Last week the college chopped off two more sports programs. The men's golf and women's tennis teams were amputated from the athletic department, ostensibly to redirect the vital flow of money toward sports with a better chance to succeed.

In his press release, Athletic Director Mike Kovalchik emphasized the word “discontinued” to describe these cuts, as he did two years ago when four sports met the same fate.

At that point, he spoke of bringing the teams back as quickly as possible, but two years have passed since then and today two more sports are gone.

The administration says it wants to strengthen and improve the athletic department. Chopping off two teams and redistributing their meager budgets, however, isn't going to make a major change in the overall success of Charger Sports.

Hillsdale is simply too small and too poor to maintain a healthy and consistently successful Division II athletic program. Even the smaller colleges in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference have student bodies two to three times the size of Hillsdale's.

The Chargers are the underdogs in most battles, especially against schools like the behemoth Grand Valley State University, with its 22,000 students, national champion football team and 17 thriving sports programs.

That isn't to say that none of our teams can succeed. Men's cross country, for example, is the eighth-best team in the nation, and this women's basketball season could progress to the NCAA tournament, as it did two years ago.

Hillsdale College has a few successful teams, and it will continue to have a few successful teams in a mostly mediocre athletic department unless it makes drastic budget and personnel changes.

The administration is unable and unwilling to do that, however. It has and will probably continue to seek the success of a few sports at the expense of others.

This is a lose-lose situation for Hillsdale. Cutting sports hurts its reputation, does little to nothing for the college's finances, and certainly doesn't help the students themselves.

What Hillsdale ought to do is move down to Division III. This would solve many of the problems the athletic department is experiencing.

Most importantly, the major financial burden of a Division II sports program—scholarships—would be removed. The college would be able to channel a reasonably small portion of its budget to other, relatively minor team expenses and to maintaining the sports facilities, something it is not fully able to do now.

While the college might lose whatever prestige is associated with competing as a Division II school, it would be able to support a greater range of teams, thus providing more opportunities for students to play sports.

Albion College, for instance, participates in 18 Division III sports, even though at 1800 students it is not much larger than Hillsdale.

Taking away the scholarship aspect of the athletic department would not affect the way students benefit from sports, either. Students would still be able to experience the thrill of competition, the experience of working as part of a team towards a greater goal and the physical and mental discipline that athletics requires.

They just wouldn't be getting paid for it.

This would, incidentally, solve the identity crisis experienced by most universities with major athletic programs, and which Hillsdale possesses on a smaller scale. When getting paid to play, student-athletes have a tendency to become athlete-students. If Hillsdale is truly committed to proving itself as a top liberal arts school, its athletic department shouldn't be the primary reason some of its students are in class.

As a Division III college, Hillsdale would be able to compete on the same level as the other schools in its conference. No longer would athletes have to suffer through the cramped 8-hour van trips to the U.P. colleges. Hillsdale's main competitors would be within driving distance of many more students and fans, fostering rivalries, increasing game attendance and maybe even eliminating the need for school spirit meetings.

The benefits of moving to Division III seem obvious to us. Perhaps they haven't occurred to the administration yet, but it seems a new plan of action is urgently needed.

No matter what happens to the athletic department in the next few years, we at the Collegian recognize the talent and dedication in all of our sports teams, and we will continue to cheer for the Chargers.