By Ellen J. Staurowsky, Ed.D., Senior Writer and Professor, Sports Media, Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College, staurows@ithaca.edu
To quote Yogi Berra or John Fogarty, it was like déjà vu all over again at the College of William & Mary (W & M) on September 3, 2020 when administrators announced a decision to eliminate seven varsity sports teams, including men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s swimming, men’s track and field, and women’s volleyball. Citing a projected budget shortfall due to the pandemic, W & M president Katharine Rowe and other officials (2020) wrote in an open letter that “Although the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics just concluded one of its strongest fundraising years in history, the harsh financial realities of COVID-19 on the entire university as well as on athletics, have led us to conclude that sustaining our current offering of 23 varsity programs in no longer possible.”
W & M Violates Title IX A Second Time by Cutting Women’s Teams
Although assurances were offered when the cuts were announced that consideration was given to the requirements of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, the school’s decision put them right back into a place they had been in 1991 after making a decision to cut the women’s basketball team. And just as the women basketball players did nearly 30 years before, W & M women gymnasts, swimmers, and volleyball players sought assistance from civil rights attorney Arthur Bryant to point out the decision violated Title IX. Bryant was quoted in an interview for WTKR.com as saying, “I was stunned to discover that William and Mary had done this again” (Plain, 2020).
The Title IX error that William and Mary made for a second time was cutting women’s programs when their program was not equitable to begin with. In terms of offering equitable opportunities for to compete on varsity teams, a school can demonstrate that athletic opportunities available to female and male athletes are proportional to the representation of females and males in undergraduate enrollment. Falling short of that, schools can demonstrate a history and continuing practice of program expansion, meaning that they are progressively adding opportunities to address the inequities in athletic participation opportunities. And failing that, schools can show that what they are currently offering meets the existing interest and abilities of female athletes, meaning that the program in place satisfies the interests of female athletes who want to play and that there are enough skilled female athletes to play.
William and Mary’s decision to cut three viable women’s sports teams exacerbated an already inequitable situation, violating all three parts of Title IX’s test of athletics participation. According to data reported by the institution on the publicly available Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act report for 2018-2019, female athletes at William and Mary did not have access to their fair share of opportunities to participate in athletics or athletic scholarship funding. Inequities persisted after the cuts to the athletic program with no apparent plan in place to remedy them as evidenced by the fact that W & M needed to add 65 opportunities for female athletes, a figure that closely matched the number of opportunities lost as a result of the cuts (O’Brien, 2020.
W & M Women’s Gymnastics, Swimming, and Volleyball Restored
Although the university claimed to have a vague plan to reduce the number of players on the football team and add more athletes to the women’s teams that had been spared, the results of what the institution referred to as a detailed review conducted by Interim Athletic Director Jeremy Martin determined that the plan would not achieve gender equity (Staff, 2020). On October 19, 2020, after a threatened lawsuit and mounting criticism from various constituencies on campus, including alumni, faculty, student government, and support groups for each of the affected sport communities, relented and reinstated the three women’s teams to varsity status (Staff, 2020).
Criticism of William & Mary’s Administration Handling of the Matter
From the time the decision to cut sports was made public in early September of 2020, the W & M administration was soundly criticized for its handling of the matter. Shortly after a statement bearing the signatures of President Katherine Rowe, Provost Peggy Agouris, and Athletic Director Samantha Huge was released to the campus community, Dr. Cameron (Cam) Shriver, a former member of the William and Mary men’s track and field team determined that sections of the statement had been drawn verbatim from a statement made by Stanford officials when they announced program cuts earlier in the year (Keith, 2020).
While an explanation was offered by then Athletic Director Huge was offered, there was no outright acknowledgement of wrongdoing, igniting calls for the Board of Visitors to take action commensurate with institutional values. Members of the faculty, already troubled that there had been little campus input into the decision-making process leading to the recommendation to cut seven sports, was considering a vote of no confidence in the athletic director. Just hours before that proposal was to be voted on, Athletic Director Huge resigned (Marsigliano, 2020).
References
Keith, B. (2020, September 19). William & Mary plagiarized Stanford’s release when announcing cuts to swimming. Swimswam.com. Retrieved from https://swimswam.com/william-mary-plagiarized-stanfords-release-when-announcing-cut-of-swimming/
Marsigliano, J. (2020, October 6). W&M athletics director Samantha Huge resigns amid controversy over cutting 7 sports programs. Williamsburg Yorktown Daily. Retrieved from https://wydaily.com/local-news/2020/10/06/wm-athletics-director-samantha-huge-resigns-amid-controversy-over-cutting-7-sports-programs/
O’Brien, M. (2020, September 24). William & Mary athletes planning to sue school over cut women’s programs. The Virginian-Pilot.
Plain, M. (2020, September 25). William & Mary athletes to file lawsuit unless their sports are reinstated. WTKR.com. Retrieved from https://www.wtkr.com/sports/william-mary-athletes-to-file-lawsuit-unless-their-sports-are-reinstated
Rowe, K., Agouris, P., & Huge, S. (2020, September 3). Open letter to the William & Mary community and to all who support William & Mary athletics. Press release. Retrieved from https://tribeathletics.com/news/2020/9/3/general-open-letter-to-the-william-mary-community-and-to-all-who-support-william-mary-athletics.aspx
Staff. (2020, October 19). William & Mary athletics: The path forward. Press release. Retrieved from https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2020/william-mary-athletics-the-path-forward.php
