Athletic Management, 16.2, February/March 2004, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1602/metro.htm
When an athletics program faces the ultimate budget
cut--elimination--what is an athletic director to do? At Metropolitan
State College of Denver, Joan McDermott got her facts together,
educated her bosses, and told everyone in her program they were going
to prevail.
"I felt like I was coaching again. I had my game face
on, and I was determined we were not going to lose this battle,"says
McDermott, who successfully stared down an attempt by Metro State's
trustees to eliminate its NCAA Division II athletics program this past
fall. "I was really focused on taking the high road because I felt that
if I didn't, it would come back to haunt us."
How Metro State
athletics saved itself is a case study in external and internal
relations. The saga began in late October, when both of Denver's major
daily newspapers reported that the idea of eliminating athletics had
been broached at a trustees' retreat. McDermott found out only when
reporters called her at home for a comment.
The reporters told her
what they had heard at the retreat, including the budget calculations
the trustees had made during their discussion. McDermott realized
immediately that the numbers weren't accurate.
"I said, ÔWell, those
facts aren't true,' I'm at home, and I don't have all the specifics,
but can we talk again when I have my facts?'"she says. "We checked the
figures and called them back the next day."
The discrepancy turned
out to be a key point. The trustees had discussed an athletics budget
of about $2.5 million, when in reality cutting athletics would only
make about $523,000 available for institutional use. And instead of the
150 athletes trustees believed were involved, Metro State actually had
254 participating in 2002-03.
"We put together a little fact sheet
and called it, 'Metro State: The Real Numbers' and got it out
everywhere,"McDermott says. "It was an eye-opener."In addition to
accurate budget and participation numbers, the fact sheet showed that
Metro State's institutional athletics support was in line with that of
Colorado's other public colleges.
TV stations picked up the story,
some emphasizing Metro State's athletic successes: Men's basketball had
won two NCAA Division II national titles in the past four seasons, the
women's soccer team was among the best in the nation in DII, and all
three fall teams were on their way to their respective conference
championships and 2003 NCAA tournament play--and yet the entire program
was faced with elimination. At least in the media, it appeared the tide
had turned.
McDermott had worried that the possibility of using
athletics money to support faculty raises would set professors in the
elimination camp. Instead, after the next faculty senate meeting, the
opposite was clear. "They were really upset,"McDermott says. "They
said, 'Look, this is one of the most successful programs on our campus,
and they want to cut it. Why would they do that?' They also felt that
the board of trustees was pitting one program against another, and that
wasn't fair. And the reality was, when you really considered how much
athletics money the trustees would have had to redistribute, it
wouldn't have made that much of a difference with
salaries."
Meanwhile, McDermott took the issue to the alumni
association, which began a letter-writing campaign on behalf of
athletics. The student government association conducted a poll on the
school's Web site, and 70 percent of respondents said they would be
willing to continue paying a $23.50-per-semester activities fee to
support athletics.
Trustees had cited low student attendance at
athletic events. But McDermott theorizes that students value athletics
even if they don't turn out at games. "Because we are a commuter
campus, we don't get a lot of students at our games,"she says. "But I
have had a lot of students tell me, 'You know what? I have a full-time
job away from here and I'm always running. I don't have time to get to
a game. But that doesn't mean I don't deserve to have an athletic
program at my college.' Our students take a lot of pride in the
athletic program."
McDermott also spent time talking with her
coaches about the ongoing situation and keeping them upbeat throughout.
Word of the possible elimination came as Metro State's volleyball and
men's and women's soccer teams were going into postseason play.
"I
told them we have a excellent program we should be very proud of, and
that we were going to win this battle,"she says. "Some did get
discouraged, but many didn't. [Head Men's Basketball Coach] Mike Dunlap
really jumped on board. Every day he put in a couple of hours trying to
help this cause. Others were fine for a few weeks then got
discouraged."
Meanwhile, McDermott worked behind the scenes to
educate trustees on what athletics does for the institution. Her
talking points: "That we support academics, we contribute to the
mission of the institution, we help the image of the institution from a
public relations standpoint. Our program graduates students at a much
higher rate than the institution overall--all those kinds of
things.
"We also asked the coaches to write down how many people
they touch in the community, whether it's working with kids in an
inner-city school, or running camps or clinics for players and high
school coaches,"McDermott continues. "We figured it was roughly 20,000
contacts. That was an angle that was really important."
Dunlap
credits McDermott with maintaining her composure, even when faced with
obstinacy and inaccurate views. "She wouldn't be argumentative. She
would not fold her arms and pout,"Dunlap says. "She kept everyone
calm."
McDermott knew combativeness toward trustees wouldn't work
short-term and certainly not long-term. "I wanted them to save face and
ease their way out, because they didn't realize what they were getting
themselves into,"she says. "If I had gone on the offensive, I would
have just made them angry. I don't think that would have worked for
anybody."
In the end, the trustees agreed to a plan that reduced the
athletics budget and contained a directive to recruit fewer
out-of-state athletes. "They're asking us to go to a one-in-four ratio.
So 75 percent of our student-athletes should be in-state, 25 percent
out of state,"McDermott says. "We were already heading that way [63
percent of current student-athletes are from Colorado], and what
they've asked me to do is put a five-year plan together with that goal
in mind. We're looking at adding some sports, and we think we could add
some sports that are very popular here in Colorado and maybe make them
in-state-only sports."
The biggest thing she learned out of the
experience, McDermott says, is to make and maintain connections outside
athletics, both in the institution and the community. That's important,
she says, because the budget problem isn't going away, even if the
program benefits from increased attention now.
She also learned the
importance of communicating with trustees. "It's ongoing,"McDermott
says. "I think the key is to continue to educate them and build
relationships with them."