W&M AD will discuss decision to cut 7 sports
The dialogue between William & Mary and its community about the elimination of seven varsity sports is on, as promised. W&M Director of Athletics Samantha Huge said Friday that she will meet with representatives of those seven sports to discuss the situation.
“As a basis for exploring how to meet the holistic challenges ahead, we will engage a core group from each of the seven teams to discuss finances and evaluate prospective financial scenarios,” she said in a post on the W&M Athletics website. “We will engage the Tribe Club Executive Committee in this work with us.
“All work is scheduled to be completed by November 11, which is the early signing period for letters of intent.”
In addition, she will conduct virtual “moderated sessions” at 7 p.m. Thursday and at least another the following week for the William & Mary community. Questions about “A Shared Path Forward for W&M Athletics” for the sessions can be submitted on tribeathletics.com.
“We will listen to and discuss our community’s different ideas regarding excellence in intercollegiate athletics at William & Mary,” she said. “We also want to offer an opportunity to understand the many facets of our athletics budget and projections.
“Our goals during these events will be to engage as many diverse perspectives as possible, share information openly, and listen to and reflect on the opinions that are expressed — all as a means of finding a viable path forward.”
The meetings are a response to increasingly vocal opposition within the W&M community to the proposed eliminations. W&M President Katherine Rowe, Board of Visitors Rector John Littel and Huge are honoring a pledge made last week to increase dialogue with those opposed.
“I will fully deliver on the goals that Rector Littel and President Rowe have outlined and am particularly committed to the student-athletes, coaches and alumni of the seven affected programs,” Huge said. “Working swiftly over the month of October, Athletics will pursue (the challenges).”
Citing increasing budget deficits within the athletic department exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, W&M announced Sept. 3 it was eliminating seven of its 23 varsity sports: men’s and women’s swimming, men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s indoor and outdoor track and field, and women’s volleyball.
The aim is to effect a savings of more than $3.6 million annually amid athletic department projections it will incur deficits higher than $3.2 million over each of the next three academic years.
Some in the department — Huge and the head football and basketball coaches among them — have taken pay cuts to help bridge the gap.
However, the announcement of the cuts was met with widespread criticism for several reasons. It drew criticism for plagiarizing Stanford University’s letter regarding its elimination of 11 sports and because W&M athletes were informed of the decision in brief Zoom sessions without the opportunity to ask questions.
Some lamented a lack of transparency used in the process of reaching the decision to cut the sports and said they want more information about the financial rationale guiding it.
The school reacted to those concerns at multiple Board of Visitors meetings. One was a Sept. 23 “Listening Session” during which the Board heard 72 people in the W&M community — many of them student-athletes — cite their concerns.
On Sept. 25, President Rowe opened the Board of Visitors meeting with a statement that made it clear she was listening to those opposed. In addition to apologizing for the “sadness” the situation has produced, Rowe promised a dialogue about it.
“We need to dig more deeply into the assumptions made in (the strategic) plan about competitiveness and what that means in a Division I context for the community now,” she said. “Our first, and most important, task is to rebuild the trust of this community and repair the distress we have caused our student-athletes, families and alumni.”