Dartmouth Cuts Five Sports to Ease Covid-Fueled Deficit
Dartmouth Cuts Five Sports to Ease Deficit Exacerbated by Covid
(Bloomberg) -- Dartmouth College is eliminating five varsity athletic teams and 15 staff positions, including eight coaches, to help ease a budget deficit made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Ivy League school is dropping men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s lightweight rowing. The changes immediately affect about 110 students and reduces varsity teams to 30, the college said in a statement Thursday. The number of recruited athletes in incoming classes will be cut by 10%.
Dartmouth is also permanently closing its Hanover Country Club, located at the college-owned golf course, after years of operating at a loss and with deficits expected to swell to $1 million annually.
“These decisions were made with great care and with the long-term interests of the learning experience provided by Dartmouth Athletics front and center,” President Philip Hanlon said in the statement.
Dartmouth, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, joins a growing list of wealthy schools to slash athletic programs, following Stanford University on Wednesday and Brown University in May.
Dartmouth faces a projected $150 million deficit because of the pandemic. Eliminating the teams, closing the country club and an ongoing administrative restructuring in athletics are projected to save more than $2 million, according to the statement.
On Wednesday, the Ivy League’s eight school presidents announced sports competition in the fall semester will be canceled.
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