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On setting the record straight

I write to address some of the statements in “Setting the Record Straight,” a letter appearing in last Saturday’s Express from Mr. Rodney Jenkins, vice president for university relations at Lock Haven University.

Of most direct interest to me as president of the LHU chapter of APSCUF is the letter’s representation of the collective bargaining agreement between APSCUF coaches and the State System.

The letter states, “In keeping with the collective bargaining agreement, these discussions [of the proposed realignment of the athletic department] were to take place internally, and only with the members of the coaches union.”

However, nothing in the APSCUF Coaches collective bargaining agreement prohibits the university from seeking input from all stakeholders, including alumni and donors, regarding proposals that might eliminate a sport.

In fact, our APSCUF chapter has long recognized the distinct nature of the athletics program in its reliance on multiple stakeholder relationships for success. Most critically for the matter at hand, in spring 2010 we provided input on the formation of LHU’s Athletics Advisory Board (AAB), an entity established on the recommendation of an external assessment related to Title IX.

The AAB’s mission is to advise the university president on a wide range of matters affecting the intercollegiate athletics program and to assist in educating various constituencies in the campus community about the role and circumstances of intercollegiate athletics at LHU.

The AAB includes representation of administrators, faculty, students, coaches, alumni, and community supporters.

Vice President Jenkins’ letter states, “It is the responsibility of key stakeholders to trust the established processes for decision making.”

The AAB is a venue for informing the administration’s decision-making about the athletics program and possibly even for arriving at consensus among various constituencies.

The administration has avoided using this established process.

In response to the administration’s realignment plan, APSCUF coaches presented a set of “points for consideration,” not an all-or-nothing proposal, that included various options to consider along with estimates of their impacts on expenditures and revenues based on the experience of similar institutions.

Mr. Jenkins characterizes one of the suggestions as “reducing our students’ academic opportunities through the elimination of a college and dean.” The current three-college structure was instituted in 2013. In going from two colleges to three, LHU did not suddenly add a college-full of programs; it redistributed existing programs. The university did add a third dean, a 50 percent increase in that level of administration.

Whatever the merits of this arrangement, the retirement of a dean could be an opportune time for reassessing it.

Reducing from three colleges to two will not reduce our students’ academic opportunities any more than adding a college increased them, and we are persuaded that no students choose LHU because it has three deans rather than two.

As to the analysis underlying the proposed elimination of the men’s track and field teams, the Vice President Jenkins asserts that the administration examined school enrollments, number of athletic programs, and number of student athletes in the PSAC and other schools in the East and Midwest as well as programs eliminated at such schools in the past five years.

That information is indeed presented in the administration’s proposal.

However, nothing in the material provided relates the information to a judgment about the optimum number of sports at LHU. Also, it neglects to list schools that have added programs, a list that would have grown by two in the last couple weeks with Scranton (track and field) and Bloomsburg (volleyball).

As to “discussions with several institution administrators regarding budget cuts and program eliminations,” no evidence gleaned from those discussions appears in the material shared with coaches.

Finally, APSCUF seeks to properly credit the important role of our coach members in attracting alumni and donor support through the LHU Foundation. In this regard, the vice president states, “In 2016, $9,500 in scholarship dollars was awarded for track and field and cross-country.”

This leaves out over $20,000 in named scholarships, drawn from accounts that total over $200,000 dedicated to track and field and cross-country.

It is also notable that the team has a $75,000 balance in its Foundation fundraising account that can be used for expenses or for scholarships. Coaches and the students themselves engage in substantial outreach with alumni and the community to help attract these funds.

Stanley Berard is president of the LHU chapter of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) .

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