On April 2,
The men’s and women’s alpine ski teams would be converted to a club team next year, the athletic director told him, and Fox had been “separated” from the University.
“It was an emotional meeting,” said Fox. “I thought we would fly under the radar, but that wasn’t the case.”
Fox had hoped that his teams’ athletic and academic achievements would help save them. Last year, the men’s team had won the United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) National Championships, and this year, the women’s team had tied for fifth at Nationals, held in
“I was expecting it a little bit, but I was still in shock,” said Fox. “We kind of thought that we were in the clear, because we heard the day before that the baseball team was getting cut, but then we were called into the meeting the next day. A lot of people completely freaked out,” said sophomore Amy Gifford, who placed 20th at Nationals this year.
Five UMass skiers were named Second Team All-Americans this year, including both the men’s and women’s captains, seniors Alex Zahoruiko and Emily Shilletto. Four of the five UMass women competing at Nationals were chosen for the Academic All-American Team.
Fox is now looking for a new coaching job, and the UMass alpine skiers are trying to make the transition into becoming a club team with no University funding and no coach to guide them.
“I don’t think the administration realizes how good our team is. They don’t value skiing. They don’t understand it,” said Fox.
McCutcheon said one of the reasons for cutting the ski teams over other sports teams was because the skiers would be able to compete at the same level as a club.
Fox, ski team alumni and student-athletes strongly disagree with this sentiment, arguing that losing varsity status will have a huge and irreversible negative impact on the skiers’ ability to be nationally competitive. They argue that they will no longer be able to recruit new talent to the school.
“It wouldn’t make a difference in competitiveness this coming year,” said Gifford. “We have all juniors and sophomores [for next year], but no one is going to come out for skiing if we are just a club.”
The greatest impact comes from losing National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recognition, which will bar UMass skiers from competing in NCAA championships.
“If they are cut from varsity,” said Michael LeBlanc, division chair of the McConnell Division in which UMass competes, “UMass will lose the opportunity to go to Regionals and Nationals.” LeBlanc is the head ski team coach at
According to McCutcheon, the athletic department faced a $850,000 budget shortfall for next year due to a permanent state budget cut of $600,000 and other expenses. The budget shortfall represents about 4 percent of the total athletics budget of $21 million.
With these financial realities, McCutcheon said, budgets for each of the 21 varsity teams were reduced by 3 percent.
“We pulled the belt as tight as we could, but there was still a [budget] gap to be addressed,” he said.
In order to find a way to address that gap, McCutcheon met with Jaime Seguin, the associate executive athletic director and other administrators to review all the varsity teams, considering “gender equity, Title IX issues, competitive aspirations, as well as NCAA and conference membership requirements,” according a press release announcing the cut on the ski teams’ website.
Title IX is a federal law passed in 1972 that states “No person in the
The shortfall in the Athletic Department’s budget is a reflection of the financial problems that plague the rest of UMass.
UMass Chancellor Robert C. Holub said in a message to the campus community that the University faces a potential loss of $46 million for the coming fiscal year. It is unclear how much state funding the University will receive.
Most of the $46 million deficit is expected to be covered by temporary aid from the federal stimulus package as well as revenue from projected fee increases. The University is now paring down its budget for the next fiscal year by $10 million said Ed Blaguszewski, the executive director of News and Media Relations for UMass.
“If we were to avoid reductions now, then the institution could face destabilizing and even disastrous budget cuts in two years,” said Holub in the statement. “To avoid taking this step, therefore, would be not only imprudent, but irresponsible.”
According to Holub, the main priority of the University is to preserve the quality of education by avoiding lay-offs of professors and trimming administrative and support staff costs.
Programs like alpine skiing become especially vulnerable during difficult economic times as administrators must look objectively at which programs they can afford to keep and those they cannot.
The most money goes toward supporting teams like football, basketball and hockey, which not only bring the most prestige to the school, but also provide much-needed revenue through ticket sales.
This fiscal year, the UMass Athletics budget for the football team was the highest at $3.5 million, followed by men’s and women’s basketball ($2.4 million and $1.4 million respectively) and hockey ($1.3 million). The men’s and women’s alpine skiing teams was the second-lowest funded team (after men’s and women’s cross country) with a combined budget of $100,780, according to budget data acquired under the Freedom of Information Act.
For a few colleges and universities around the country, cutting varsity skiing seemed like the most economically sensible option.
In March,
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
While supporters of the UMass ski team say they understand the economic necessity of cutting costs during a recession, several people interviewed said they objected to how the decision to eliminate the ski team was made behind closed doors, without consultation with the teams or coaches.
“In my opinion, it wasn’t handled appropriately,” said Patrick Kelly, UMass ski team alumnus of 2006. “They cut them, and they walked away ... It is irresponsible to cut a successful, low-funded team just to say you are making cuts.”
“The coaches were informed the process was going on, and Skip came in and made a case for his sport,” said McCutcheon in response to the criticism.
Kelly is now helping to lead a last-ditch effort to get the ski team re-instated by the University. Along with other alumni and parents, Kelly helped create Friends of UMass Skiing, a non-profit organization that has worked over the past month to come up with an economically sustainable plan for privately funding the team. They have prepared a formal report they plan to present to the board of trustees and UMass President Jack M. Wilson. In a group e-mail, Kelly urged the members of Friends of UMass Skiing to write letters to state senators to try to get more funding for the program.
“We’re not just going to roll over,” said Kelly.
The Friends of UMass Skiing’s goal of re-instatement seems idealistic, and even as they speak passionately about their goal to save UMass skiing, the Athletic Department has moved on from the decision to cut the team.
“We are not willing to re-instate based solely on external support. ... Is there any guarantee that this support will continue down the road? It’s just not practical,” said McCutcheon.
So far, parents of current skiers have contributed $30,000, and they are asking for pledges from alumni and Friends of UMass Skiing by May 15, Gifford’s father, Donn Gifford, said in an e-mail.
Even though Gifford would rather compete at the varsity level, racing on the UMass Alpine Ski Team will have to suffice.
“We’ve all been doing this for so long. I don’t know what we would do with our winters. I would rather ski, than not ski, even if we’re not competitive. We don’t have a choice,” she said.
Niina Heikkinen can be reached at nheikkin@student.umass.edu.
