Spring Break
URI athletics cuts field hockey, men's tennis, men's swimming
Matt Pavao
Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: News
04/15/08 - The University of Rhode Island athletic department announced its plans yesterday to cut the field hockey and men's tennis and swimming teams due to budget cuts within the department. Additionally, the women's lacrosse team will not become a varsity program as originally planned when the gymnastics program was cut in February.
The elimination of the three programs comes after last week's announcement of an $840,000 budget cut of the athletic department for the 2009 fiscal year. The department's cut was part of $12 million in budget cuts to URI.
Athletic Director Thorr Bjorn made the decision to cut the teams after going through nearly 20 different scenarios. The elimination of the three programs will make up half of the $840,000 budget cut. Bjorn said the remainder will come from early retirements, possible layoffs and increased revenue projections.
"There is no good scenario or best scenario," Bjorn said. "We were trying to find the best of a bad situation. This made the most sense in terms of accomplishing all objectives."
Bjorn would have preferred avoiding the elimination of any programs but found that that ultimately wasn't possible.
"Once we found out that we had to make a dramatic cut I felt that the best way to address that was to not cut horizontally but vertically because it's such a large number," Bjorn said. "As we went through the process I felt that ... if it was a horizontal cut then every one of our programs would struggle to compete."
Along with meeting budget requirements, the planned cuts also needed to meet Title IX gender requirements. Title IX expert Janet Judge reviewed the plan for the university and found that it met all requirements.
"After reviewing the proposals for all programs, I find them to be consistent with national and conference averages and consistent with Title's mandate that participation opportunities be meaningful opportunities," Judge said in a GoRhody press release.
The elimination of the three programs comes after last week's announcement of an $840,000 budget cut of the athletic department for the 2009 fiscal year. The department's cut was part of $12 million in budget cuts to URI.
Athletic Director Thorr Bjorn made the decision to cut the teams after going through nearly 20 different scenarios. The elimination of the three programs will make up half of the $840,000 budget cut. Bjorn said the remainder will come from early retirements, possible layoffs and increased revenue projections.
"There is no good scenario or best scenario," Bjorn said. "We were trying to find the best of a bad situation. This made the most sense in terms of accomplishing all objectives."
Bjorn would have preferred avoiding the elimination of any programs but found that that ultimately wasn't possible.
"Once we found out that we had to make a dramatic cut I felt that the best way to address that was to not cut horizontally but vertically because it's such a large number," Bjorn said. "As we went through the process I felt that ... if it was a horizontal cut then every one of our programs would struggle to compete."
Along with meeting budget requirements, the planned cuts also needed to meet Title IX gender requirements. Title IX expert Janet Judge reviewed the plan for the university and found that it met all requirements.
"After reviewing the proposals for all programs, I find them to be consistent with national and conference averages and consistent with Title's mandate that participation opportunities be meaningful opportunities," Judge said in a GoRhody press release.
