Excerpted from New Orleans Times-Picayune
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Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the Tulane athletic department has taken drastic steps, as a part of a larger campus plan, to cut $2 million in operational costs. Included among the cuts is the suspension of the women's swim team. Established in 2002, with competition beginning in the fall of 2003, the Green Wave quickly ascended to the top of Conference USA, winning the women's title last spring. Since the hurricane, the Green Wave has been training, living and attending classes at Texas A&M.

Read head coach Daniella Irle's October Read thank-you to the swimming community

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Under the plan, the athletic department will suspend swimming and seven other sports while keeping eight including football. The NCAA has informed Tulane that it will waive requirement that Division I-A programs maintain sixteen teams. The Times-Picyune also reports that the NCAA will also suspend Title IX requirements, though it can be assumed that the Office of Postsecondary Education, the overseer of Title IX compliance, will concur, though the university will still be near compliance with three men's sports teams and five women's teams remaining. Other sports hit by the cuts include tennis, golf, women's soccer, and men's track and field and cross country. The move will affect fewer than 100 athletes, over a quarter of which are swimmers, and a dozen coaches and will take effect in the Fall of 2006.

Athletic Director Rick Dickson told the Times Picayune, "I faced more than 100 of the best ambassadors this university has and told them there are no longer opportunities for them at Tulane University," said Athletic Director Rick Dickson, who met with the majority of the athletes. "Their athletic careers at Tulane are victims of Hurricane Katrina. . . . It breaks your heart."

Prior to the hurricane, the athletic department enjoyed revenues of $8.5 million and a budget of $12.5 which did not include scholarships. Now the department is forecasting revenues of $4 million, largely contingent on conference revenues. In contrast, the university is forecasting $200 million in recovery costs. The announcement came after two days of meetings by the board of trustees. What emerged was a plan to achieve two major goals for the university: strengthening its commitment to building a world-class educational and research institution, and implementing measures to ensure the university's financial stability.

The cuts don't fall solely on the athletic department or team. Approximately 50 faculty positions will be phased out in discontinued undergraduate and graduate programs, along with another 180 faculty positions at the medical school resulting from the decreased population and changing health care needs of New Orleans.

Swimmers will be permitted to remain Tulane undersholarships, but gone is the opportunity to represent the school they love.

"It is difficult to deal with that on a personal level" Tulane president Scott Cowen told the Times Picayune. "We want you here because you're the kind of student we wanted all along. But, if you feel you want to compete somewhere else, we'll assist you in that process."

Yvette Jones, Tulane's senior vice president noteted that the plan offers some new revenues explaining, "The conference has done its adjustment for what the payout will be for next year and beyond, and that's added about $900,000 to operations and we've also booked guaranteed football games. We have LSU, Auburn and Alabama. Those games provide a nice amount of revenue. It's the combination of the two that have closed the gap down to about $2 million." Football had been considered for elimination, but it is the guarantees, along with the Conference television revenue that will enable to athletic department to survive. Tulane president Scott Cowen founded the Presidents Coalition for Athletics Reform three years ago with the intent of reforming collegiate athletics and getting universities to get "off the revenue-addiction kick." Now in a twist of sad irony, it would appear that the future of Tulane athletics, out of necessity, is tied to that revenue.

Tulane has underscored that the moves are "suspensions" with an eye towards reviving the programs within five years. The Reily center, home of the Tulane team sustained marginal damage. during the storm.

"Right now, it's a little premature," Cowen said. The board's athletic committee chairman Doug Hertz added that the moves are unfortunate because the student athletes, "have been a model for what Tulane is all about -- having student-athletes be able to compete successfully on the field or court, and then do very well academically. That's what pains the board and everybody else. They are in non-revenue producing sports."

"Was ever consideration given to eliminating Division I competition? Absolutely," Hertz said. "But, I don't think it was a matter of how close (we were to elimination), I think it was a matter of trying to figure out what we could do that wouldn't become a financial burden of the university -- when we're having to make so many other difficult choices with academics."