The University of California-Davis is cutting four of its 27 intercollegiate sports as a response to cuts in state funding.
UC Davis officials say that it will eliminate women's rowing, men's swimming and diving, men's wrestling and men's indoor track and field. Those cuts will help the UC campus, according to their numbers, save $2.9 million over three years.
The programs will be discontinued by July 1 and will affect 153 student athletes and seven coaches, who will lose their jobs. Officials called the decision "difficult but necessary" to balance its budget and preserve its other athletic programs.
Chancellor Linda Katehi said that dropping athletics teams and losing opportunities for student-athletes is regrettable but necessary.
"The UC Davis community is confronting enormous financial challenges," she said. "During my brief tenure as chancellor, I have come to appreciate the rich and unique athletic traditions at UC Davis," Katehi wrote in accepting the recommendations of Fred Wood, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, and AD Greg Warzecka to adopt the plan that drops the four sports. "I believe this budget model provides the best means of preserving and enhancing these athletic traditions for the future."
In a release from the university itself, the cuts in athletics are in response to state budget cuts over the past two years, UC-Davis also has eliminated courses, increased class sizes, reduced student services, increased fees and cut student enrollment.
As an example given by UC-Davis Friday: In February, Katehi and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Enrique Lavernia assigned $36 million in budget reductions campuswide for 2010-11, including a $1.79 million cut to Intercollegiate Athletics.
If you add in the associated benefits and additional reductions, the cut amounts to about $2.4 million.
Students and coaches were told today so they can search for other schools for enrollment or employment. Shockingly, no student was allowed in the news conference.
Here's a story News10 in Sacramento ran at the time that discussions were underway to figure out who was going to go and who was going to stay...
Nick Monacelli was on campus a whole lot recently, thanks to news10.net
CBS13/CW31's Steve Large was on campus at the time that AD Warzecka delivered the news to the affected student-athletes Friday afternoon...
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