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The LHU athletics squeeze by the numbers

By Wendy Stiver 11 min read

LOCK HAVEN -- What reasons does Lock Haven University have to drop two men's sports?

Numbers reveal the answer, according to the university administration -- including numbers with dollar signs.

The coaches have numbers, too. One of them is 111. That is how many years the university has had its men's track and field team, according to historian Joby M. Topper, director of library and information services.

That number may not increase to 112. Dropping those two sports is part of the proposal now on the desk of the president, Dr. Michael Fiorentino Jr.

That desk is two doors down the street from Woolridge Residence Hall, named for a discus thrower from the university's storied past.

The women's swimming team was also proposed to be cut a couple of months ago. That idea is off the table now. The current coach's employment contract, which expires June 30, was not extended, according to the university administration.

The university is required to keep up with its changing student population by offering equal opportunities in athletics for both genders. The men's football team, for example, can have 85 people on its roster. But such large roster numbers do not fit the women's sports offered at LHU, according to Director of Athletics Dr. Thomas M. Gioglio. Even though the university is currently in compliance with these requirements (under Title IX), next year will be a different story if something is not done, the administration has said. The percentage of women in the general student population is 55 percent. This is expected to grow to 60 percent over the next four years.

Lock Haven University also must be fiscally responsible. It has fewer students now, only 3,802 this academic year. By comparison, LHU had 5,451 students, the most ever, in 2010.

Fewer students means fewer dollars in student fees, and athletics depends on them.

About $300,000 in funding has been lost, largely to the decrease in enrollment, according to Rodney Jenkins, vice president for university relations.

STUDENTS, COACHES

Over the past months, coaches, student athletes, faculty members and administrators have discussed this two-edged sword of enrollment and dollars.

When looking at just student numbers and finances, certain other statistics aren't part of the equation.

The men's track and field teams have one of the highest grade averages of teams on campus. They have the most alumni of any sport -- more than 13,000 -- and they also have a fine record in competitions.

The men's indoor track and field team finished its season -- and possibly its entire history here -- at an impressive fourth in the final NCAA Division II Atlantic Region rankings.

Jack Felt is a first-year graduate student in sports administration at LHU, past president of the Student Athletes Advisory Committee, student athlete representative on the Student Activity Fee Committee of student government, and also a track and field competitor.

He said all the student athletes at the PSAC indoor track and field championships, which was hosted by Edinboro University, ran a lap together in support of Lock Haven University's team .

"Throughout the whole meet, the kids kept coming up to us and asking questions. They said, 'This is crazy. You guys just push us so hard and make us better athletes,'" he said.

"We did the lap. I could tell looking at the faces, we were so unified. We were one team that day," he said.

Locally, students have posted the Twitter-related slogan #Save Haven to call attention to the issue.

The coaches union also does not support cutting sports. The union brought forward a counter-proposal, titled "Points for Consideration," on Feb. 23.

"The passion for Lock Haven University, our campus community, and athletics that everyone shared was inspiring," Aaron M. Russell wrote in his introduction to the document. He is president of the coaches union and also head coach of six teams -- the men's and women's track and field and cross country teams.

Russell said the LHU men's indoor team has competed in every PSAC championship for the sport -- 16 championships over the years -- and has won five of them.

"When you look at the podium pictures, you see crimson all over the place," Felt said.

This year's championships were no different. Among the top competitors was LHU's Addison Monroe, of Lewistown, who won both the 3,000-meter and the 5,000-meter events and was named the outstanding athlete.

'POINTS OF

CONSIDERATION'

The coaches' points include "forward-thinking, progressive ideas," Russell said.

One that gets right to the financial point is to increase the student activity fee, currently at $530 per year per full-time student.

Based on next academic year's projected enrollment of 3,911 and rounding that number up to 4,000, a $20 increase would net $84,000 more, a $50 increase would bring in $210,000 more, and a $100 increase would generate $420,000 more, according to the coaches.

The current board of trustees at LHU does not take kindly to raising student fees, as Rodney Jenkins, vice president for university relations, has noted.

But fees are very important here -- they supply 80 percent of the funding for athletics.

The coaches also call for more sports, not less, based on the thinking that new sports will attract new, additional students. The sports proposed are:

r Women's bowling with a roster of 15 athletes, which could cost $37,500 and could bring in $150,000 for a net gain of $93,000.

r Women's water polo with 20 athletes, which could cost $50,000 and could bring in $200,000 for a net gain of $130,500.

r Women's tennis with 10 athletes, which could cost $12,000 and could bring in $100,000 for a net gain of $68,500.

r Women's golf with 8 athletes, which could cost $20,000 and could bring in $80,000 for a net gain of $40,500.

Jenkins has also offered a response to the idea of adding sports. New sports generally take from one to three years to be able to offset the start-up expenses, he has said, and the university does not have the money to give this a try.

Investing in the marching band with color guard/twirlers by hiring a part-time recruiter and assistant band director could bring 25 more students to the program, the coaches state. At a cost of $50,000, this idea could bring in $250,000 for a net gain of $200,000, plus an increase in school spirit, according to their proposal.

Jenkins' response is that the marching band is already on the rise and there is no evidence that investing in the band would yield additional students.

The coaches also offered ways to cut costs -- on top of the cuts the athletics department has already taken. These newly offered cuts are:

r Allow three athletes to a room on the road, if a cot or pull-out coach is available with a potential savings of $41,000 (not including men's football or basketball).

r Having men's indoor/outdoor track and field pay for part of their transportation, meals, and-or lodging for a potential savings of $30,000.

r Reduce the rosters of both men's indoor and men's outdoor track and field from 35 to 25 for a potential savings of $13,860.

r Reduce the allotment for practice gear for these same two teams, for a savings of $16,200.

In a gesture of solidarity, all the other LHU sports would contribute $250 of support "where they see fit" for $4,500.

University-wide considerations include hiring an additional admissions counselor to recruit 50 additional students, for a net gain of $440,000. Also, the university could return to two colleges only when Dr. Susan E. Rimby, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Education, retires. The coaches projected this latter move would gain $160,000, but Jenkins said that money would not be for athletics funding.

He also said adding an admissions counselor does not guarantee more students when high schools across the Northeast are graduating fewer students and universities are competing fiercely to attract them.

Russell said that, by the figures he has, all these ideas would see a loss of $371,902 the first year, but then things would even out and the university should see a net gain of $326,501.

THE ADMINISTRATION

Lock Haven has 18 sport programs with 538 participants. Bloomsburg University has 20 with 516 participants. Millersville has 19 with 448 participants. Slippery Rock has 17 with 535 participants.

This month, the men's outdoor track and field team at LHU will begin what might be its last season ever.

Both the indoor and outdoor teams involve basically the same students. Under Title IX, they are not counted as individuals but rather as two separate rosters. Cutting both teams would affect the same students but would have the same impact as cutting twice as many students, Jenkins has said, because each athlete that competes on both teams is "counted" twice.

The women's swimming team is not under as drastic a threat as the two men's teams seem to be. It could continue to exist, with some "modifications," next academic year, according to the proposal given to the president on Monday.

The proposal also includes a one-year review of moving the women's field hockey team from NCAA Division I to Division II because, as Jenkins said, the university cannot fund the program to the extent that other Division I schools fund their teams.

Wrestling is also in Division I, but it brings in enough funding to continue in that division, he added.

So even without considering the equal opportunity requirements, the financial picture is not good.

The athletics department has lost about $304,000 in total funding since 2012, according to Jenkins. LHU does not expect to see much growth in student numbers in the next four years, and apparently, that loss is not going to be made up any time soon.

Looking at the years from 2005 to 2016, student enrollment was on the rise until 2011. Since then it has steadily decreased. LHU has lost an estimated 20.1 percent of enrollment since 2005.

The university's general fund saw a 5 percent decrease in revenue from the 2011-12 academic year to the 2012-13 year, and departments had to face up to cuts, Jenkins said. Athletics, however, did not, since there were still adequate revenues from student fees.

The university continued to see revenue decreases. For the 2015-16 year, departments were told to cut 10 percent, but athletics had to cut by only 1 percent.

This year, though, athletics has been faced with a loss of student funding and has had to tighten belts. Cost-saving measures and increases in fundraising have been implemented already.

Jenkins said he does not know what else to cut, other than actual programs.

THE DOMINO EFFECT

If cuts are made, students go away, Russell said. Some men's track and field athletes have already enrolled elsewhere for this fall, he said.

The two track and field teams involve more students than the administration may recognize in its numbers, the coach said, since there is an average of 27 students working all the time, trying to make the roster.

The university's men's cross country team would take a big hit because students often look for schools that offer all three teams, he said.

"Athletics on campus is a consistent enrollment flow," Russell said. "To us, it's important to maintain that consistency."

He said, "I liken it to farming. The farmer has to invest in the seeds and put the effort into it, and a couple years down the road, you reap the benefits."

The track and field program hosts two high school events in April, for young men and women. About 75 percent of the prospective student athletes who contact his office about coming here to compete were exposed to LHU at these events, Russell said. In addition, 60 to 70 percent of the teams' scholarship dollars are tied to those events.

"There is no better recruiting tool than about 1,800 students competing… and that's just the students," the coach said.

However, without the two men's track teams at LHU, the university won't have the 80 to 90 student athletes these events normally use as officials. Without student officials -- and without any money to hire replacements -- the events cannot be held, he said.

That loss to the university is part of the domino effect that cutting sports can have, he said.

Jack Felt is still a student athlete, and he will compete on the outdoor team this year.

"I am speaking for current athletes and alumni. I want students to experience what I got to, both academically and athletically," he said. "It's made me the person I am today."

Russell looked at Felt and said with a trace of a smile, "The reason I coach is not for the trophies. It's to see awkward, gangly freshmen -- like Jack-- come in here and become a person like Jack is now."

He credited the university for having open discussion of the issues, something that does not happen everywhere, he said. Other educational facilities might simply cut the sports and not give coaches or students the chance to respond, he said.

"We all have the same end game, to provide a good experience for students, to bring students to campus and to be as successful as possible," he said.

"It's time the administration puts their support behind the student athlete."

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