Friday, September 28, 2007

Save Syracuse Swimming and Diving

Note: This post does not reflect the opinion of any particular group.

Save Syracuse Swimming

I'll make this short. It's no secret that the large majority of the athletic department's revenues come from Men's Basketball and Football. They rely heavily on those programs and I think that the lagging Football attendance is a financial stress. I'm a huge fan and I think I missed 1 or 2 games my whole career at SU in a time that the program was in bit of a swan dive, but I think athletics built an expectation of revenues from that program and didn't prepare well enough for a down time in overall attendance, so they're making swift cuts. However, they have been quite quick to spend a LOT of money changing uniforms and logos multiple times, and on a huge NYC marketing campaign.

I think we are looking for some chance to let the Swimming and Diving team meet the goals of the athletics department through alumni and other support. As a former Student Association rep, I found it extremely disrespectful that no one from the department attended the assembly meeting they were invited to a week in advance to answer questions about the cuts. I will continue to applaud the efforts of SA in defending their fellow students on this issue. I'm guilty of never attending a S&D meet, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve fair process. And before you jump on me for not offering any idea, here's one – the university is looking to spend a lot of money to replace Archbold gym, so how about building the necessary swimming facilities into it? It could be a great collaboration effort between SU athletics and the University at large.

Menotti Minutillo, Jr. '07
Co-Founder, Otto's Army
Student Association Assembly Representative, 50th Session

No comments: