The SwimSwam report below, produced by editor-in-chief Braden Keith, was tweeted 135 times and liked on Facebook 452 times.
UNC Wilmington Chancellor Announces No Sports to be Cut:
In a somewhat stunning move, the Chancellor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington announced in a press conference today that he rejected all of the recommendations to cut sports. This means that the swimming program will live on, for now.
Despite a committee after very thorough research recommending that five sports be cut, including men’s and women’s swimming & diving, men’s indoor track, men’s cross country, and softball, to save $800,000 a year, Chancellor Gary L. Miller has decided that no programs needed to be cut. After exhaustive meetings with members of the different programs, Miller has instead called on the community to provide more support to the athletic department.
Leaders of the fight to save the swimming programs, including team captain Matt Byrd, think that the relentlessness of their campaign paid a huge factor in the decision. “I think that how involved our campaign specifically got with the community was a big thing, and showed the Chancellor a lot (about the support for these programs.)”
Several sources told us of many productive meetings between the Chancellor and head swim coach Dave Allen where alternative solutions to an outright cut were discussed at length.
The Chancellor’s comments for a need for greater support reflects much of what the report found. Specifically, the opening remarks focused on a lack of revenue as a primary reason for the approximately $600,000 budget shortfall, saying that the Seahawk Club had brought in less than 44% of their fundraising target for the 2012-2013 fiscal year as of March.
