About 300 concerned AU students, parents, faculty and alumni packed the Tavern Wednesday night to question and decry the Athletics Department's decision to eliminate its Golf and Men's and Women's Tennis programs, but no Athletics Department administrators were present.
Vice President of Campus Life Gail Hanson attended to answer questions and explain the University's decision.
Hanson acknowledged that cuts might not stop at the golf and tennis teams, but could include some assistant coaching positions and several athletic scholarships in remaining programs. If true, that would contradict the department's original statement, released last Thursday, which noted that AU "will continue to offer 80 athletic scholarships."
After the crowd watched the news clip of a recent story about the team cuts by ABC's D.C. affiliate WJLA, Hanson tried to put the cuts in context for students who could not understand the reasoning and timing of the decision.
Aside from the need to cut athletic spending by $500,000, Hanson linked the cuts to AU's 15-Point Plan for improvement, which includes redefining AU as a smaller, more elite institution by refocusing resources.
"In concept, it sounds like a good strategy," Hanson said. "In practice, it makes for very hard choices."
She also said the athletic program had been working outside its means during a period in which AU had four athletic directors in five years.
Hanson tried to address a barrage of questions, many of which were directed at Athletic Director Joni Comstock and President Benjamin Ladner.
Comstock, Ladner and Vice President of Development Al Checcio, who oversees the Athletic Department budget were invited to the forum, but none attended.
Comstock was in Worcester, Mass., where the Women's Basketball team had their Patriot League quarterfinal game on Thursday, Hanson said in an interview, while Ladner and Checcio were both on fund-raising trips in Florida. Comstock, Checcio, and Ladner have all promised to answer questions after they return from their travels, Hanson said.
Most questions came from student-athletes, including several members of the targeted programs and of the swim team, which lost 15 scholarships in November 2003.
In a statement AU Athletics released Thursday, Comstock praised students' athletic achievements and said to maintain a high level of achievement and community support, the department must target efforts on higher profile sports.
"It bothers me, because the men's and women's tennis team has brought 25 percent of AU's [PL] championships to this school," said Tiffany Carter, a sophomore on the AU Field Hockey team. "And this is the most supported event I have ever seen. Everything [Comstock]'s saying goes against everything she did. Everything contradicts everything. I guess it's just confusing"
Hanson said Comstock's job was especially difficult, since she is in just her 16th month as AU's Athletic Director, and urged students to show compassion for Comstock, who might not yet grasp the importance of the tennis and golf programs to AU's campus life.
"I can still remember how hard my first year was," Hanson said. "It's tough to know a place, to speak its language, to know its values, to hear its pulse. This has been a really hard year for [Comstock] ... You have to take into consideration she's relatively new into job, and she's really tying to get hold of situation that has been pretty volatile for a long time."
Freshman golfer Alex Wensel questioned just how much of a strain the golf and tennis programs were to AU's budget in comparison to other programs.
"A golf team takes basically pocket change to run, compared to a basketball team," he said. "The only free stuff we get are shirts and bags, all the rest our coach lines up for us."
The schedule of AU's annual budget process determined the time of the announcement, Hanson said, but some still questioned the timing. One swimmer said the timing of the cuts to swim scholarships was equally as bad, saying it came less than a week before new recruits were to sign letters of intent.
Of the crowd, about 40 percent were student-athletes, representing every team except for the Women's Baskebtall team, who had already departed for Holy Cross.
Student Confederation President Polson Kanneth closed the meeting imploring those who came to keep the momentum going through Spring Break. The SC organized the forum.
