William & Mary’s statement announcing that it would cut swimming and diving included large, verbatim passages lifted from an earlier statement regarding athletics cuts made by Stanford.
The similarities were first reported by SwimSwam, which received an admission from William & Mary athletic director Samantha Huge as to the veracity of the claims.
Stanford, citing budgetary pressure that has been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, cut 11 sports on July 8. William & Mary followed suit with cuts of seven program, including men’s and women’s swimming, on Sept. 3.
Many of the passages into the two letters – you can find Stanford’s here and William & Mary’s here – are extremely similar, differing only slightly in the specific numerical and conference designations particular to each school. The formatting of the two statements, right down to the same three university positions (AD, provost and president) being named atop the letter is similar, as are the titles.
Both universities, in their statements, pledged that:
- “Our goal is to provide excellent support and a world-class experience for our student-athletes in the sports that we offer.”
- “In fact, even after recognizing the full expense savings resulting from this decision, closing the remaining Athletics structural deficit and ensuring the continued success of our remaining [number] varsity sports programs will itself require”
- “All student-athletes who elect to remain on their team’s roster for the upcoming 2020-21 campaign will continue to have access to the full complement of academic, medical, performance and coaching services, provided that they remain in good standing”
Evan Rutherford
William & Mary Tribe Athletics
William & Mary
Samantha K. Huge