Fort Valley State University (FVSU), facing mounting budget pressures that could dramatically impact its intercollegiate athletics program, says its recent decision to reinstate its women’s volleyball program may be only a temporary fix to a larger challenge facing it and many peer institutions.
“Unfortunately, this agreement does not resolve the pressing financial obligations that FVSU is compelled to address,” says Willie Williams, vice president for student affairs and interim director of athletics, referring to the university’s agreement with the Public Justice law firm covering the return of women’s volleyball.
“We are striving to substantially increase revenues, including through fundraising, in order to avoid having to eliminate all intercollegiate athletic programs or else compete only in Division III,” of the NCAA, Williams says. “Whatever course we are required to take, FVSU remains committed to full and equitable treatment of all our students, male and female,” he says.
Faced with a $1.1 million athletic department deficit, Fort Valley decided this spring to drop its women’s volleyball program in order to reduce its losses on intercollegiate programs that do not generate enough money to pay for themselves. That decision, which would have left the university with five women’s programs and five for men, would have saved the university about $100,000 a school year.
When Fort Valley officials were alerted that cutting the women’s program may have made the university vulnerable to being in possible violation of the federal government’s Title IX equal opportunity requirements, university officials reversed the decision and, working with the Public Justice organization, drew a plan to revive the program and ensure it complies with the letter and intent of Title IX.
“We did not restore the women’s program as a threat to being sued,” says FVSU executive vice president Dr. Canter Brown. “We launched our own inquiry to ensure we were in compliance. It was only afterward that we negotiated some fine details with Public Justice. To their credit, they were open to seeing the reality of our situation,” says Dr. Brown, who also serves as the university’s legal adviser. “I have to say they were very highly professional.”
Public Justice, in a separate statement, says FVSU agreed to “ensure that the team would receive funding and resources comparable to what FVSU provides its men’s athletic teams.” A key complaint over the university’s initial decision last spring to shut the women’s volleyball program and cancel the scholarships that fueled it came so late in the school year that it did not give “most players” time to transfer to a different school.
