Hillsdale College dropped two more teams from its athletic program last week. The women's tennis and men's golf team join four programs that were discontinued two years ago.
The cuts affect 15 student-athletes and eliminate the part-time coaching positions of former tennis coach Sue Abel and golf and basketball coach Sam Hargraves.
In the press release Athletic Director Mike Kovalchik cited a lack of funding and full-time coaching for these sports as reasons for the cuts.
“As a relatively small school competing in NCAA Division II, we are at a serious disadvantage in these two sports,” Kovalchik said.
“Hillsdale College wants to compete strongly in all the sports in which we do compete. This move will help ensure that.”
The money the college will save in this move is equivalent to seven tuitions, said Chief Administrative Officer and Treasurer Ken Cole. It will be redistributed to the remaining sports programs, excluding the football and basketball teams.
Many athletes said they were surprised and disappointed at the decision.
“It was quite a shock to find out that the team was being discontinued ... it was very emotional,” freshman Kristen Tomasic said. “Playing tennis was definitely one of my top reasons for coming to Hillsdale, and being on the team got me through many stressful times during my first semester.”
In the press release Kovalchik cited the college's lack of an indoor tennis facility and golf course. These factors, he said, made it difficult for the teams to compete successfully.
Kovalchik added that the women's tennis team also suffered from stagnant recruiting. Former coach Sue Abel would not comment on the situation.
The tennis team has struggled recently. It finished this fall 2004 season with a 1-10 record, which followed a winless 2003 fall season.
Kovalchik said that the golf team had been supported by outside funding for the past two years, but that the money had recently run out.
The men's golf team finished seventh of 11 teams in the fall 2004 GLIAC tournament, an improvement on their 2003 outing, in which they placed 11 th of 12 in the conference.
“We have had a steady improvement of the last four fall seasons,” Hargraves said in an Oct. 21, 2004, Collegian article.
The tennis and golf teams join the men's and women's soccer programs, as well as men's swimming and tennis, which have been discontinued since the 2002-2003 school year.
Kovalchik and Cole said these two teams narrowly escaped being discontinued in 2003.
“We looked in ‘03, and we thought we could save these programs,” Cole said.
Now, however, the tennis and golf teams will join the other sports programs on the sidelines.
Unlike 2003, when budget cuts affected the entire campus, this move is simply “reallocation in the athletic department,” Cole said.
President Larry Arnn echoed Kovalchik's desire to strengthen the athletic department.
“To be competitive in those sports we need substantial new expenditure. That expenditure is not available. We ... think it is a good thing to do well at a few things in athletics,” Arnn said.
Hillsdale's endowment was suffering in 2003, which was the motive behind the original cuts.
In addition, a New York Times article published three days ago described a nationwide decline in endowments and general financial problems for colleges in the past four years.
Arnn said that, unlike 2003, the endowment is not specifically the motive behind the cuts.
Arnn said the endowment currently stands at $205 million, up from $151 million in December 2002. Arnn added that Hillsdale has met its operating budget in each of the last five years.
Despite the financial obligations associated with funding a Division II athletic program, Arnn, Cole and Kovalchik said they see no change in the college's Division II status.
“We're never going to be Division I,” Cole said. “Our plan is to stay in Division II and compete in those division sports.”
“I believe Hillsdale College is a solid Division II school. I do not foresee any change in division status,” Kovalchik said.
For now, Kovalchik said, the college will wait to see if these programs can be reinstated sometime in the future.
“We need to step back for a few years to evaluate the program and set it right,” Kovalchik said. “Cutting a program is more of a ‘forever,' we are ‘discontinuing' these programs.”