Sheehy said that College President Phil Hanlon first notified him that he was considering reducing the number of student-athletes last fall due to admissions priorities. Even if the COVID-19 pandemic had not exacerbated the College’s institutional budget deficit, Dartmouth may still have gone through with the same decision to cut five varsity sports, Sheehy said. He added that alumni financial efforts to reverse the College’s decision will not lead to reinstatement, since these donations will not address Dartmouth’s goal of decreasing student-athlete admissions by 10 percent. No further cuts will be needed to meet this goal, Sheehy said.
And this on moving fall sports to the spring:
I think that every campus is going to have their own challenges in terms of staffing. For example, if we move our whole slate of fall sports to the spring, how does that impact our trainers, the sports medicine people, the equipment men? This is a very layered decision. On the surface, that sounds great. And if we can do that, I would love to give those young men and women a chance to compete in the spring because I do know this is a heavy price for our student-athletes to pay.
We just don’t know if that’s actually logistically possible yet. In talking with my colleagues around the league, there are a couple places that have told us, “There’s no way we can do it.” I’ve told our staff, “We’re not going to say that. We’re going to see if we can. Let’s figure it out if we can.” If we can’t, then we’ll have to say that at some point. But if we can, then I’d like to keep that possibility open.
