Sports Cuts: Where Is the Money?
It has been over a year and a half since Whittier College announced the discontinuation of multiple sports programs.
On Nov 12., during the Fall 2022 semester, Whittier College announced via the College website that they would be canceling: football, men’s lacrosse, and both men’s and women’s golf. But now, one year later, this begs the questions: where exactly did the funds go, and did cutting the sports generate any funding for the College?
According to former Board of Trustees Chair Miguel Santana, and former President Linda Oubré, the decision was made due to how the campus “spent roughly half a million dollars on the football program each year.” Also, because of to the lack of attendance for college games, alongside a growing concern surrounding contact sports, which football and lacrosse fall under. As stated in the announcement, contact sports can result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. The College claimed that they did not want to take the risk and would rather cut the sports than harm any players from the possibility of getting CTE.
When the announcement was published, the Board of Trustees assured that the money from the sports would not go to waste. According to the Board, the money from the discontinued sports would be distributed to the 18 remaining sports on campus, along with contributing more support to academic, health and wellness, and recreation programs. When explaining the concept of distribution, the former Chair Miguel Santana claimed that “we are reinvesting our resources and efforts in programs that will impact even more of our students. We will continue to be open to other innovative developments that meet our students’ needs.”
Now the effect of the cancellation is still lingering in conversations. Although the exact health and wellness programs were not disclosed, the College’s press liason, Gillian Frew, unveiled that the budget primarily goes towards academic programs, as it is customary whenever the College has to make any cuts in departments.
In regards to the multiple sports programs’ cancellation, Frew states, “Unfortunately,” states Frew, “in the case of the athletic programs that were discontinued under the previous Whittier leadership, the loss of tuition dollars from student athletes who transferred from Whittier was far greater than any savings realized.” Frew’s disclosure about the decline in student athletes attending Whittier is tied to a promise made by the College to keep financial aid assistance as confirmed in the announcement last November.
Student athletes are not eligible to recieve financial aid for their involvement in the College’s athletic programs. Due to this, the elimination of any sports programs does not affect the aid the student athletes received. However, some student athletes expressed that taking their ability to participate in their sport was a struggle that they could not overcome, and as a result, most student athletes from the discontinued sports either graduated or transferred entirely to a different sport, institution, or activity. The cut in costs for the academic programs could help expand and recover the decrease of the student population, another possible solution to the overall problem.
However, if these specific sports were never discontinued, Frew believes more money would have been spent on the departments. “Had the now-discontinued programs been retained, the College leadership [would have known] that additional investment in some of those sports would have been required in order for them to achieve success.”
Recently, an online petition was formed to reinstate men’s lacrosse in club form, the only way in which sports could be revived, according to the Board of Trustees. See “Whittier College Reinstating Lacrosse?” for information. However, according to Frew, undisclosed academic programs currently on campus will continue to benefit from these fundings, allowing for more opportunities.
Photo Courtesy of Jacob Perez / Quaker Campus
