Marshall reinstates girls’s swimming and diving program

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Marshall’s Board of Governors moved to reinstate the college’s girls’s swimming and diving staff Wednesday, reversing its Feb. 17 resolution to chop this system.

President Brad D. Smith introduced the advice to reinstate this system throughout a particular assembly Wednesday “based on new information.” The board of governors voted to approve the advice in a voice vote.

“External Title IX consultation indicated that eliminating a women’s program could potentially place the university outside the safe harbor framework of Title IX, even when the long-term result would be an increase in participation opportunities for women,” Smith stated in an announcement launched following the choice.

“When new information changes the pathway forward, responsible leadership reassesses,” he continued. “This decision allows us to retain the Swim & Dive program while continuing to expand opportunities for women and moving forward constructively for our student-athletes and our university.”

The reinstatement of the swim and dive staff will coincide with the addition of the beforehand introduced STUNT program as a varsity sport.

Smith additionally stated the college will work to maximise all of its roster sizes throughout its girls’s sports activities.

The president additionally acknowledged the robust advocacy proven by the student-athletes, their households and alumni who expressed assist for this system in current weeks.

The transfer comes after a lawsuit was filed on March 10 in U.S. District Court alleging the college and its board of governors had been violating Title IX and depriving feminine student-athletes of equal alternatives to take part.

The lawsuit claimed eliminating the swimming and diving program would have solely additional widened the college’s feminine athlete participation hole.

Allison Dodd, a junior and captain on the staff in addition to the lead plaintiff within the lawsuit, celebrated the information.

“We are really happy Marshall is not only keeping our team but is going to help us make the team stronger for the long term,” Dodd said in the statement. “We are also thankful for the tremendous support we got from alumni, our families, and the Marshall community. It meant a lot.”

In a information convention following the choice, Marshall Athletic Director Gerald Harrison stated the college will discover fundraising alternatives via donations, but in addition via occasions – just like the Zach Bryan live performance at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in 2025 – to proceed to assist fund the athletic division.

Harrison has been tasked with serving to the athletic division work its manner all the way down to a 50/50 cut up of funding dependence from the college. He addressed how the choice to maintain the swim program may have an effect on his division’s price range.

“We’re going to look within,” he stated. “As we work our way down to 50/50 and work our way down to reduce our dependence on institutional support, we’re going to have to do some things that includes tightening our belt in some areas. We’re going to have to reevaluate every aspect of our athletic department.”

Harrison stated his workers might be taking a look at issues like how groups journey and attire contracts along with attempting to fundraise as a way to keep away from making cuts and offset prices.