Medaille University in Buffalo, New York, has announced that it will shut down permanently. That makes it the 4th NCAA school in New York to lose a swimming program so far in 2023.
The private nonsectarian school was originally announced in January 2023 to be acquired by Trocaire College, another nearby private school, but when that deal fell through, Medaille’s interim President Dr. Lori Quigley announced that the school would instead be closing.
With nationwide higher education numbers falling, these problems are facing a number of colleges and universities around the country, especially private schools.
The school sponsored 19 varsity sports (9 men, 10 women), including men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams.
The Medaille women finished last out of 10 teams at the 2023 Allegheny Empire Championships, while the men finished 9th with just 5 points. Much like we saw at nearby Buffalo State, which announced the cut of its men’s and women’s programs earlier this month, Medaille had ongoing issues with roster size. Last season, the swimming program had only 3 men (which is why they couldn’t swim relays at their conference meet), and the women’s team only had 4.
But the program wasn’t just with the swimming program: the school cited falling enrollment amid the nationwide environment and layoffs as the root cause of the closure. Medaille saw its student body fall from almost 2,600 students in fall 2012 to around 1,800 in fall 2021.
In fact, the addition of swimming was part of a plan to increase enrollment: the team began competition in fall 2019.
Quigley also blamed declining birth rates in western New York and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Undergraduate tuition rates for full-time students was $16,500/semester.
Brian Cotroneo was the program’s head coach and Kevin Zaretski worked as the program’s assistant coach.
Besides Buffalo State and Medaille University are both D3 schools; joining them in closing down the entire school is D1 St. Francis College in Brooklyn, which sponsored men’s and women’s swimming & diving programs, and another D3 school Cazenovia College, which beat Medaille in a dual meet last season.
Cazenovia announced its closure in April 2023, citing similar challenges of enrollment.
The school will officially close August 31.
This appears to not be schools eliminating programs but schools closing entirely.
This is unfortunate!! What about Queens College NY? Any update on them? Could we be seeing a long term effect from pools being closed due to Covid?