Lies, lies, lies!
Duquesne is dropping four sports - all men's.
They say they'll save about a million bucks annually by cutting wrestling, baseball, golf, and swimming. Sound familiar?
They've wiped out 40% of their men's teams and will now support only six (6) male sports. Sound familiar?
All nine (9) women's sports were spared from the "budget" axe. Sound familiar?
Multiple sports programs will benefit from increased scholarship allotments and additional operating funds to offset past budget deficiencies.
They'll be using the money to prop up other sports that lose money.
The 2009-10 fiscal year operating budget is approximately $10.8M.
So, rather than find nine (9) percent in savings in each sport, small minds decided to wipe out four men's sports to realize these "savings".
Coach Dave Sheets writes that it might take a $2.5 million endowment to get the team reinstated. Read more here.
Let's wrap it all up with the standard b.s. athletic directors and university presidents feed us when they drop men's sports teams.
Why were these four sports chosen?
These sports were selected after conducting comprehensive internal and external research over an extended period of time. The research was conducted with the following criteria in mind: financial impact, facilities limitations, gender equity, Atlantic 10 Conference support/affiliation, potential competitive success and overall student athlete experience. Reducing the number of teams and strengthening the remaining core programs will maximize Duquesne’s ability to compete at the highest level, better utilize existing funding, and enhance the student athlete experience.
Sound familiar?
Notice how they sneak in the "gender equity" bit like it's just a small component.
We all know Title IX is the main reason these sports were sacrificed...
It sucks. Our men's team does not deserve it. Our assistant coach doesn't deserve it. We are all a team. Or atleast we all were a team.....
ReplyDeleteLet's face it. President Daugherty cannot or will not engage in fundraising. He has bled the professional degree schools at Duquesne as much as he can, and has incurred 70 million in debt in construction and buying real estate. He cannot add any more debt service to tuition. At the same time he upgraded the football program to provide scholarships, which is an incredibly expensive proposition. I predict that this is the beginning of the end for Dougherty. His failure to raise money will result in a tremendous financial crisis for the school and he'll be out the door. I was a swimmer at Duquesne before it got behind the program and it kills me to see what appears to be such a successful program be dropped.
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