Pennsylvania college to eliminate all NCAA sports teams, school president says
Bryn Athyn College in Pennsylvania is eliminating all 11 of its NCAA sports teams and its club hockey team to cut costs, according to a letter from the school's president.
The teams will be eliminated at the end of the academic year, and the school will also eliminate athletic staff and trainer positions. Ending the athletic programs will cut the equivalent of 11 full-time employees at the Montgomery County college, the letter posted online Wednesday evening said.
"Difficult - but essential changes"
In the letter to the community, President Sean Connelly said cutting the teams is part of a series of "difficult — but essential changes to protect our core academic offerings and position the College for sustainable growth."
A forum with school leaders is scheduled for Thursday morning.
According to its athletics website, more than half of the students at Bryn Athyn are athletes, and many play two or more sports. The school enrolls just a few hundred undergraduates.
Bryn Athyn students react to athletic cuts
Student-athletes on Wednesday said the news came as a surprise.
"We had no idea this was going to happen," said Sean Scalen, a sophomore who plays soccer and lacrosse.
He said he can empathize with the financial struggles, but he's disappointed. For many students, he said, sports are part of the reason they attend Bryn Athyn.
"It's looking like I am going to have to transfer to a place I don't even know," he said. "I'm going to have to start all over."
Junior Connor Walmsley, who plays ice hockey and lacrosse, said coaches have been recruiting new athletes all year. The athlete community is close, he said.
"You really notice it with a small school because everyone is always coming out to everyone's games," Walmsley said. "It's a close-knit community between the athletes here, and it's tough that they're just ripping that right away."
Student-athletes grilled Connelly during a Thursday morning forum on campus.
"He just kept pushing every question we had aside, and it was just really heartbreaking to hear he didn't want to answer the questions we had," freshman Andrew Leibig said.
"It's heartbreaking to see the program is leaving Bryn Athyn," Keren Abraham, a junior, said. "It's not giving people the opportunity to try new things."
The college will host another campus forum for students to ask questions Friday morning.
A spokesperson for the college declined an on-camera interview and said all statements will be posted on its website.
Students are divided over the change.
"Not everyone is upset about this," student Josiah Genzlinger said. "A lot of people fully support the president's decision and understand why he had to do it."
Club athletics will replace cut teams
In the letter, the president calls the move "a necessary step" for the school's survival. Since 2007, the school's "total cumulative operating deficit is $48.7 million," the letter says.
"But the facts are clear. We are facing a $3.4 million 'true deficit,'" Connelly wrote in the letter. "We must stabilize — not later, not soon — now."
The sports teams will be replaced by a club athletics program that is "robust, inclusive and financially sustainable," according to the president.
The letter says the club hockey program has a particularly storied history but is too expensive to maintain. It's not clear at this time what sports will be included as club teams going forward.
The NCAA requires schools to have at least 10 teams to participate in Division III. The school spends 21% of its budget on sports when accounting for overhead, the president wrote.
Other changes planned at Bryn Athyn College
In addition to ending all NCAA sports, the school also plans to outsource all IT operations and reorganize and streamline these departments: annual giving, alumni engagement, advancement and development, marketing and communications, internal and external partnerships, financial aid, and academic advising. Together, those two changes will eliminate the equivalent of nine full-time positions, the letter says.
A total of 29 people are losing their jobs, according to the president.
Founded in 1877, Bryn Athyn College is a small, private, coeducational liberal arts college dedicated to a New Church approach to education, according to its website.
