{"id":306684,"date":"2018-04-19T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T19:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=306684"},"modified":"2018-04-19T12:52:19","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T19:52:19","slug":"broken-trust-hartwick-college-eliminates-womens-water-polo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/broken-trust-hartwick-college-eliminates-womens-water-polo\/","title":{"rendered":"Broken Trust: Hartwick College Eliminates Women\u2019s Water Polo"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Randazzo, Swimming World Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: This is one in a series<\/a> of articles about the decision by Hartwick President Margaret Drugovich and the college’s board of trustees to eliminate one of the top water polo programs in the East.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"hartwick-hawks-logo\"<\/p>\n

In August 2016, Jeff and Maggie Wilson delivered their daughter Tori to Hartwick College<\/a> in Oneonta, New York. Despite being almost six hundred miles from her hometown of Kitchener, Ontario\u2014and three-and-a-half hours by car from New York City\u2014Tori was eager to join the college\u2019s tightly knit liberal arts community.<\/p>\n

A highly recruited water polo athlete out of Grand River Collegiate Institute<\/a>, Wilson was also excited to be part of Head Coach Alan Huckins<\/a>\u2019 program, considered to be one of the country\u2019s best. Nationally, NCAA women\u2019s varsity water polo is dominated by California schools with enrollment ten to thirty times as large as Hartwick\u2019s 1,178 students. Outside the West, large public universities like Indiana and Michigan monopolize regional success, along with Ivy Leaguers Brown, Harvard and Princeton. But, thanks to student-athletes like Wilson, Hartwick is consistently ranked among the East\u2019s finest, despite being the smallest program in all of NCAA varsity polo.<\/p>\n

\"wilson-hartwick-apr18\"

Tori Wilson. Photo Courtesy: Gerry Raymonda<\/p><\/div>\n

That remarkable success is a testament to Huckins\u2019 coaching and the dedication of international students from all over the world who come to Oneonta\u2014often sight unseen\u2014to play for the Hawks. Over Huckins\u2019 15-year tenure, Hartwick has qualified three times for the NCAA Women\u2019s Water Polo Tournament, and the team that Wilson was joining\u2014a mix of Americans and players from New Zealand, Russia and Canada\u2014was expected to lead the Hawks to their first NCAA title berth since 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year is something that we have been planning for the past three years\u201d Huckins said last week. \u201cWe thought this was to be one of the best years in the history of the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there was more to the young Canadian\u2019s interest in Hartwick than athletics. The school offers a four-year baccalaureate degree in nursing that specifically accommodates water polo players\u2019 demanding schedules; currently, eight of the 24 Hawk polo players are pursuing this degree. Wilson and her parents greatly valued the opportunity to pursue a marketable degree while playing for one of America\u2019s best polo programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Tori weighed her options, Hartwick seemed to be the best fit,\u201d Jeff Wilson said recently by phone. \u201cA big part of that was the education. Hartwick and Alan gave her the opportunity to play at a high level and get a nursing degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is why February 28, 2018\u2014when President Margaret Drugovich unexpectedly announced<\/a> the elimination of polo, effective at the end of this season\u2014marked, for all intents and purposes, the end of Wilson\u2019s promising career at Hartwick.<\/p>\n

A jarring ending for a successful program<\/h3>\n

That day, Hartwick Athletic Director Kimberly Fierke and Gregg Fort, Vice President for College Advancement, met at 12:15 pm with members of Hartwick\u2019s men\u2019s soccer team, who were notified that, due to financial constraints and lack of athletic success, the team would no longer be playing at Division I, the highest level of NCAA competition, but would be demoted to Division III.<\/p>\n

This was a significant blow to the school\u2019s proud athletic tradition. In 1977, with a taut 2-1 victory<\/a> over defending champions San Francisco, Hartwick won the NCAA men\u2019s soccer tournament, a remarkable feat given the school\u2019s size and remote upstate New York location. In later years, Hawks soccer had reached the NCAA tournament but never enjoyed the level of success of the 1977 squad.<\/p>\n

Following the meeting with men\u2019s soccer, Fierke and Fort were slated to meet with the women\u2019s water polo team to deliver a different message: that polo, also a D-I sport, would be discontinued at the end of the current season. Unfortunately, before the team received this understandably dismaying news, an email went out to the entire Hartwick community with the announcement about both Hawk teams.<\/p>\n

\"mckenty-hartwick\"

Katie McKenty. Photo Courtesy: Zsofia Polak<\/p><\/div>\n

As described by Hartwick senior Katie McKenty, just minutes before the 12:45 pm meeting, the players\u2019 phones buzzed with the email announcement, creating a tumultuous scene. \u201cWith technology these days, it came straight to our phones\u2026\u2014we\u2019re standing outside crying and crying,\u201d McKenty said. \u201cWe ran in and yelled!\u201d<\/p>\n

For Head Coach Huckins, the announcement put paid to the program that he had spent years building and\u2014for much of that time\u2014defending from budget cuts. Unfortunately, the team, then<\/a> ranked 13th in the country, still had 27 matches to play, including eight contests against foes in the Collegiate Water Polo Association<\/a> conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been tough trying to keep the focus,\u201d Huckins said about keeping his squad from fragmenting following news of its demise. \u201cOne of the things that has helped [is] a bunch of seniors that are the leaders of the team. As much as they want the program saved, this was going to be their last shot anyway.”<\/p>\n

The back story<\/h3>\n

Women\u2019s water polo at Hartwick was born out of Title IX<\/a>, the seminal federal law that, starting in 1972, leveled the playing field for female athletes at all levels of education. In 2001, Hartwick President Richard Detweiler launched polo as a balance to the men\u2019s soccer program. Unlike other Hawk sports, these two teams\u2014the college\u2019s only Division I sports\u2014offer athletic scholarships, entailing long-term financial commitments with student athletes. Having a women\u2019s D-I program was an obvious solution to providing gender balance in athletics for a campus population that, like most American colleges, is overwhelmingly female; in Hartwick\u2019s case, 59% female to 41% male.<\/p>\n

\"huckins-hartwick-apr18_REV\"

Hartwick’s Alan Huckins. Photo Courtesy: Gerry Raymonda<\/p><\/div>\n

The Hawks quickly proved that they were a strong contender in women\u2019s water polo, which comprises some 61 programs nationwide. Founding coach Mike Maroney\u2019s teams went 70-33 from 2001-03, but it wasn\u2019t until Huckins\u2019 arrival in 2003 that the program really took off. In his first year the Hawks qualified for the NCAA tournament, one of three tournament bids in Huckins\u2019 first four years.<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s success, though, did not guarantee its longevity. In 2004, then-Hartwick President Dick Miller threatened to downgrade men\u2019s soccer and women\u2019s polo to D-III, but was persuaded to stay his hand by a number of key decision-makers, the most important of whom was a former Hartwick men\u2019s soccer player named David Long.<\/p>\n

A Long relationship with Hartwick<\/h3>\n

In 1979, David Long came to Oneonta from Liverpool, England. Like Wilson almost four decades later, he was looking for a combination of athletic competition and academic excellence. Long had another connection to the tiny college so far from home; his brother Steve had been a key contributor to Hartwick\u2019s 1977 NCAA men\u2019s soccer champions. (Like all administrators and officials at Hartwick, including President Margaret Drugovich, Athletic Director Kimberly Fierke and Title IX Coordinator Traci Perrin, Long declined comment for this article.)<\/p>\n

Long\u2019s decision to attend college in the States has paid off handsomely. For four years he played Division I soccer at Hartwick and met his future wife Stephanie (class of \u201884). After graduation, he found his way to Liberty Mutual, a Boston-based insurance carrier and one of the country\u2019s largest, where he quickly advanced through the corporate ranks. Now in his 33rd year at the company, Long<\/a> has been CEO since 2011.<\/p>\n

A member of the Hartwick Board of Trustees from 2002\u20132011 and again beginning in 2016, Long will assume its chairmanship next year, a well-deserved honor for an alumnus who over the years has donated generously to his school. But\u2014until recently\u2014Long had also been instrumental in maintaining D-I status for men\u2019s soccer and, by extension, women\u2019s water polo.<\/p>\n

In 2009, when Drugovich, newly installed as president, sought clarification about why Hartwick should sustain Division I teams, Long was part of an extensive research study to weigh the pros and cons of converting all Hawk teams to D-III. Then-Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Meg Nowak-Borrego, and Rory Shaffer-Walsh, Hartwick class of ‘1992, co-chaired an Athletics Review Taskforce; Long contributed to the report that was meant to settle the issue once and for all: Hartwick would retain D-I status for its two premier sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board has considered this\u00a0matter at several intervals in\u00a0recent years,\u201d James Elting,\u00a0M.D., Chair of the Board of\u00a0Trustees, announced in August 2010. \u201cFor the first time, we\u00a0had information from multiple\u00a0sources on which we could base\u00a0our decision. President Drugovich\u00a0did great work in assessing the\u00a0situation, bringing in the right\u00a0resources, and involving the entire\u00a0community. We unanimously\u00a0endorsed her recommendation to\u00a0retain D-I sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was then, this is now<\/h3>\n

This time, the messaging about a change in level for soccer and elimination of water polo could not have been more poorly executed. A strong reaction from faculty, alumni and water polo fans have apparently put Drugovich and her board on the defensive; a Change.org petition<\/a>\u00a0has garnered more than 10,000 signatures, and there have been select student and faculty protests on campus resisting the decision.<\/p>\n

Then there are the athletes themselves. Tori\u2019s father Jeff, tried repeatedly to get a response from Drugovich as to what was being offered to his daughter to continue her studies at Hartwick.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy understanding with the agreement and NCAA rules is that you have to meet the full, four-year commitment,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThe school would not confirm or deny anything about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A month after the February 28th meeting, Wilson did finally receive a confidential email from the financial aid office specifying that Hartwick would honor his daughter\u2019s scholarship.<\/p>\n

On March 16, Drugovich and a select number of trustees, including Long and Board Chair Frances Landrey, met with Coach Huckins and his players. The meeting was framed as an opportunity to sway the board into changing its collective mind, and Huckins prepared a presentation detailing the many successes, both academic and athletic, of Hawks water polo graduates. He also made an impassioned defense of the program that not only had employed him the past 15 years, but introduced him to his wife Ashleigh, now his assistant coach, who played polo for Hartwick from 2001-2004.<\/p>\n

After the presentation\u2014and when it became clear that no change in the board\u2019s thinking was forthcoming\u2014McKenty, a New Zealander who came to Hartwick because she had heard about the school\u2019s polo and academic strengths, began quizzing the brass, including enquiring point-blank of Chair Landrey if qualifying for a berth in the 2018 NCAA Women\u2019s Water Polo Tournament would change the mind of Hartwick leadership, who had cited lack of success as criteria for shuttering women\u2019s water polo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019d be terrific, but it wouldn\u2019t change anything,\u201d Landrey said.<\/p>\n

Then the brash Kiwi took aim at Long, who had flip-flopped on his position regarding the importance of D-I athletics at his alma mater. \u201cIt was my final question\u2026,\u201d McKenty explained recently. \u201cI asked Mr. Long, \u2018Would you have come to Hartwick if soccer was D-III instead of D-1?’\u201d<\/p>\n

After some hesitation, Long, whose entire career sprung from his arrival at Hartwick as a scholarship athlete, finally admitted: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"hartwick-fans-apr18\"

Senior Day for Hartwick Water Polo. Photo Courtesy: Gerry Raymonda<\/p><\/div>\n

A campus struggling to fill seats\u2026<\/h3>\n

Since coming on board at Hartwick, President Drugovich has struggled to maintain financial control of an institution that has not prospered under her stewardship. Initiatives to recruit new students and create new programs have not yielded the intended results. In 2014, the college launched a Center for Craft Food and Beverage, to capitalize on what may well be a flagging industry<\/a>. Embarking on a program to build new or refurbish existing dormitories, last fall Drugovich imposed a four-year on-campus residency requirement to ensure they were filled.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little question that enrollment declines over the past three years are driving current decision-making. Provost Michael Tannenbaum in 2015 told<\/a> The Daily Star<\/em>, an Oneonta-based newspaper, that, as a result of declining high school graduation rates, freshmen enrollment was down considerably. The response was to cut $1.68 million from the budget by laying off 18 full-time employees and eliminating five unfilled positions.<\/p>\n

But cutting expenses has not addressed Hartwick\u2019s enrollment problems. In the 2016-17 academic year, full-time enrollment was 1,362, but only 1,178 students matriculated in 2017-18. That precipitous drop of 184 full-time students represents a decline of almost 14%.<\/p>\n

In the face of painful belt-tightening, Hartwick faculty have predictably resisted, with a vote of no confidence<\/a> in April 2016. And, in yet another financial setback, last July Moody’s Investors Service downgraded<\/a> the college\u2019s long-term bond rating. Stating that \u201c[t]he downgrade incorporates pressured operations that we expect to persist over the near-term,\u201d Moody\u2019s, one of the country\u2019s leading financial analysts, reported that \u201c[w]hile the college has demonstrated good expense management, its limited scale impedes its ability to implement spending reductions without impairing its competitive position.\u201d<\/p>\n

…with as many men as they can?<\/h3>\n

In seeking to understand how eliminating a women\u2019s water polo program that currently has 24 players\u2014with a scant eight scholarships, capped by the NCAA\u2014could significantly contribute to repairing Hartwick\u2019s ailing finances, it\u2019s instructive to look at on-campus demographics. Dean Skarlis, President and founder of The College Advisor of New York<\/a>, and an acknowledged expert on college admissions, suggests that what\u2019s driving the college\u2019s admissions is finding men. A ratio like Hartwick\u2019s, which Skarlis said reflects the national average, is a red flag for the very population they seek to attract, perhaps explaining why Hartwick would choose to merely downgrade a men\u2019s team while completely eliminating a women\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany colleges like Hartwick are finding it more difficult to recruit qualified men,\u201d Skarlis said via email. \u201cAs a result, their gender ratios are sometimes skewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome schools use sports, particularly men’s sports, in an attempt to even the gender balance,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Another budgetary challenge is peculiar to New York State. The Excelsior Scholarship Program<\/a>, launched by Governor Andrew Cuomo in April 2017 to much fanfare, promises tuition-free enrollment at public universities to select New York residents. There are income restrictions, and the state subsidies do not include room and board. The Excelsior Program, siphoning upstate students that might well have chosen Hartwick, has been cited as a possible cause of dwindling enrollment, but the college\u2019s response to the decline has been going on for longer than last fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Excelsior Scholarship will, in my opinion, do great damage to the hundreds of private colleges in New York State\u2014and perhaps too many SUNY schools as well who are likely to be overenrolled as a direct result of the program,\u201d Skarlis suggested. \u201cThe most prestigious private colleges will not be affected, but hundreds of mid-tier private schools will face significant financial challenges. Many had experienced financial problems well before the Excelsior program was implemented, and this will exacerbate those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skarlis also pointed out that a trend among New York private schools is to offer a quicker path to graduation. For the past few years, Hartwick has been offering a three-year bachelor\u2019s degree<\/a>, allowing students to cut their costs by 25%, with correspondingly lower revenue for the institution.<\/p>\n

\"hartwick-pool-apr18\"

Photo Courtesy: Alan Huckins<\/p><\/div>\n

In an era of #MeToo, a president ignores Title IX at her peril<\/h3>\n

By eliminating water polo, it\u2019s indisputable that, when it comes to athletics, Hartwick College will be in violation of Title IX. There is a three-part test for compliance: (a) participation in athletics is proportionate to the school\u2019s respective enrollments; (b) a history of expanding participation opportunities for an underrepresented gender in response to interest; and (c) fully and effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented gender.<\/p>\n

According to Arthur Bryant<\/a>, one of the country\u2019s leading attorneys on the issue of Title IX compliance, by eliminating a sport that has substantial demand from female athletes, Hartwick will be ignoring one of America\u2019s fundamental laws of equality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re cancelling a current team for which there was interest and ability, they are not complying with the second or third test, and the numbers tell you they\u2019re not complying with the first way,\u201d Bryant wrote in an email. \u201cIt tells you\u2014if they\u2019re cancelling that team, they are violating Title IX.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to data from the latest Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act<\/a>, Hartwick has 242 male athletes playing seven sports, including 25 D-I soccer athletes and 135 football players. With 24 women\u2019s water polo players, Hartwick reports 182 female athletes playing 10 sports, a proportion of 42% women and 58% men.<\/p>\n

Having won landmark cases, including Cohen v. Brown University<\/em>, considered one of the most the most influential Title IX case ever to be decided, Bryant, chairman of Public Justice, was confident about the outcome if a complaint were filed against Hartwick.<\/p>\n

\"hartwick-together-apr18\"

Photo Courtesy: Zsofia Polak<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIf a lawsuit were brought under Title IX, it would not seek penalties,\u201d he said. \u201cExactly what it sought would depend on the facts and the clients, but a suit would typically seek quick reinstatement of the team, equal treatment and support for women in all aspects of Hartwick\u2019s athletic program, costs, and attorneys\u2019 fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question arose as to what penalties might apply, if an organization does not comply with this law. In theory, all federal funding\u2014including federally-subsidized financial aid\u2014could be cut off. But Bryant emphasized that the federal government has never taken such a Draconian step, which is why teams typically don\u2019t wait for government action and file lawsuits instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can take a relatively short amount of time\u2014most schools we\u2019ve contacted have agreed to reinstate the teams to avoid a lawsuit\u2014or, depending on the facts, the issues, and the school, it can take years,\u201d he said about possible legal action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the school doesn\u2019t agree to reinstate the team, we usually seek and win a court order reinstating the team while the lawsuit proceeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked why\u201446 years after Title IX became law\u2014it\u2019s still important to fight for women\u2019s rights to equal access, the veteran civil rights lawyer was explicit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law gives student athletes rights, and it\u2019s up to those student athletes to protect those rights and to enforce them,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cAnd at every school we\u2019ve ever been at, someone has said: It\u2019s just a chance to play college sports. It just doesn\u2019t matter that much.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that may be true for the person speaking. But it\u2019s not true for the person who went to college in significant part to play a sport. For many women, this is a huge part of their lives. To a whole lot of people way beyond the athletes, it\u2019s a huge deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trust broken on many levels<\/h3>\n

Wilson will not be around to fight for Hawk polo; she has already chosen to transfer to another D-I program in California, where next fall she will continue her athletic dreams. However, her nursing degree will have to wait until graduate school, a costly expense as\u2014like many of the Hartwick water polo athletes\u2014not all of her tuition was covered by the school.<\/p>\n

The abrupt termination of Tori Wilson\u2019s ideal college experience weighs heavily on her father.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp until February 28, when they made the announcement, it was a fabulous experience for Tori,\u201d Jeff Wilson said. \u201cTo play D-I water polo, to be going to a beautiful school in upstate New York and getting a great education, that was her dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor her to have the rug pulled out from her and her life turned upside down and to still soldier through\u2026that\u2019s something in a few years that she\u2019ll be able to look back upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alan Huckins, his wife and two children had made an idyllic existence in Oneonta. But that life is now over. Eliminating the sport he\u2019s devoted his life to proves to him that Hartwick is no longer the place that he fell in love with 15 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trust has absolutely been broken here,\u201d Huckins said. “When I first got here, Hartwick was a special place. It was warm and friendly and people genuinely cared about each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, people are just seen as dollar signs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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