Cuts to athletics programming blindsides student athletes, coaches

But there may still be hope for competitive sports at KPU

The KPU Eagles will fly no more, now that their funding has been cut—and that means the university will no longer be in competitive varsity sports after the end of their final seasons.

But it doesn’t necessarily spell the end of competitive sports at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. As fruit of information sessions and meetings with student captains, vice-president of students Jane Fee says it’s a move to leave PACWEST, the regional sport authority that she says has, “Very strict regulations.” Even more, she says the “real reason” is to spread $750,000 of funding from 92 student-athletes to students across all campuses who have been demanding more services.

“Our plan is to stay in various versions of competitive sports, and we need students to help tell us what those should be,” she says.

Following discussions with PACWEST, KPU said on their website July 9 that they, “will complete the 2015/16 varsity season in all four sports for our 92 student-athletes across soccer, basketball, golf and badminton.”

“At the end of the 2015/16 varsity season, our athletics program will cease to exist in its current form.”

Students felt blindsided by the university’s decision, finding out with no consultation. Some were under the impression that the department was actually receiving support, since there were at least two new hires in the last two years. The athletics offices in Cedar building are empty now, with nothing but carpet warming the floor.

Women’s soccer co-captain Jessica Anderegg was just sitting down to study for an exam when her coach Julie King texted her, asking if she was free for a call.

“All of athletics, they’re gonna get rid of it?” Anderegg asked, recounting the conversation. “Yeah.”

Student athletes have since mobilized towards a resolution, which includes starting a petition to see the move reversed and, “Work together towards a solution that everyone can accept.” More than 1,200 people have signed the petition as of press time.

After the announcement of the cuts, the university hosted an information session specifically for coaches, student-athletes and family members in the Surrey campus conference centre, so people could ask questions about the change.

“My big concern was the girls being able to play, and I think we’re still gonna be able to play this season out—and it looks like the powers that be have committed to that for this season,” explained King following the information session. “So right now that was my priority which, is good news. I mean, not good that the sports clubs are likely to be gone, but the reality is for me that getting this season played was so important.”

Otherwise, “It was them informing us on why they made their decisions,” says King. “I’m very annoyed, angry, disappointed. I feel like student athletes, who work extremely hard, have not even been thought about in this whole process.”

The Runner was not permitted inside the session, which went over the allotted time, so KSA president Allison Gonzalez followed up afterwards. She spoke at the session on behalf of students.

“What it seemed like to me was [KPU] just wanted to hear from the students and they really wanted to begin dialogue,” says Gonzalez. “It seems to me KPU’s purpose from the forum was to get a yes-or-no from the students on whether or not they would play out this year.”

Jane Fee spent most of that forum answering questions, the answers to which are still surfacing, she says. She met with team captains in late July in light of the forum.

“We’ve absolutely confirmed with students both at the forum and the meeting yesterday that we’re not giving up competitive sports,” says Fee. “We’re giving up the PACWEST.”

“That may have been a fault of the messaging and I take full ownership of that.”

Fee says that this particular regional sport authority, like many others, has been increasingly expensive to participate with.

“What’s true is that the budget for varsity athletics—not just at KPU, everywhere—is on the increase. There’s more travel involved, especially for teams in this part of the world. Travel is a big part of the budget.” The Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC) in Ottawa, inaugurated in 1973, released a 2010 report exploring the trends of sport in Canada. Apparently, the amount of money that Canadians spend on organized sports has increased, even though participation has decreased.

Besides the financial constraints of being in PACWEST, Fee says the league is structured with rules which, with some being very fair, can also be financially prohibitive. A member school could not, for example, have only a men’s soccer team for the sake of protecting women’s sports. This means a member must launch two teams. Also, PACWEST doesn’t allow a team to be in multiple leagues, which is a cost-cutting measure that Fee says could be on the table after leaving PACWEST. A cached membership eligibility bylaw accessed on PACWEST’s website—which was under maintenance as of press time—confirms the rules that Fee talked about.

Fee says the plan is to find another league or leagues in which to reinvest the competitive side of the athletics department, while spreading the “fixed budget” for the department over all campuses—campuses with students which Fee says have felt neglected for the sake of Surrey campus. She says these complaints come daily, and that spreading the money is, “The real reason for doing this.”

“One of the things we heard loudly and clearly through that process was that Surrey was being treated a little bit like our main campus and other campuses were not feeling as engaged in the university, and the students weren’t feeling as engaged in the life of a university.”

On the notion that this was a budget efficiency move, Fee says, “I wouldn’t say efficiencies, I would say it’s about alignment of budgets.”

By “alignment” she refers to the way they plan to meet the goals of Vision 2018 and its conjoined academic plan—plans based partly on what money exists, and what financial capital doesn’t.

More to come.