[Mick]

I wish the Stanford AD had considered suspending programs rather than axing them entirely, but that's another conversation.

I'm with you on that one. If there is some institutional reason for cutting down on these non-mainstream sports, I wish they'd just suspended them now and left a final announcement for later. The timing with the pandemic is unfortunate. As an alum, I was proud of Stanford offering kids intercollegiate competition in these other sports.

I believe the timing was right to eliminate those sports to help further the diversity aims of the University.

Some of the sports cut added to the university's diversity.  And if you're trying to wave indirectly at the hiring of the diversity specialists, those hires were made at the academic university and not the athletic department.  A headcount increase of +10 would not affect any budget enough to warrant cutting 11 varsity sports and their legacies.

Stanford's 2020 undergraduate profile lists 6,994 students, just 32% of whom identify as white. Curious to know which of these sports (crew, sailing, fencing, wrestling, men's volleyball, field hockey, synchronized swimming, squash) have fewer than 32% white athletes.

The New York Times stated that in an interview with Stanford "Stanford said there were 10 factors that were considered in determining which sports to drop, including gender equity and diversity, financial savings, and fan interest."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/sport...-cuts.html

[Mick]

I wish the Stanford AD had considered suspending programs rather than axing them entirely, but that's another conversation.

I'm with you on that one. If there is some institutional reason for cutting down on these non-mainstream sports, I wish they'd just suspended them now and left a final announcement for later. The timing with the pandemic is unfortunate. As an alum, I was proud of Stanford offering kids intercollegiate competition in these other sports.

I believe the timing was right to eliminate those sports to help further the diversity aims of the University.

Some of the sports cut added to the university's diversity.  And if you're trying to wave indirectly at the hiring of the diversity specialists, those hires were made at the academic university and not the athletic department.  A headcount increase of +10 would not affect any budget enough to warrant cutting 11 varsity sports and their legacies.

Stanford's 2020 undergraduate profile lists 6,994 students, just 32% of whom identify as white. Curious to know which of these sports (crew, sailing, fencing, wrestling, men's volleyball, field hockey, synchronized swimming, squash) have fewer than 32% white athletes.

The New York Times stated that in an interview with Stanford "Stanford said there were 10 factors that were considered in determining which sports to drop, including gender equity and diversity, financial savings, and fan interest."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/sport...-cuts.html