Since the Duquesne Athletic Department announced the cut of four of it’s men’s athletics teams, the men’s swim team has launched a massive campaign to raise enough funds to keep the program in tact. Yesterday, the administration reaffirmed this decision, despite the team managing to raise enough money to stay afloat for at least 2-years.
Duquense requires $5 million-$7-million dollars to allow for program endowment (essentially, enough money where the interest off of it’s investment can keep the program running), and the swimming fundraising group known as “Go For Five” was well short of this.
Jim Doyle, father of swimmer Dan Doyle, is leading the fundraising effort, and says that this rationale doesn’t make sense, because none of the campuses athletics programs are endowed.
Duquesne president Charles Daugherty, athletic director Greg Amodio and vice president for university advancement John Plante also cited Title IX restrictions in a letter to swimmers and their families where they also cited that fundraising for the men’s swim team could not be the focus of the University’s fundraising efforts.
The administration has been criticized by many people for the way they have handled this matter. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the University Faculty Senate passed a resolution March 22 stating that the administration had an “apparent unwillingness to discuss those decisions with the affected parties.”
Most reports seem to indicate that the University has had a general unwillingness to work with the group, and instead is making tolken responses of providing faculty members to assist students wishing to transfer, and meeting with students one-on-one, despite not having any real intention of considering their proposals.
