The University of Buffalo swim teams sat inside the office of University President Satish Tripathi Monday to protest the school’s decision to cut its men’s swim team last month, according to reports from The Spectrum, Buffalo’s independent student newspaper.
“We’re trying to peacefully and in the most polite way we can facilitate a meeting between our alumni, who have a plan to get the team back and endow the team, and President Tripathi, who’s been refusing to meet with our alumni,” senior Nicholas Hooper told The Spectrum. “Our alumni were able to meet with the AD. Apparently that meeting went really well, but the President is the driving force behind these cuts.”
Hooper added that the team did not expect Tripathi to come out and meet with them, but Tripathi did indeed come out and meet with Hooper and fellow senior Reid Zyniecki. Another tweet from The Spectrum indicated that the team seemed “optimistic” after that meeting and were told to expect a meeting between Tripathi and alumni/donors.
UPDATE: A news story from The Spectrum notes that Tripathi agreed to meet with donors, although he reportedly did not seem remorseful about his decision to cut the team in the first place.
That meeting came just hours after The Spectrum reported than an alumnus named Richard Lydecker has threatened to sue the school for taking a $50,000 donation earmarked for the men’s team without warning that the program was about to be cut.
Lydecker wants the school to give alumni two years to raise enough money to sustain the program or else that it return his donation and also pay all expenses that affected student-athletes incur if they decide to transfer to continue swimming at another institution.
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This makes NO SENSE to cut the men’s team and leave the women’s!! They still have to maintain the pool. Save BOTH TEAMS and find ways to be more fiscally responsible
As a founding Board member of the Sun Devil Swimming Association, from experience I can tell you that the school administration must be supportive for the fundraising to work. No one will donate without trust that the program will survive.
Stand up for swimming
?Great sport
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