It would take an $80 million endowment to create the $4 million in annual income to fund the five sports. Barbour would not
Cal Berkeley Women's Lacrosse Coach Theresa Sherry
specify how much must be raised to “buy time” for the programs.
Camilla Hayes, a sophomore on the lacrosse team, was in geography class when she received the e-mail from coach Theresa Sherry on Sept. 28, informing the players their program had been cut.
Cal’s decision to cut baseball, lacrosse, and men’s and women’s gymnastics, plus demote rugby to a club sport. The moves, which will save nearly $4 million annually at a time of economic turmoil in the UC system, thrust 163 student athletes into awkward limbo.
They suddenly found themselves forced to choose between their chosen sport and their chosen school. Should they leave Berkeley to find another place to compete in intercollegiate athletics? Or should they stay to pursue a Cal degree but give up their lifelong passion?
The quandary is complicated by faint hope the five sports could be reinstated, if feverish fundraising efforts sway school officials. All the while, those student athletes wade through a swirl of emotions: confusion, frustration and more.
“They’re angry,” athletic director Sandy Barbour said, “and I get that.”
Take lacrosse, where Hayes will transfer to Maryland at semester’s end but two other players, sophomores Megan Takacs and Melissa Humphrey, will stay at Cal even if it means giving up their sport.
Humphrey wants to pursue her education in architecture and Takacs, after taking a trip to Ohio State (near where her mom lives), chose to stay at Cal because of its academic reputation and location.
Barbour clearly didn’t relish cutting four of the school’s 29 programs, or stripping rugby – winner of 25 national championships since 1980 – of its varsity status.
“It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do professionally,” she said this week, “and there’s no close second.”
Given university-wide layoffs and cutbacks, faculty members pressured Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to make similar sacrifices in athletics. The school ultimately decided it must limit its contribution to the athletic department to $5 million annually starting in 2014 (it was $12 million in the most recent fiscal year), an amount considered “sustainable.”
Alums of the four eliminated sports, and rugby, were outraged by the decision. They soon started vigorous fund-raising in an effort to persuade Birgeneau and Barbour to reinstate the sports.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/26/MNV01GHVK6.DTL&ao=2#ixzz16UuF2Ae9
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/26/MNV01GHVK6.DTL#ixzz16Ut103U7
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