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Rallies and Other Public
Action
Rally
on April 13, 2007 to Demand Answers
Students protest sports cuts
(LEFT) Student-athletes affected by the Athletic
Department cuts and their supporters gather outside of Cutler Hall Friday to
protest the elimination of their programs.
Rob Hardin / Senior Staff Photographer / rh124104@ohiou.edu
(BELOW) “Does OU have integrity?” was Brad
Stetson’s question for President McDavis during a protest against the Athletic
Department’s program cuts Friday in front of Cutler Hall. Mr. Stetson is the
father of Drew Stetson, a junior on the men’s swimming and diving team, which
was one of the programs eliminated.
Rob Hardin / Senior Staff Photographer / rh124104@ohiou.edu
Student athletes demand answers
after axing of swimming/diving program
File Photo/Athens News
Freshman Brandon Burns leads a demonstration
in front of Cutler Hall Friday, to show opposition to the cutting of
swimming/diving and three other varsity athletics programs.
Photo by Eric Kayne.
By Ashlee Monroe
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Two
Ohio University athletes whose sports teams were recently cut entered Cutler
Hall Friday afternoon looking for answers directly from OU President Roderick
McDavis during a rally to save the eliminated teams.
"We were told by his secretary that he was not in the office," said OU
sophomore and former swimmer Matthew Bell, one of the students who tried to
contact McDavis during the rally. "Of course, we were wondering why he
would be out of his office at 3 p.m. on a Friday."
Bell and a large crowd comprised mostly of student
athletes gathered for about 40 minutes in front of Cutler Hall to speak out
against the recent decision by OU administrators to cut the men's swimming and
diving, men's track and cross-country, and women's lacrosse programs. Other
concerned students, parents of cut athletes and some Athens community members
also gathered with the athletes.
The crowd provided resounding answers to several angry questions posed by
swimmer Branden Burns via a bull horn pointed at Cutler Hall.
"Did we as athletes cause the deficit?" Burns asked the crowd.
"Does this university have integrity?"
Those were among the many questions asked by Burns and several other students
who got on the bull horn during Friday's rally concerning the alleged character
of the administration displayed in carrying out the decision to cut teams.
"This whole thing has been done behind closed doors," charged Bell,
who said he has been trying to contact McDavis directly for three months to no
avail. "We just want to see a little more transparency from [the
administration] and get some straightforward answers to our questions."
Bell said that the student athletes wanted to know why the programs could not be
phased out instead of cut abruptly, and whether the administration thought that
it had integrity based on this budget decision.
Eliminated athletes were not the only athletes out at the rally Friday. Several
members of the women's swimming and diving team gathered to say that the men and
women's programs were inseparable and that the women could not win the MAC
Championship without the men's program in place.
The protesters even drew in bystanders when a young man on the bull horn called
out to a passing group of visitors taking a tour of the campus. "Dear tour
group," the protester said. "Do you want to go to a university that
does not have integrity?"
In response to the concerns of the students that were expressed at Friday's
rally, OU spokesperson George Mauzy explained that the decision was unavoidable
and came down to a couple main reasons for cutting the programs. Mauzy said that
fiscal challenges in the Athletics Department and compliance with Title IX were
the reasons for the cuts.
"The university wants to make sure that each program that it supports can
fully support its athletes and give them the full experience," Mauzy said.
Mauzy also said that the university is coming up on a recertification year and
that it must be in compliance with Title IX by then.
"Absolutely everyone is devastated that it had to come to this," he
said. "But the situation doesn't change because of that; it's a difficult
reality."
Mauzy said that it was a difficult decision on the part of the administration.
"We empathize with everyone involved that it had to come down to
this," he said.
After the crowd had congregated in front of Cutler Hall for about 40 minutes,
Burns got back on the bull horn to break up the rally after it had become clear
that they would not be talking to McDavis that day.
"We're still athletes, and we have to go to practice now," Burns said.
Saturday,
April 14, 2007
Students seek answers at rally
CASEY
S. ELLIOTT
Staff Writer
Saturday, April 14, 2007
|
Messenger
photo by John Halley
More than 100 people attended a rally Friday outside Ohio University’s
Cutler Hall, seeking answers about why OU decided to cut men’s indoor
and outdoor track and field, men’s swimming and diving and women’s
lacrosse from its varsity programming. The decision was announced in
January.
|
They
came to Cutler Hall on the Ohio University campus Friday to get answers about
why their sports programs at the university were cut.
But they did not get any answers.
A group of more than 100 students, athletes, family members and others
interested in the issue gathered in front of Cutler Hall Friday in a rally
hoping to get more answers and information about why Ohio administrators decided
to cut men's indoor and outdoor track and field, men's swimming and diving and
women's lacrosse. Those varsity sports will not longer be offered at the
university. However, the person they came to see, OU President Roderick McDavis,
was not in his office at that time to answer that question.
The university announced at the end of January that those sports would be cut,
effective at the end of the 2007 season. The cuts take the number of
university-sponsored sports down from 20 to 16, which is the minimum number of
sports programs required to keep Division 1A standing with the National
Collegiate Athletic Association. Men's track counts as two programs because it
is indoor and outdoor.
OU Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt has said the cuts were based on maintaining
Title IX standards of the Educational Amendments of 1972 and stopping OU
athletics from operating under a deficit. The cuts, he said, would also improve
the overall quality of sports at the university, because more would be invested
in those sports that remain.
Student athletes in February asked the OU Board of Trustees to override the
decision, but they chose not to, citing their focus as a policy-making board,
not an administrative one.
The
students gathered in front of Cutler Hall brought signs bearing statements of
"OU does not uphold their core values" and "Don't drown men's
swimming." In between chants and shouts, several students stated they have
tried to get more information from the administration through more conventional
means, and were brushed off.
Student Senate member Matthew Bell, one of the students present at the rally,
said he has tried many times to meet with McDavis to discuss the reasons behind
the decision. He said ultimately this rally resulted from that.
"I tried to do this professionally, but that is not going to work," he
said.
OU men's swim team freshman Branden Burns said he is most troubled by the
financial explanation given for the cuts. He said the university's deficit was
not caused by these sports that were cut, since many of them have small budgets
to begin with.
"It was not sports but the administration that brought the deficit,"
he said. "I don't understand why we have to be held accountable for their
mistakes. They should clean up their department first, before they clean us out
of our sports."
Brad Stetson of Barrington, Ill., the father of men's swimming and diving junior
Drew Stetson, also expressed his discontent with the decision made. Stetson said
he met with McDavis and Hocutt after the decision to cut the sports was
announced, but also has not received a satisfactory answer involving the
decision. He said the players on that team have endured a couple of years of cut
funding for scholarships for the program, but have excelled in the sport
nonetheless.
Further, Stetson said his eldest son, Brett, graduated from OU and also took
part in the swimming program, and his daughter Liz, currently a senior in high
school, has decided not to attend OU because of the decision. Stetson said
historically, most swimmers train with both men and women, which helps the
program as a whole, and cutting one side of that team affects the whole program.
Women's swim team captain Emily Wylam agreed. Wylam, a junior at OU, said there
are currently few women on the swim team who focus on the backstroke -- which is
her stroke -- so she usually trains with the men. She said this decision will
impact her and the whole team, who view each other as family.
"They make me successful," she said. "This impacts how I train.
They push me so much in practice."
Although Wylam has thought about relocating to another institution following
this decision, she said she finds the thought of leaving the team unpleasant.
However, it is hard for her to see members of the men's team leaving, she said.
"They are literally like a family," she said.
OU junior Ilse Petersen of South Africa agreed, noting that she came to OU
because of the swim program. She said that cutting these sports out also cuts
down on the diversity they bring to campus.
And though Petersen has also considered switching to another college, she has
decided to finish her education at OU. Others, however, have made a different
choice, she said.
"We are losing a lot of guys, a lot of girls," she said. "A lot
of them are giving up because this is not what they signed up for."
celliott@athensmessenger.com
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Student rally meant to place
focus on sports program cuts
CASEY
S. ELLIOTT
Staff Writer
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Ohio University students opposed to cuts in sports programs will
be holding a campus rally Friday to bring more attention to their concerns.
Branden Burns, a freshman on the men's swimming and diving team, said concerned
students are organizing the rally, to be held at 3 p.m. in front of Cutler Hall.
Meanwhile, an attorney for OU said Wednesday that the university has not yet
received a complaint filed with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S.
Department of Education about cutting of the sports programs.
The university announced at the end of January that men's indoor and outdoor
track and field, men's swimming and diving and women's lacrosse will not longer
be offered as varsity sports at the university. The changes take effect at the
end of the 2007 season. The decision cuts the number of university-sponsored
sports programs from 20 to 16, which is the minimum required to maintain
Division 1A standing with the NCAA. Men's indoor and outdoor track counts as two
programs.
Burns said the purpose of the rally is to draw attention to students' concerns
that the university is not listening to students nor giving answers to justify
the decision to cut the programs.
Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt said earlier this year that the decision to cut
the sports was based on a number of factors -- including keeping the athletics
department from operating under a deficit, complying with Title IX standards of
the Education Amendments of 1972 and improving the quality of the sports
programs offered at the university.
At the February OU Board of Trustees meeting, students asked the trustees to
override the administration's decision, but the trustees decided not to. Though
the trustees expressed sadness over the decision, Chairman R. Gregory Browning
said that the board is a policy-making one, not an administrative one.
Burns said he and others concerned about the cuts are hoping the rally brings
them answers. Burns noted that they have asked for answers to questions such as
why men's swimming and diving was cut when it operates on a very small budget
and why the administration did not try to work on a phase-out plan to make the
transition easier for all involved.
"No one in the administration seems to want to give us any real
answers," Burns asserted. "We get blown off when we ask questions. We
are holding the rally because we hope to open their eyes. The university thinks
we are just going to roll over and take it. They told us in so many words, to
get over it. We want to let them know we can't get over it."
Burns said when he was looking at colleges, he checked with those he was
interested in to ensure that he would be able to participate in swimming for his
four years of college. He said he checked with OU officials before he was
admitted and was told the university had no Title IX concerns in its sports.
"I didn't look at any schools that didn't have swimming," Burns said.
"I would not have considered OU without it."
Burns added that since the announcement of the cuts, he has been divided on what
he will do -- whether he will stay at OU or transfer to another school with the
sport he loves.
"It is a hard decision a lot of us are facing," he said.
"Personally, I haven't decided yet. I have a lot of friends here on and off
the team, and I like the school. On the other hand, I do love swimming, and I
just feel betrayed by the university."
Meanwhile, a complaint has been filed in the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S.
Department of Education, alleging that OU's decision to drop men's swimming and
diving as a varsity sports program violates Title IX.
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all education programs
or activities that receive federal funding assistance.
Burns said the Office of Civil Rights complaint is questioning whether the
decision was really a financial gain for the athletics department, or rather if
it was discrimination. He asserted that it boils down to gender discrimination
to cut a male sport so there is a balance between male and female sports.
OU Director of Legal Affairs John Burns said although the university has not
received the official complaint, that he is aware of it and that the university
will defend it if the Office of Civil Rights forwards it to the university.
"We'll review it carefully when we get it," the attorney said.
"And we will defend it."
celliott@athensmessenger.com
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DROPPED
TEAMS
2006
Women's Lacrosse Team
Swimming
and Diving
and
Track
and Field
|
