Supporters: Cutting Brown Wrestling Hurts Diversity
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
A university committee last Thursday recommended cutting wrestling along with three other sports programs—men and women’s fencing and women’s skiing. The cuts—if approved—would take effect as early as next fall, impacting an estimated 60 to 80 students who participate in those sports each year.
‘Furious and appalled’
“Furious” and “appalled” was how Robert Hill, ’88, described the reaction of wrestling alums. “It hurts,” he said.
Next year, the wrestling program—which draws about a third of its annual budget from alumni donations—was set to mark its 100-year anniversary at the school.
“This proposal makes no sense,” said David Amato, the head wrestling coach. “They’re dropping four sports and they’re not saving any money.”
The committee—formally, the Athletics Review Committee—does recommend spending about $1 million on athletics at Brown. But even that additional investment is not enough to save those four sports slated for elimination, according to Richard Spies, the Executive Vice President for Planning and Senior Advisor to President Ruth Simmons.
Affects lower-income students
Supporters say ending wrestling would hurt Brown’s stated mission of enhancing diversity.
“Brown treasures its diversity. It’s part of what makes the university wonderful and the wrestlers are highly representative and exemplary of that diversity,” said Hill, who is the president of the Friends of Brown Wrestling.
Amato said more wrestlers come from blue-collar public-school backgrounds than the average Brown student. “It’s a blue-collar gritty sport,” Hill added. “And it attracts people from all backgrounds. It’s an inexpensive sport for an individual and a family.”
Hill said wrestling also brings geographic diversity to Brown—bringing students from states like Kansas and Idaho.
Spies said diversity was not specifically taken into consideration by the committee. But he said one of the goals is to reduce the number of admissions slots for recruited athletes. “They’re all kinds of diversity,” Spies said. “We’re balancing the diversity we’re getting from one source of students with another.”
Hill worries that cutting wrestling will deny an opportunity to students that he views as integral to the Brown experience. “I love Brown,” Hill said. “Brown changed my life and put me on a better path than I was on. We need to make sure future students have that opportunity.”
Official explains decision
One of the more puzzling reasons behind the recommendation was the cost of the program.
The annual budget is about $240,000. Not counting salaries for two full and one part-time coach, Amato said the rest of the budget, about $75,000, is raised through alumni contributions. The program also has a $700,000 endowment.
Even considering such outside support, Spies said the program is one of the more expensive sports at Brown. He declined to release the annual budget for other sports, such as football, saying he was not authorized to disclose that information.
However, he noted that no single factor was decisive. Instead the committee considered eight factors in making its recommendations—which will be finalized in mid-May after the committee weighs feedback from the campus community. Those eight factors included: the cost, community support, role in the history of the school, and adequacy of facilities. (Click here to read the full list of the criteria used.)
There are currently 24 students who will be returning to the wrestling program next year—plus seven incoming freshmen.
“Those 31 kids have nowhere to go next year,” Amato said. “That’s the sad part.”
“It’d be like coming to brown for engineering and they tell you after you have been accepted or after you’ve been here for two years ‘there’s no more engineering,’” Amato said.
Students in the affected sports program held a protest on the Main Green yesterday.
“As a team, obviously, it’s tough on a lot of kids. Look at the different class levels you got. Freshmen and sophomores … not given a chance to transfer if they want to continue wrestling. Incoming freshmen, guys who were recruited here, don’t have the option to go anywhere else,” said Ricky Bailey, a senior who in the wrestling program.
He added: “Then, for me especially, I have one semester left as a senior. I took an extra year off just so I could have the opportunity to wrestle. I just feel like it’s getting taken away from me. I feel like I have a lot that’s left unaccomplished.”
“It’s part of who all of us are,” said Zack Kulczycki, a junior who said he’s been wrestling since the second grade. “It’s a sport that is involved in every decision you make. You have to get extra workouts in—you have to watch what you eat. Over time it becomes part of who you are.”
If you valued this article, please LIKE GoLocalProv.com on Facebook by clicking HERE.
GoLocalProv News Contributor Brette Ragland contributed to this report.
Related Articles
- Brown Men’s Soccer Advance to Sweet 16 on Penalty Kicks
- NEW: Emma Watson to Return to Brown in the Fall
- Brown Men’s Soccer Run Comes to an End at #6 Cal
- Brown Ranks #2 in NEWSWEEK’s 25 Most Diverse Schools List
- Brown Upsets Florida in Women’s Hoop
- BREAKING: Emma Watson Leaves Brown
- Brown to Cut Three Intercollegiate Sports
- Brown Bears Beat Black Bears 62-54
- Brown to Host Major Hunger Conference
- Brown Football Pre-Season Ranking
- NEW: Brown Professor Gordon Wood to Receive Humanities Medal from President Obama
- Brown Football Takes on Harvard in First-Ever Night Game
- NEW: Emma Watson Leaving Brown for Good
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It