Truman to cut men’s golf, more than $100,000 from athletics

The University-wide budget cuts have trickled down to athletics, which takes up approximately 3.5 percent of the overall University budget.

The University announced Monday afternoon that men's golf will be cut after the spring season. Also, athletic scholarships for men's tennis, men's swimming, baseball and wrestling will be phased out during the next four years. Any future athletic scholarships for those sports will be through private funding.

The cuts are the decision of an Athletic Task Force appointed in October by President Troy Paino as part of reductions in functional areas throughout the University.Headed by Athletic Director Jerry Wollmering, the six-person task force included three faculty members who do not regularly work with athletics.

Budget Director Dave Rector said the committee will have cut approximately $110,000 from the $3.8 million athletic budget once the scholarships are phased out.

Wollmering said had there been a 10 to 15 percent cut to the University, as was originally planned, the committee would have cut up to four sports. He said even with the 7 percent proposed reduction, the athletic department was forced to cut a sport because of across-the-board cuts to athletics during the last five years.

"It's something that nobody wanted to do," Wollmering said.

Men's golf has been a University-sponsored sport since 1933, and the team consists of 11 student-athletes and two part-time coaches. The total budget for the team is about $25,000 with coaches' salaries, athletic scholarships and a golf course fee added in, Rector said.

"We felt like on the athletic side our University is built for 14 to 16 sports, but yet we're going to continue to sponsor 20," Wollmering said. "The University just can't subsidize scholarships for 20 sports. I would love to provide athletic scholarships as much as we can, but we have to look at other ways to do that."

Wollmering said that when deciding to cut a sport, the committee first looked at 145 Div. II public schools. Only eight sponsored at least 21 varsity sports as Truman currently does, and all but one of those schools had an athletic budget of more than $5 million.

"Our goal all along is to provide as many opportunities as possible," Wollmering said. "Again, I think we've shown that by doing this, yes we are cutting a sport, but we're showing that we value the people. Nobody has lost their full-time livelihood out of this, and we felt this was the best way to proceed."

From the 21 varsity sports, Wollmering said the women's sports were the first to not be eliminated because of Title IX, which enforces gender-equity. Every school must have one of three facets of Title IX, and Truman qualifies because it meets the interests and abilities of women by sponsoring every women's sport that competes in the geographic region.

Football and men's basketball are part of the five required sports in the MIAA conference — along with women's basketball, softball and volleyball — and therefore cannot be eliminated nor can they take significant scholarship reductions.

Wollmering did not say specifically how the committee narrowed the  men's sports down to men's golf except that it does not cut any full-time positions.

As far as cutting University-funded athletic scholarships, Wollmering said past athletic success was "one of many, many factors," and pointed out that men's soccer historically has had success despite low funding. He also said he would put the Truman women's programs up against any Div. II program in the country.

"Those were obviously things that were brought up," Wollmering said. "How do we compare in the conference? Why haven't we been successful? Why have we been successful?"

Wollmering said the alternative to reducing scholarships probably would have been to eliminate more sports.

None of the four sports that will have reduced scholarships has had a ton of athletic success in recent years, although they also are four of the lowest-funded programs at the University. None of the programs received more than $30,000 in athletic scholarships in 2010-11, Wollmering said, and the total scholarships are less than $70,000.

The four programs still will have the opportunity to raise athletic scholarships through private funding, and any current scholarships will continue to be honored, except for men's golf.

"We knew that there were cuts coming, and we knew that we were all going to have to sacrifice," baseball head coach Dan Davis said. "I think, being a team player, we know what we have to do, and we just have to get it done — find a way."

How does cutting the men's golf team save the University money?

The decision to cut the $25,000 men's golf team goes beyond saving that much for the athletic department. The 11 athletes — four of whom are from out-of-state — also bring in tuition money that go into the general University budget.

"We travel five guys to a tournament, but we try to carry 12, 13, guys to try to stimulate the University tuition-wise, try to recruit out-of-state," co-coach Tyler Madsen said.

Rector said that if every men's golfer transfers to another school, the University will not profit despite the savings through cutting the men's golf team.

The approximate in-state tuition, not including fees, for Truman students  currently is $6,400, while the out-of-state tuition is $11,800. This means the men's team pays approximately $92,000 in tuition each year, not including academic scholarships.

Rector said the student-athletes on the team qualified for approximately $62,000 in academic scholarships in 2009-10. Subtract that figure, plus the approximate $25,000 for men's golf, and the 11 student-athlete golf team profited Truman less than $10,000 per year.

If every one of those student-athletes transfers to another university, Truman immediately will lose that revenue. The revenue figure improves for the University for every student-athlete who does not transfer, especially for those who do not receive significant academic scholarships.