Earlier today, an absolute and utter tragedy occurred at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Without any warning or even the decency of meeting with the coaches or athletes on the team, the university posted on their athletics website that they are canceling the men and women’s track and field programs effective immediately.
This is considerably horrid in regard to the team’s current seniors as well as the incoming freshmen that have already committed to the university. Without a final season of indoor or outdoor track to be contested by the university, all of the team’s current seniors are ineligible to compete and, in the process, will lose out on their final collegiate season of athletics. Furthermore, the freshmen on the team are forced to come to the university and sit out their first semester of athletics, as it makes no sense to run for a program only hosting a cross-country and not track and field program. On the other hand, should these incoming freshmen decide to transfer before the start of the coming semester, it is extremely unlikely that they will get any kind of athletic scholarship as universities in the area have long been finished with their recruitment process.
Over the course of the last decade, the track and field program has by far been the most successful sports team at the university regardless of how one may choose to measure the success of an athletic program. In regard to academics, the program has produced two Valedictorians in the past eight years, with a third extremely likely to follow in the upcoming school year. The team has also had more Academic All-American teams and athletes than any other in the school, while boasting an average of 3.4 and 3.0 for the women’s and men’s teams last semester.
Then, looking at the athletic accomplishments of both the men’s and women’s teams, there is not any other team at the university, or even the tri-state area, that could compete with the accomplishments that have been established by the program. In Division II competition over the previous five years, the men and women have combined to win a total of twenty-one championships and have nearly one-hundred athletes be nominated for All-Conference accolades. The team has also been on-par with programs in Division I, being the only team at the university to be able to compete at such a high level. The team has also sent a number of representatives to the NCAA Championships, the Penn Relays, the Pan American Games, the Dominican National Championships, and even one qualify for the upcoming Olympic Trials.
Finally, in looking at the program from the standpoint of the community, the track athletes have been among the most supportive on campus. The majority of the athletes on the team hold positions on campus including being resident assistants, security aides, lifeguards, and ushers at the Tilles Center. This is not to mention the extra-curricular activities that the athletes presently account for including being in the student academic council, the sports council, officers in the student government, and being journalists for the university paper. The team has also participated in a number of different events on Long Island including the Special Olympics and multiple fundraisers for the overall sport of track and field. The athletes have also served as role models and mentors going back to their high schools around Long Island and speaking with student-athletes interested in pursuing their careers past high school.
All this and more has been accomplished with extremely limited support from the university. In the previous two and a half years, there has not been one administrator from the university to attend any of the teams’ competitions. Furthermore, the university groups men’s cross-country, indoor, and outdoor track, along with women’s cross-country, indoor, and outdoor track all as one team. Meaning there is one budget, which by the way is substantially lower than nearly every other team at the university, to support what is in actuality six different teams. However, the team has made this budget work despite what Athletic Director Bryan Collins may state on the university’s website. The furthest trip that the team endured in the past two years were two trips to DeSales University in order to compete in the conference championships. Besides that, nearly every other meet has been located within thirty miles of the campus at sites such as the New York City Armory, St. John’s University, and the Merchant Marine Academy.
The quality student-athletes that this decision has effected is awful and totally unjustified, despite the fact that the university is also likely in breach of the Title IX standards for athletic equality. It is no coincidence that this decision was made in the middle of summer when there is an extremely limited amount of students on campus. It is also not a coincidence that after the bulletin canceling the track and field program was posted on the university’s website, that nobody was in the athletic office today.
Please, if there is anything you could possibly do, even if it is simply making the public aware of our situation, the track and field athletes of C.W. Post would be greatly appreciative. There is an entire team of athletes still united willing to do whatever we can to address this horrendous situation that has been set upon us.
Michael Ringhauser
Co-Captain of the C.W. Post XC and Track Teams