Oh... and the other thing they're going at W&M administration for is misappropriation of endowment funds.
Posted by
Dano (aka dano)
Oct 26 '20, 15:18
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William & Mary female track and field athletes, angered by administration’s elimination of the men’s track teams, penned a letter on Saturday stating that they will not represent the university “in uniform” again until the matter is resolved.
Twenty-six athletes signed the “Open Letter to the Administration and Board of Visitors” expressing their desire that the men’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams — which are slated for elimination at the end of this academic year — be reinstated.
The men’s track and field teams — as well as the men’s and women’s gymnastics and swimming teams and the women’s volleyball team — were eliminated on Sept. 3 in a letter that detailed at great length the budget deficits the athletic department faces at present and in the next three years. However, on Oct. 19, the women’s volleyball, gymnastics and swimming teams were reinstated to avoid a Title IX lawsuit.
“We will begin a campaign of passive resistance to the unfair practices and policies of the College’s administration, including the dishonest manner in which these decisions were arrived at,” the team wrote in its letter. “As such, you can expect to see us front and center voicing our concerns about these issues; you can expect us to take our argument to our student body, to our faculty, and to our alumni; what you should not expect is for us to show up in uniform, representing this institution, until this matter is resolved. A College that does not share these core values is not a College to be valued.”
Juan F. Conde, a board member of BackTrack Inc. - and a spearhead of the Save Tribe Track & Field campaign - called the women’s track team’s reaction unique among NCAA athletes.
“This is a level of courage that I’ve never seen before,” he said. "And it shows that there is just no way (W&M President) Katherine Rowe and (interim director of athletics) Jeremy Martin can achieve Title IX compliance without the consent of the women.
“When have you ever seen (NCAA) women, or anybody, go on the line like that and say `Don’t expect us to show up in uniform'? That’s enormous (courage).”
Martin said, after the three women’s sports were reinstated, there is no clear path to reinstating the four suspended men’s programs immediately.
“With the callous removal of Men’s Track & Field, we have lost our training partners, our teammates, and our friends,” Saturday’s letter read. "For the past decades, we have shared facilities, travel, equipment, coaches, and memories with our Men’s team.
“We demand nothing less than the reinstatement of ALL the programs and a faculty-partnered approach to a long-term solution.”
The female track athletes expressed concern in the letter about not only a perceived lack of transparency about the original cut of the sports, but a shifting narrative for doing so. Their disappointment regarding the announcement letter that copied Stanford’s in multiple places was also evident.
“We lost (the men’s track teams) to a process based not on fact but hidden from view, violating at times both the spirit and intent of our Honor Code. A process that to this day has not been revealed (is) merely covered by different phrasing, while intent remains the same,” the letter continued. "We watched an Administration, led by President Rowe and Rector (John) Littel, first blame Covid-19 economics for our issues.
"We watched their narrative shift as the facts were revealed. We watched the leadership of the College retreat into hiding while the emotions were raw. We waited for the level of honesty that we’ve come to expect from our faculty, just not our leadership.
“And now, seven weeks into the process, we are told that Title IX is to blame for these decisions.”
According to multiple sources, W&M female track athletes delivered the letter to university President Katherine Rowe’s residence and taped it to her door, along with a Tribe track and field jersey.
This isn’t the first time the women’s track and field team has addressed the elimination of the men’s program.
On Oct. 12, the team posted a petition signed by 41 members of the team on social media requesting reinstatement of the men’s programs. The petition said the attempt to cut the men’s team reflected “blatant ignorance to the fact that we are One Tribe, One Family and function as a cohesive unit.”
All of this transpires as the W&M track community expresses frustration at the university’s inability to provide an accounting of how restricted endowment money is being spent.
Conde says that the market valuation of the men’s track and field endowment is around $7.1 million and the women’s about $300,000, and that the money is designated to be spent accordingly. However, Conde said that according to available NCAA reports, income on the endowment dramatically fluctuated once Samantha Huge became the director of athletics (in 2017). Huge resigned earlier this month.
“The college does not appear to have the controls, oversight, or data to ensure that the endowment income has been targeted to the appropriate activity as per the endowment agreement,” he said. "They have just lost all track of the traceability of the data. Martin and the athletic department have been unable to explain the discrepancies.
“We have been told that an internal and independent auditor will be looking into the matter. However, it is simply not possible to be both internal and independent simultaneously.
“We have asked some very basic questions over the last 52 days and the college has not been able to answer them. How are the donors who have given the endowments to trust that they are being used appropriately? How is the tax payer that is contributing to higher education at the college or investors to trust the financial statements published by the college?
"Unfortunately, there are currently no good answers on that. Attestations for these financial statements have been performed by (Rector) Littel and President Rowe.”
In light of that, Conde says an “internal” audit by the college of the situation is not good enough. He echoed the female track and field athletes that it speaks also to a lack of transparency and care the college displayed in concluding in September that seven sports needed to be cut following this academic year.
“We’re 52 days into this and we haven’t seen the financial model that was used to arrive at this decision,” Conde said. "Statements by Martin that the process has been the most transparent are not so.
“If you want to be transparent, shows us the model used for calculating whether a sport should be retained, the inputs to the model, the underlying data, and the outputs. We have asked for this repeatedly and all we get are the same statements and the same presentation that we received 52 days ago.”
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