The Bryn Athyn College in Pennsylvania eliminates the 11 of its NCAA sports teams and its club hockey team to reduce costs, according to a letter from the President of the School.
The teams will be eliminated at the end of the academic year, and the school will also eliminate positions of sports and trainer personnel. The end of sports programs will reduce the equivalent of 11 full -time employees at Montgomery County College, said the letter published online on Wednesday evening.
“Difficult – but essential changes”
In the Letter to the communityPresident Sean Connelly said that the team cup was part of a series of “difficult changes – but essential to protect our basic academic offers and position the college for sustainable growth”.
A forum with school heads is scheduled for Thursday morning.
According to his Athletics websiteMore than half of Bryn Athyn students are athletes, and many play two or more sports. The school is a few hundred undergraduate students.
Bryn Athyn students react to athletic cuts
Students-athletes said on Wednesday that the news was a surprise.
“We did not know that it was going to happen,” said Sean Scalen, a second year student who plays football and the butt.
He said he could sympathize with financial difficulties, but he is disappointed. For many students, he said, sports are part of the reason they attend Bryn Athyn.
“It seems that I will have to transfer to a place that I don’t even know,” he said. “I’m going to have to start again.”
Junior Connor Walmsley, who plays ice hockey and the butt, said the coaches recruited new athletes all year round. The athlete community is close, he said.
“You really notice it with a little school because everyone is always going out in everyone’s matches,” said Walmsley. “It is a very united community between athletes here, and it is difficult that they only get it to tear it away.”
Students-athletes have grilled Connelly during a Thursday morning forum on campus.
“He just continued to push all the questions we had next to it, and it was really heartbreaking to hear that he did not want to answer the questions we had,” said the recruit Andrew Leibig.
“It is heartbreaking to see that the program leaves Bryn Athhyn,” said Keren Abraham, junior. “It doesn’t give people the opportunity to try new things.”
The college will organize another forum on campus so that students ask questions on Friday morning.
A spokesperson for the college refused an interview with the camera and said that all statements will be published on his website.
Students are divided on change.
“Not everyone is upset about it,” said student Josiah Genzlinger. “Many people fully support the president’s decision and understand why he had to do.”
Club Athletics will replace the cut teams
In the letter, the president calls the move “a necessary step” for the survival of the school. Since 2007, the “total cumulative operational deficit of the school has been $ 48.7 million,” said the letter.
“But the facts are clear. We are faced with a” real deficit “of $ 3.4 million,” wrote Connelly in the letter. “We have to stabilize – not later, not quickly – now.”
The sports teams will be replaced by a club athletics program which is “robust, inclusive and financially sustainable”, according to the president.
The letter indicates that the club hockey program has a particularly legendary history but that it is too expensive to maintain. It is not clear at the moment what sports will be included as club teams in the future.
NCAA requires schools to have at least 10 teams to participate in division III. The school spends 21% of its budget for sports when it represents the general costs, wrote the president.
Other changes planned at Bryn Athhyn College
In addition to putting an end to all NCAA sports, the school also plans to outsource all IT operations and to reorganize and rationalize these departments: annual donations, commitment of former, advancement and development, marketing and communications, internal and external partnerships, financial assistance and academic advice. Together, these two modifications will eliminate the equivalent of nine full -time stations, indicates the letter.
In total, 29 people lose their jobs, according to the president.
Founded in 1877, the Bryn Athyn College is a small college of private co -educational arts dedicated to a New approach to the Church In education, according to his website.
