Sean Connelly, president of Bryn Athyn College, announced today that all 11 of its NCAA sports teams and its club hockey team will be eliminated to address a $3.4 million “true deficit”.
At the end of this academic year, the sports teams will be replaced by a club athletics program that is “robust, inclusive and financially sustainable,” according to the president. A total of 29 employees will be let go.
Excerpts from the letter:
We are restructuring Student Life and discontinuing all 11 NCAA Division III athletic programs, our club hockey team, and associated athletic staff and trainers. These programs will remain active through the end of the academic year, and all affected students will receive full support. A new model —robust, inclusive, and financially sustainable —will rise in the form of Club Sports. This change accounts for a net reduction of 11 FTEs.
The review of athletics costs revealed an untenable financial reality. According to benchmarking data from 69 DIII institutions without men’s football, athletic expenses should comprise roughly 3% of an institution’s budget. Ours, conservatively, stand at 12% and climb as high as 21% when accounting for overhead. That places us at 400–700% of the national benchmark. This level of financial expenditure is unsustainable. And the choice, due to NCAA requirements, is binary: maintain ten teams or none. (NCAA, Trends in Division III Athletics Finances, November 2021, p. 17)
This is hard. But the deeper injustice would be to ignore reality and jeopardize the future of our beloved College. Since 2007, Bryn Athyn College’s total cumulative operating deficit is $48.7 million.
We are facing a $3.4 million “true deficit.” We must stabilize —not later, not soon —now.
According to Connelly’s letter, the school will also eliminate athletic staff and trainer positions—the equivalent of 11 full-time positions. Additional changes include “Information Technology” and “Streamlining Student and Institutional Support”:
We are fully outsourcing our IT operations, encompassing everything from cybersecurity to infrastructure management, support services, and other related areas. This results in a reduction of 4 FTEs.
To better align our functions with the College’s evolving needs we are reorganizing across Annual Giving, Alumni Engagement, Advancement and Development, Marketing and Communications, Internal and External Partnerships, the Bookstore, Financial Aid, and Academic Advising. This results in a net reduction of 5 FTE positions.
According to its athletics website, more than half of the students at Bryn Athyn are athletes, and many play two or more sports.
“We had no idea this was going to happen,” Sean Scalen, a sophomore who plays soccer and lacrosse, told CBS News. “It’s looking like I am going to have to transfer to a place I don’t even know. I’m going to have to start all over.”
“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.”
CBS News’ video coverage is below:
The full letter is below:
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Photo: BAC