On the heels of last week's NAIA National Swimming Championships, Ursuline College, has announced that it will add swimming for the 2009-10 season. The decision reflects a trend in private colleges adding sports in order to increase or stabilize student enrollment.Not all news has been good, however. In the past two weeks Agnes Scott and Pepperdine University have both eliminated women's teams in the face of a tightening economy. This week Quinnipiac University bowed to fiscal pressures by cutting golf, track and volleyball. The opposing effects of rapidly rising equipment costs, coupled with massive cuts to both public and private higher education could make this spring a daunting one for collegiate teams.
At the Pike, Ohio women's college, however, all the news is good.
“Adding swimming and bowling as intercollegiate sports will help us continue to attract good athletes and strong students to our campus. Bowling is a sport that has grown over the years at the high school level and Ursuline will be one of only a handful of schools in Ohio to offer this sport. Swimming has been strong in Ohio for years and because we have the facility we thought it was a good fit for the College.” said Cindy McKnight, Ursuline’s director of athletics.
With the addition of bowling and swimming, Ursuline now offers ten sports. The college’s athletic program is also recognized as a National Association Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Champions of Character Program Center. As such, the College is directly involved in instilling an understanding of character and values in sports today by providing student athletes, coaches and parents the necessary information to help impact the culture of sport in a positive way through the program’s 5 Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Servant Leadership, and Sportsmanship.
“We hold our entire staff and our student-athletes to a higher standard to ensure that we always demonstrate the five core values both in the athletic arena and outside. As part of this initiative, our student-athletes and coaches are also involved in many community service projects,” said McKnight.
A private, Catholic, liberal arts College founded in 1871, Ursuline College is the only women-focused college in Ohio. Ursuline offers 30 undergraduate majors and nine graduate programs. A world of mind and spirit immersion in education, community, leadership, values and success, Ursuline teaches the empowerment of self.
