« Faldo, Price will play in CVS Classic | Main | PC focusing on Drake's Keno Davis »

April 14, 2008

URI cutting three sports

Facing an $800,000 budget cut, the University of Rhode Island is eliminating men's swimming, men's tennis and field hockey from its varsity lineup. The cuts are effective at the end of the current academic year.

URI had announced in January that it was dropping gymnastics and adding women's lacrosse in 2009-2010. Gymnastics has been eliminated, making the total number of cuts four, and lacrosse will not be added as previously planned.

URI will sponsor 18 varsity sports in 2008-2009: football; men's and women's basketball; men's and women's soccer; volleyball; men's and women's cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track; women's tennis; women's swimming; golf; baseball, softball and women's rowing.

The men's tennis team had one of its best years in recent memory, posting a 17-6 record in dual matches and finishing seventh at the Atlantic 10 Championships. The field hockey team has endured at least nine consecutive losing seasons and was at a competitive disadvantage because its home field is grass and most college teams play on faster artificial surfaces. The 2007 Rams were 7-9, 1-6 in the Atlantic 10. The men's swimming team was not in contention at the A-10 championships.

The state, which contributes 14 percent of the university budget, is reducing its allocation by $12 million, necessitating campus-wide cuts. The target for the athletics department was $800,000, or about 10 percent of the operating budget, for the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

Cutting three sports will affect 56 athletes and six coaches. Dropping gymnastics eliminated 19 athletes and two coaches. The total for the entire program is 75 athletes and eight coaches, although swimming coach Mick Weskott and his two assistants are expected to remain with the women's team.

Thorr Bjorn, director of athletics, is seeking reductions through personnel moves such as retirements and possible layoffs. He is also trying to increase revenues. The only way he can reach his target, he said, is through a combination of moves that include sports cuts.

"These decisions have been difficult and painful," Bjorn said in a statement.

URI President Robert L. Carothers said in the statement: "Given the econimic realities of Rhode Island, the university must build its future on fewer things and being the best it can be with those programs in which we choose to invest."

URI will honor all scholarship commitments and will assist those athletes who wish to transfer.

-- MIKE SZOSTAK

Posted by Mike Szostak  at 7:15 PM to College Sports | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)