New Paltz Athletics Restructuring Plan Will Impact Track & Field

NEW PALTZ, NY — In the spring of 2003, SUNY New Paltz announced a plan to restructure its varsity athletics program. The plan will reduce the number of Division III varsity sports from 20 to 14. At the end of the 2003 school year, the women’s lacrosse and diving programs were retrenched and at the end of the 2003-2004 year the men’s tennis and men’s and women’s track (indoor and outdoor) programs will also be retrenched.

The 14 sports that SUNY New Paltz will continue offer are: baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s swimming, women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s volleyball.

Why has SUNY New Paltz decided to do this?

While virtually every path was explored to avoid this, it became more evident over the last several months that maintaining a 20-sport intercollegiate program that has the resources to compete at a high level would be virtually impossible. To operate in a manner where teams are restricted on the amount of contests they can schedule and to put restrictions on things such as travel, per diem, and equipment is unacceptable to the department and The College. But most importantly, it would be a tremendous disservice to our student-athletes.

There are many factors that led us to this decision, one of which is rising costs. At SUNY New Paltz, a fixed fee that every student pays, whether or not they participate in sports, funds athletics programs. The fee is capped and will not rise. The fixed costs of running athletics programs at the collegiate level have risen geometrically over the past few years. That includes, but is not limited to, meal costs, travel costs, hotels, and payment for referees and officials.

As an example, bus costs have risen from $65,000 three years ago to the current cost of $102,000 for traveling to and from games in New York. Other items mentioned here have risen at approximately the same pace. When one combines this with the current economic climate, it became clear in the recent months that with rising operating costs and a fixed-fee base program with no corresponding fee increase, cutbacks would have to be made.

After much study by the Director of Athletics Stuart Robinson and the university administration, it became clear that a proactive approach to manage these realities was called for. An analysis revealed that by eliminating some sports would generate a savings of approximately $150,000 over the next two years alone. The savings these cuts will generate will be invested back into the remaining athletics programs to make them stronger, ensure their future and allow athletics to run on the positive side of the ledger.

This measure has enabled the Department of Athletics to state its objective for the coming years. That is to attract the brightest and most gifted student-athletes to New Paltz, provide them with an experience that includes competition against some of the finest Division III schools, and afford our student-athletes and coaches the resources necessary to compete not only within the SUNYAC but at the national level as well.

This initiative, which places a commitment on quality rather than quantity, will help the department and The College reach its goals as we prepare the opening of a new fitness and wellness center in 2005.