A year later, football player reflects on decision to cut programs

Photo courtesy of the Washburn Foundation

After 127 years of tradition, CC’s football program was cut last spring. Now, if the Washburn Foundation, a group founded by students, alumni and parents to reinstate the program at CC, has its way, the next football season won’t be far away.

And football is not their only concern. The group’s website states: “While our immediate focus is on restoring CC football, our long-term vision includes restoring women’s softball and water polo as well as ensuring that all intercollegiate athletics are supported at a competitive level by the college administration, students and alumni.”

“Football, water polo and softball were all part of the athletic family that was taken away,” said Steve Paulsen, a 1974 CC graduate who played offensive line. “Our goal is to bring these three programs back as quickly as possible.”

Fortunately, CC athletic director Ken Ralph forecasts a stable financial future for the athletic department. “It looks like the drastic measures taken last year will allow the department to not experience further cuts in 2010-11. We are anticipating that the programs will receive essentially the same funding as in 2009-10,” Ralph said. “In even more positive news, the intramural and club sports programs will receive more funding next year through the student activity fee budget, allowing us to expand opportunities for our students in these very important areas.”

Some of the Washburn Foundation’s leaders believe that cutting the three athletic programs is emblematic of larger changes at CC that they do not agree with. 

“We believe strongly that intercollegiate athletics are an integral part of a strong and diverse liberal arts education,” the website says. “Restoring CC to its historic rank among the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the nation will require a focus on the total student experience and athletics are a key element.”

Indeed, there is quite a bit of evidence that supports the contention that a college’s levels of academic success and intercollegiate athletic participation are related. Others contend that many of CC’s peer institutions have made similar decision to deemphasize athletics in their quest to be a top liberal arts college.

As Washburn board member Jerry DiMarco wrote in a recent letter to the Bulletin, CC’s alumni magazine, “Nothing could be further from the truth. If we look at the other 24 highly ranked liberal arts colleges, one can’t help but notice greater support for intercollegiate athletics. CC currently supports 16 varsity sports, while peers, according to Department of Education statistics, support anywhere from 18 to 34. Only 3 coed colleges besides CC do not have football. In terms of student participation in varsity sports, CC is near the bottom at 13.5 percent, while most of the other colleges range between 20 percent and 40 percent.”

If CC enters the top echelon of liberal arts colleges, it will find itself among colleges who have made far more significant commitments to athletics. At Williams College, the US News and World Report’s top rated liberal arts college, nearly 40 percent of the student body participates in varsity athletics. Williams offers 30 varsity sports, almost double the number found at CC.

“The Washburn Foundation has focused its goals on increasing opportunities for students to participate in intercollegiate athletic activities, not just specifically aimed at football,” said Ralph. “Their research has shown that CC offers far fewer varsity teams than peer and aspirant school such as Williams, Middlebury, Kenyon or Colby. Their stated goal is to increase opportunities for our students and of course I would be supportive of such goals.”

CC’s continued efforts to increase diversity were also hampered by the decision to cut the football program. In stark contrast to many of CC’s athletic programs, the football team was made up of a disproportionately high number of minority students along with students who rely on financial aid. 

“We aren’t just a bunch of whiny alumni complaining about our sport getting cut,” Paulsen said. “This whole focus on intercollegiate athletics will be a key component of the college’s success in the future.”

That may be part of the problem. The decision made to cut football, water polo and softball was based on short-term economic interests, not on what was best for CC’s future. 

The economic crisis created financial instability that demanded the college make difficult decisions, a fact Washburn members acknowledge. The financial details remain the toughest sell. “If we can help them see a way out of the financial concerns they have, they will support it,” Paulsen said.

“The board should protect the principles the college was founded on and the principles the college is supposed to represent,” Paulsen said. “If you do that, the future of the college will take care of itself.”

It is safe to say, Paulsen – along with the 150 people who have joined the Washburn Foundation – agree that by cutting three sports without allowing any public input or discussion, the administration failed to exemplify many of the values that the CC community strives to represent.

Whether their efforts will be immediately successful remains to be seen, but the college’s administration has maintained they will not consider reinstating the three programs for another two years. Undeterred, Paulsen said the Washburn Foundation is aiming to bring football back by 2011. 

The foundation will continue to plan campus events to remind the community that although football was cut, there are many people working hard to restore it. “We want to keep visible and we want to keep engaging the people who can help us,” said Marilyn Blaustein, mother of Billy Blaustein ’08, a four-year football player.

Their visibility efforts will continue later this month with a benefit golf tournament. Blaustein said there has been strong support for the golf tournament, and even community members with no real ties to CC have stepped up to show their support.

This fall’s Homecoming weekend will mark the 60th anniversary of the CC football team that won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in 1950. Twenty players from that team will return to campus to participate in events organized by the Washburn Foundation.

The Washburn Foundation shares the same stated goal of the administration to make CC the best liberal arts college in the nation. A mountain of evidence, however, seems to point to cutting three athletic programs as a sharp step in the wrong direction towards attaining goal. Whether any action is taken to correct this misstep will have a significant impact on the future of CC.