxpower.com/update05/bingrl/natlrating.php)
Based
on our discovery of this and more inaccurate information alone, we believe the
Board of Trustees (BOT) would have good reason to halt further execution of
this decision until several activities can be undertaken. We enumerate
those activities further below. In
addition to inaccurate information, there are many more reasons for the BOT to
reverse this decision as we enumerate further below.
Furthermore,
it appears that this process, despite claims to have involved thirteen months of
effort, was more political cover to arrive at a conclusion wanted by the
Athletic Department and other officials in the university, than it was an
objective, systematic development of all viable alternatives.
Following
the Ohio Public Records Law, a request has been submitted to the University
requesting detailed information that could add proof to this belief. We
base this belief on, among other things, comments from an attorney who reviewed
the documents we have received so far. His comment on the consultant's
report is posted on the website at this link:
For
your convenience it is provided here: He said:
"We
are surprised with the lack of depth of the report. The report appears
to be more of a "rubber stamp" of decisions that OU already wanted
to make rather than an analysis of what potential alternatives might
exist."
Financial
problems and Title IX cited by OU
The
University cites financial and Title IX problems as the main reasons for this
decision. We understand that OU has financial problems.
From the documents we obtained, we learned that OU has had these
financial problems for approximately five years.
However,
it would be naïve to believe that the sports being eliminated caused the
financial problems; a more pragmatic analysis lends itself to fiscal
mismanagement and waste in those sports that consume the most revenue.
Further, the stakeholders in this recent decision process were left in
the dark about possible consequences to them from this serious financial
situation.
Financial
problems – donors who could have made a difference kept in the dark on team
cut – prominent donor offers viable options
We
published a letter on the website from the President of the OU National Capital
Alumni Network -- a substantial Bobcat contributor -- at which he expresses
outrage at the fact that alums were not told during the recent successful fund
raising campaign that these sports were on the chopping block. His
letter may be found at this link:
In
this letter and below it from the petition online (that he signed and commented
on at this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ohiouniversitysports/index.html -- see comment number 176 by Robert Walter) (we believe there is a
hall at OU named for his Mother possibly paid for by Mr. Walter and his family
but we are not sure), he offers up multiple alternatives for solving the
Athletic Department's financial problems that avoid cutting teams.
These
are creative and viable alternatives to cutting teams and damaging student
athletes’ college careers from a long-time, generous President of one of
OU’s largest Alumni Networks. We
believe his concerns and his professional recommendations deserve your respect
and attention.
This
is just one alum, albeit a very prominent alum. Many more on our online
petition make similar observations. Indeed, many state they are ceasing
their contributions until these teams are reinstated.
Please
see the website pages listed below at the following links for expert
observations on these two issues – finances and Title IX. The official
response to OU's decision from Phil Whitten, Executive Director of the College
Swim Coaches of America is particularly enlightening. See his remarks
about OU in a nationally published interview at this link: http://www.saveousports.org/reactions_to_ou_decision.htm
We
believe you will see that citing these reasons for dropping the teams is a
position that lacks ballast when held up to objective scrutiny.
We
stake out our basic position about both the financial problems and Title IX
problems as bracketed interjections in the published official statement by
Athletic Director Hocutt on this web page:
Here
is only some of the material used to rebut AD Hocutt’s positions on how OU
must solve its Athletic Department financial problems and questioning an
aggressive Athletic Department spending program as it cuts teams:
From
an interview with Phil Whitten, Executive Director of the College Swim Coaches
of America about OU’s decision to drop sports teams:
"As
for the issue of the budget deficit, ... Yes, the Ohio University Athletic
Department has built up a $4 million deficit over the years. This is not
something that happened overnight. Didn't anyone notice?"
"Aside from that, you have to ask: what impact would cutting men's
swimming have on the deficit? It turns out that the incremental cost of having
a men's swim team -- in addition to the women's team -- comes to roughly
$35,000 a year. Let's see: at $35,000 a year, it would only take a bit more
than 114 years to erase the deficit. And,
that's assuming zero inflation and zero interest on the debt."
"On
top of that, we have learned that even as the A.D. is crying
"poverty," he plans to move on with building a $20 million indoor
football practice facility. When
asked, he says "most" of the $20 million will come from
"private donations." But
he's unclear about how much "most" is.
It could be just pennies more than $10 million.
Or it might be 11 to 12 million, or maybe even 15. Whatever it is, it
will only add to the deficit, perhaps doubling or even tripling it."
"As a former college professor, I would have to give the OU
administration an "F" for research and transparency."
OU’s
use of Title IX to justify cutting sports does not hold up to scrutiny.
Furthermore,
we believe there are convincing rebuttals to OU's claim of compelling Title Nine
problems on this page:
Phil
Whitten's comprehensive interview addresses it here: http://www.saveousports.org/reactions_to_ou_decision.htm
Then, please scroll down past Phil Whitten's interview to the official
response by the NCAA to OU's claims of Title IX problems
Here
is his statement confirming that OU ranks 21 out of 119 Division One schools in
Title IX compliance. He cites
the Women's Sports Foundation, probably the leading advocate for Title
IX adherence: http://www.saveousports.org/reactions_to_ou_decision.htm
“Last
year, Ohio University ranked first out of the 119 Division I schools in Title
IX compliance. This year, it ranks 21st – still better than more than 80
percent of Division I schools. So why does the athletic director
maintain that his department is not in compliance? I believe there are only
two possible explanations: Either his analysis was seriously flawed or there
was a deliberate attempt to misstate the facts…”
Myles
Brand, the President of the NCAA, said recently. "I certainly hope no
University cuts sports to comply with Title IX. There are always alternatives.
The NCAA is always ready and able to work with an athletics department to
identify acceptable alternatives to cutting sports. It should not be the case
that men's participation opportunities are diminished to comply with Title
IX."
"Second,
OCR [Office for Civil Rights, US Dept. of Education] hereby clarifies that
nothing in Title IX requires the cutting or reduction of teams in order to
demonstrate compliance with Title IX, and that the elimination of teams is a
disfavored practice."
Stakeholders
excluded from secret decision process in violation of OU policy
Of
particular concern to us and what has us, Bobcat alumni throughout the nation,
Ohio citizens, and many others outraged is the complete exclusion of the
stakeholders with the most at stake in the outcome in the secret decision
process over the last thirteen months:
-
You
and Student Government officials were apparently excluded, in apparent
flagrant violation of official OU policy.
-
Student
Athlete Representatives were excluded, apparent violation of OU policy.
-
Student
Athletes working hard at their studies and at advancing their teams and
sport were excluded.
-
Generous
active alumni were apparently excluded (It is possible that a case could be
made that these contributors were duped in the recent campaign by the
withholding of information about these teams).
-
Parents
who not only pay college costs but also pour funds and substantial amounts
of their time into supporting the teams -- and other OU sports as well --
were excluded.
The
exclusion of these groups worked to the detriment of a valid, equitable,
respectable and thorough analytical decision-making process.
One could hardly expect support of the decisions under the circumstances.
Decisions made behind closed doors by few seldom win the support or earn
the respect of many.
Damage
to stakeholders
And,
perhaps most distressing, student athletes optimistically embarking on their
college careers were recruited for this year and next by coaches who are
believed to have been kept in the dark about the fates of their teams. If
this is true, then these coaches were misled, their reputations within their
professional community were apparently damaged, and these innocent youngsters
who may have passed up other offers in order to come to OU are now left to
scramble to find alternatives.
Absence
of responsible leadership
It
may have been difficult for OU's leadership to announce this set of problems and
the possible outcomes thirteen months ago;
but,
it would have been the right thing to do.
This
demonstrates, in our opinion, a deficiency of character in those who lead this
institution. More than management skills, public relations-fund raising
skills, or the depth of knowledge of education systems and other experience,
character is the most important qualification the leadership of this university
must have.
This
failure to give sufficient advance notice to so many people who stand to lose so
much, we believe, demonstrates an absence of character and is unforgivable.
Board
of Trustees
We
do not believe that the eminent citizens who comprise the Ohio University Board
of Trustees were fully informed of this process and the potential outcome that
is now growing into public outrage within local and national circles, and OU’s
alumni base.
Had
they been fully informed, knowing their reputations, standings in the community,
and reputations as top leaders and managers of substantial character, we believe
they would have seen the inevitable consequences and would have taken corrective
action well in advance to avoid the current state of affairs.
We
believe further, that what appears to be OU’s leadership’s failure to fully
inform the Board of Trustees of the potential – and now reality – of the
reaction demonstrates a profound lack of judgment and foresight by OU’s
leadership and Athletic Department.
We
believe that this is a substantial disservice to the Board of Trustees as they
carry out their oversight and responsibilities to the University and citizens of
Ohio.
See
this web page on this exclusion and how it is already at the attention of
the national sports community:
"OU
Violates Its Own Policy"
A
synopsis of our position
Our
basic position in this campaign to save these teams is synopsized on this web
page:
What
we ask you to do
We
believe that you, as student leaders, have an obligation to bring this before
the Board of Trustees and demand, in the strongest possible language, that the
process of dissolving these teams be ceased immediately.
Please
submit a resolution to the Board of Trustees to reverse this decision
immediately with these elements:
1.
Immediately reinstate the dropped teams;
2.
Take immediate action to help the lacrosse team resume its aborted season
so they can play scheduled opponents. The
first game of their season is scheduled to begin February 16.
Their first two opponents, upon receiving the news of the canceled season
found other opponents. However
checking the university websites of their remaining 14 opponents indicates that
those teams have not yet scheduled alternative opponents.
There is time to salvage this team and its season but the Board of
Trustees must act right away;
3.
Embark on a much more comprehensive effort to explore all the options
available than was apparently undertaken by the OU Athletic Department;
4.
Implement the most promising and very practical options already
enumerated by prominent alumni to place OU Athletics on a sound financial and
administrative footing; and,
5.
Conduct an independent and outside review of OU's financial condition,
specifically the way the Athletic Department has spent and plans to spend its
budget must be conducted.
Need
for independent, objective, outside review of this decision and OU Athletic
Department’s financial condition and plans
We
believe that an objective, independent, and outside review of OU's financial
condition, specifically the way the Athletic Department has spent and plans to
spend its budget must be conducted.
It
appears that the main goal of the Athletic Department is to build a stronger
football program to bring in more revenue. We question the ability of OU's
market to generate sufficient revenue to offset what appears to be far more
spending on the program. The small number of tickets sold to OU supporters
to attend the GMAC Bowl is a telling indicator.
This
increased spending on "revenue sports" has already forced three (four
if you count indoor and outdoor track as two sports teams) out of existence.
If the aggressive spending continues with a poor outcome, how many more sports
programs might suffer?
We
do not oppose spending on revenue sports to increase the University’s
revenues, per se. However, with OU in serious financial trouble for five
years now, it is imperative that OU get its financial house in order before it
sanctions a spending spree using funds it does not have and which results in
destroying teams with long traditions at OU.
The
overspending on the trip to the GMAC Bowl and the shortfall of bowl and ticket
sales revenue to offset it is a glaring example of the future scenario we fear.
Time
is of the essence – There
is still time to save these teams and salvage the lacrosse team’s season.
Before
substantial future spending is permitted, and before these teams go out of
existence entirely, all of the possible options listed throughout our website
and many more that we believe will be offered up by active participants in our
effort must be explored.
See
this web page for an enlightening news report on OU's athletic spending that we
believe will help you understand our position:
Legal
action contemplated
As
a final note, you should be aware that people within our group are contemplating
legal action. Attorneys are now reviewing the material we have.
We
will give them the rest of the documents when we receive them from OU. We
do not wish to take this course and hope OU and its Board of Trustees will see
this situation more clearly and reverse this course of action.
Nevertheless,
we are prepared to take this case to court if attorneys advise us that we have a
case. We know that OU does not wish to be challenged in court and we do
not want to challenge them this way either.
We
are loyal to OU and do not wish to see it cast in an unfavorable light in a
legal contest.
We
hope an amicable solution to this situation can be found and found quickly
before further damage is done. Please see our statement to this effect on
the website at:
We
encourage you to review all the material aggregated on the web site so you will
be as fully informed as possible. We also ask you to invite the members of
the Board of Trustees via email and phone calls to read this letter and view the
website at www.SaveOUSports.org in
sufficient time in advance of the February 15-16 meeting, so they may be
informed of our side of this situation.
We
hope you will see the merits of our position and support us with a resolution by
the Board of Trustees to halt this decision and explore all the options.
We
believe the Board of Trustees will see that this situation is so serious that
they must act quickly
Thank
you,
Allison
Brennan, Megan Sanders and Catherine Shelley, Women's Lacrosse Team
Coordinators: http://saveohiolacrosse.blogspot.com/
Matthew
Temple, John Schaefer and the United Swim Parents, Men's Swimming and Diving
Team Coordinators: http://saveohioswimming.blogspot.com/
--
GO BOBCATS!!
"ATHENS MESSENGER" REPORT ON
BOARD'S DECISION
[In text bold emphasis and additional comments in brackets added by
SaveOUSports.Org. Full, original text reproduced outside of brackets.]
2/17/2007
11:30:00 AM
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OU
Trustees opt not to intervene on sports cuts
CASEY
S. ELLIOTT
Staff Writer
CHILLICOTHE - The decision to
cut several sports programs to help manage Ohio University's athletics
department sports budget and to bring the university in line with Title IX
requirements will stand, the OU Board of Trustees decided Friday.
Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt announced a decision in January that men's
indoor and outdoor track and field, men's swimming and diving and women's
lacrosse will no longer be offered as varsity sports at the university. On
Friday, the trustees decided to uphold that decision.
"The administration had to make some tough choices, and it wasn't
done lightly," said Trustee Marnette Perry, who chairs the board's
Student Life, Human Resources and Athletics Committee. That committee
heard arguments on Thursday from some students seeking to reverse the
decision or adopt a phase-out plan. Hocutt's decision would discontinue
the sports at the end of the 2007 season.
Hocutt said Thursday the decision was a result of several factors. Those
factors included keeping the department from continuing to operate under a
deficit, complying with Title IX standards of the Educational Amendments
of 1972, and improving the quality of the sports programs offered at OU.
The trustees could have overturned the decision, Chairman R. Gregory
Browning said after the meeting. However, the reasoning was sound, and
Browning said the board is ultimately more of a policy-making body, not an
administrative one.
"Yes, we could have intervened," he said. "But this was an
administrative decision, and we are a policy board."
Many of the trustees
expressed sadness over the choice that had to be made, but they agreed
that it was a hard decision and a correct one in the end.
"I support the decision made. I believe it was the right
decision," Trustee Larry Schey said Friday. "Leadership is about
making hard decisions for the good of the overall organization. It is an
unfortunate reality that we have budgetary limits we have to work
within."
OU Student Trustees Micah Mitchell and Lydia Gerthoffer said, however,
that one part of the process was flawed - getting student opinion and
communicating with the entire OU community about the decision and the
reasoning behind it.
[This
part of the process was deeply flawed and in flagrant violation of
OU's official policies. Please see this
link on our website.]
"There is always a better way to communicate," Gerthoffer said.
"There were flaws in the process, and I hope we have learned and will
build a new process which restores faith in the administration and in the
process itself."
celliott@athensmessenger.com
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DROPPED
TEAMS
2006
Women's Lacrosse Team
Swimming
and Diving
and
Track
and Field
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