Another one bites the dust, Delaware Men's Xc and Track cut

'Director of Athletics and Recreation Services'

In the UK athletics means T&F not other sports so you are now only left with recreation

I wonder how much the director's salary is and how much that is being cut by?

ukathleticscoach wrote:

'Director of Athletics and Recreation Services'

In the UK athletics means T&F not other sports so you are now only left with recreation

I wonder how much the director's salary is and how much that is being cut by?

I'm pretty sure his salary isn't changing at all.

I graduated from UD a few years back. Didn't run there, but ran in HS and been running more and more as I get older. I just e-mailed this to Mr. Muir, whose personal e-mail, by the way, is

bmm@udel.edu

And his office phone number, if you're curious, is (302)831-4006.

Mr. Muir,

This is a short note detailing for you several community related consequences of "reclassifying" Men's XC and T&F as club sports. I hope that it forces you to reconsider the recent decision.

I never ran at UD, but I ran for four years at a Delaware public high school and attended UD for the final 7 semesters of my undergraduate education. I supported all UD athletics and participated in study abroad programs and several honor societies in my time at the University. Running at a Delaware high school, I was friendly with several men who went on to run on the Delaware teams and knew each and every one of them to be upstanding citizens and successful students. I can also attest to the impact these runners, as alumni, have had on high school track and field in Delaware. Many coaches and teachers, most of whom are skilled and dedicated, came out of the UD T&F programs. These men came to UD from inside and outside of Delaware, but chose to remain in the state because of their positive experiences with Coach Fischer and the larger community. Their contributions to Delaware enrich the state on every level and speak volumes about the quality of the University of Delaware, its students, and student athletes. As a UD student who witnessed more than a few unfortunate events within the student body during my time at the University, I assure you that the publicly visible and engaged T&F alumni did much to counterbalance larger community relations issues, particularly with the city of Newark.

As I'm sure you are discovering, Mr. Muir, Delaware is a small state. The contributions of each and every person matter a great deal to its communities. UD XC and T&F graduates cost the University so very little and contribute so very much. This is true financially as well as socially. Think about the sport- it has among the fewest supporters of any athletic team, yet its graduates become the best UD ambassadors to a community increasingly at odds with the University. Your decision has changed all of that. The trickle-down effect will significantly and negatively impact Delaware public schools, the large adult running community in Delaware, and UD athletics more broadly. I understand that something had to give within the UD athletics program, both for Title IX purposes and financial sustainability. However, reducing football roster spots, cutting football expenses, or even basketball entirely (just to name a few alternatives) would have had far fewer negative consequences for UD and the state of Delaware. The PR hit may have been worse (although considering this year's meltdown in the FCS title game, perhaps it would have seemed justified), but the community impact would have been much less significant.

Going forward, Mr. Muir, I wish you nothing but the best as UD athletics Program Director. It is my opinion, however, and that of many, many others within the state of Delaware, that "the best" will most likely be achieved by reversing course on this recent decision. Personally, as a proud UD graduate, this decision hurts me and has made me reluctant to contribute financially or socially to UD for the foreseeable future. I know from firsthand knowledge that many other UD alumni feel similarly.

there is now a blog on flotrack by a runner at UD.

http://www.flotrack.org/blog/26472-Title-IX-Abolishes-Another-Mens-Running-Program

great writing

Now what? Does anyone have any good ideas about what the athletes, students, or general public can do? Having a protest would be good, but it would have to be hundreds of people to get any type of big attention. Should people get the word out to protest in front of the presidents office? I would be interested to hear what LRC thinks.

current hen wrote:

ukathleticscoach wrote:

'Director of Athletics and Recreation Services'

In the UK athletics means T&F not other sports so you are now only left with recreation

I wonder how much the director's salary is and how much that is being cut by?

I'm pretty sure his salary isn't changing at all.

im pretty sure he was being sarcastic...

Let me guess, Title IX?

Keeler and the new AD wanted the programs gone for years. Delaware is hell bent on becoming a big time football school.

It's a dream that will not be realized. Even blue hen football fans don't attend the games. The freshman drinking in the parking lots are not fans of the team and don't enter the stadium.

A classic case of government regulation run amok.

A few loons dream this stuff (Title IX) up and foist it upon the rest of the nation.

A summary of UD's 09-10 budget is here:

http://i.imgur.com/8DHLF.png

I found it on a department of education website. You can get the same info for any school.

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/GetOneInstitutionData.aspx

It's interesting to note that the Delaware football team actually made a million dollars in the 09-10 school year. I can't find the budget for this year. They probably don't have to report it yet.

Id like to see a breakdown of that football budget lol. If you believe they made a million dollars theres this certain bridge in brooklyn id like you to take a look at. Who do you think comes up with those numbers anyway?

Also the one that gets me even worse than football is the lacrosse team having 55 people. That is obviously crazy- even more so than the 103 for football.

Looking at the participation numbers again, you realize how much bullshit really goes into title 9 and keeping the illusion of compliance(which I remember from before but perhaps forgot). They list 349 men and 362 women as participants- after cutting track that will go to more or less 301 and 362. So they go from 49% male athletes and 51% female athletes to a much tidier 45% male athletes and 55% female athletes. This is close to the 43% of males and 57% of females that are enrolled in the school overall.

However...

Of the 362 female athlete "participants", 142 are involved in track and/or cross country. 26 XC,56 indoor,60 outdoor. So many of them are being counted 3 times for title 9 compliance and basically everyone is being counted twice. They even have that in the last line of the "unduplicated count of participants". So right now they are REALLY at 54% male and 46% female- obviously not even close to compliant. And even after cutting the oh so worthless track team they will still in reality have 290 men and 287 women- obviously basically 50/50 and still not compliant.

The best part is that they listed 54 women on the rowing team in the compliance figures. Even I found that hm a large number so I went to the rowing team site and surprisingly found that there were 40 women listed. So there are 40 real women on the rowing team and 14 phantom women on the rowing team. At least they dont add much weight to the boats! If you take into account this further made up nonsense you get the final real? number of 290 male athletes and 273 female athletes after the cuts of the mens team. 52% men and 48% women. Uh-oh!

This is why I find it unlikely that the football team made 1 million dollars last year.

OK one more thing and this is new to me. I went randomly through approx 15 universities in Delaware,Maryland and randomly Arizona. Hardly an exhuastive list but basically I did not see one school that was proportional with their student body to their athletic numbers- often it wasnt even close. I want to look at it a little more tomorrow but what I would conclude is that noone really monitors those numbers and that title 9 is as many say a convenient scapegoat. This specific case is even more baffling given the fact that the budget of the track team is basically nothing so it doesnt save any money. I dont understand it. Luckily I am going to bed so will not post again for a while heh.

hannsen wrote:

The best part is that they listed 54 women on the rowing team in the compliance figures. Even I found that hm a large number so I went to the rowing team site and surprisingly found that there were 40 women listed. So there are 40 real women on the rowing team and 14 phantom women on the rowing team. .

Never use the school's Athletics website as a source. These sites are run by the "sports information department" and are accurate exactly 0% of the time. The roster size listed there in no way reflects the actual size of the roster.

that is absolutely true. There are always more people on the roster online then there are on the team. There are really probably 25 people at rowing practice every day.

btw i dont want to bash rowing. Its the same for track- if 80 people are listed on the roster, youve probably never seen about 15 of them before.

Hic Jacet

UD Men’s Track and Field 1911 to 2011

R.I.P.

Is Title IX really a no-brainer, Mr. Biden?

On April 20, 2010, Vice President Biden, while announcing a policy change to Title IX, said, "We have a long way to go still, and we want to take away every barrier that exists"… "Making Title IX as strong as possible is a no-brainer."

Mr. Biden’s Alma Mater, the University of Delaware, after 100 years of the program, just axed Men’s Track and Field and Cross Country.

So I ask, why stop swinging the axe now? Shouldn’t a no-brainer for the gander be good for the goose for other things?

According to the University of Delaware’s Men’s Outdoor Track and Field website, dated January 19, 2011,

"At the conclusion of the 2009–10 academic year, UD’s undergraduate enrollment was 58 percent female and 42 percent male, while Athletics participation was 51 percent female and 49 percent male."

"Appropriate committees of the UD Board of Trustees have examined and approved a plan to meet these objectives."

"Appropriate committees of the Board of Trustees," they say. Okay, let’s see if they follow the Title IX gender equality. Having gone to their web site and looking at the photo of the board, I counted 21 men and 7 women. That doesn’t look like 58% female to me. With some math, or is it algebra? There should be 29 women. Maybe the 22 other women missed the photo op.

I saw Delaware Governor Jack Markell’s name as an Ex-Officio Board Member. I called his office to see if he has made a comment about the axing of the Men’s XC and Track and Field teams. After being transferred, I was told in no uncertain terms, "The governor didn’t cut the program." A little defensive, I thought. But has he made a comment, I asked. The answer was, "No."

Okay, I see it’s not important enough to address. Delaware has so many other track and field programs for men at the university level. After doing a Google search for Track and Field programs in Delaware. There are: Delaware State University, Ohio Wesleyan… wait that’s Delaware, Ohio. Not many options in Delaware for male high school students interested in track and field. It’s a small state. Their parents’ taxes go to support UD for in-state tuition, but, hey, they can go out of state, if they really want to run around a track in shorts or throw one of those things or hop, skip and jump around.

Back to gender equality at UD. How about the sports complexes? I’m sure they could see fit to name at least one field or building for a woman. Surely, they wouldn’t ignore women or at least be gender neutral. Looking at the campus map, I see the David Nelson Athletic Complex, the Bob Hannah Stadium, Fred P. Rullo Stadium, Fred Rust Ice Arena, Tubby Raymond Field and the Bob Carpenter or just the BOB. Yes, you can’t always tell in a name, but these look like all men to me.

Well, at least the figure head of Athletics would be gender appropriate? Nope, AD, Bernard Muir, definitely looks like a man to me.

What about donations to the University? Are they gender equal? Are ticket sales to sporting event’s gender equal? Don’t want a disproportionate number of men in the stadium seats!

The general population of the United States is about 51% female according to US Census publication P20-544. And the ratio of males to females of college age, 18-24, is 100.1. Wow, there are more males of college age than females! 58% female at UD sounds a little high, doesn’t it, Mr. Biden?

I think I’ll call Joe Biden and ask him what he thinks of his alma mater "wiping out" the men’s teams using Title IX as an excuse. Better yet, if I see him in the plumbing department at the Home Depot, I’ll give him a shout out, "Hey Joe, do you have any more no-brainers?"

I get it Dean. Muir is just a stooge of the Board of Trustees.

We should call Governor Jack Markell's office at 302 744-4101.

He's an Ex-Officio member of the UD Board.

UD receives state funds from Delaware taxpayers.

In case anyone's interested, here's the response I got from Muir. I'm not sure what he wants to talk about given that I expressed all my sentiments in the e-mail, but I'm assuming he'll deflect all my questions. What do you guys think- should I meet with the guy on behalf of taxpayers?

Response:

Thanks for your note regarding the upcoming reclassification of men's cross country/track & field to club status. As I ascertain from your note, it is clear that you are quite passionate about the sport of running and the young men who compete for Delaware. To that end, if you wish to discuss the decision made by the University further, I'd be more than willing to visit with you. I can be reached at 831-4006.

Again, thanks for taking the time to write and share your thoughts. I hope that we will have the opportunity to visit at your convenience.

Bernard