UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-RIVER FALLS

BACKGROUND

On April 12th, 2002, the chancellor announced the elimination of the women's gymnastics program.  Countless efforts were made to convince the administration to reconsider.  Chancellor Lydecker received upwards of 300 e-mails in the 24 hour period after the announcement.  The decision was the work of a committee chaired by the interim Athletic Director Rick Bowen.  The committee never communicated any such evaluation of the program to the coach or the team until making the announcement.  The decision was mainly based on the fact that the facility which housed gymnastics is being torn down at the end of 2003 and there was no consideration given to include a space for gymnastics in the new facility due to cost.  The fact that there were only 16 Division III schools which sponsored gymnastics and no NCAA sponsored championships also played into the decision.  Currently, the case is under investigation with the Office of Civil Rights as Coach Jean Delisle filed a TITLE IX lawsuit to attempt to save the program.  UPDATES on how the story unfolded are below.    At this point there is nothing to do but wait for the OCR's decision on this case.

OUTCOME - PROGRAM LOST the school did not want this program back.

UPDATES

Oct 7th - No news from the OCR as of yet.  The person in charge of the investigation has indicated that a decision may not come until after the Commission evaluating TITLE IX turns in their report in January of 2003.  It's possible that a decision is made beforehand.

July 17th - OCR Continues investigation and no news has been heard from them either way. Many of the athletes that were hoping to stay at River Falls to finish out their gymnastics careers are faced with the deadline of deciding whether to transfer or not to another Wisconsin school.

May 8th - The Office of Civil Rights, in response to a complaint filed by head coach Jean Delisle, has reportedly contacted the River Falls administration to ask for data from the last 10 years with regards to roster sizes and budgets of all sports in their athletic department. The investigation has begun.

April 18th - River Falls coach Jean Delisle has officially filed a complaint with OCR in an attempt to save the gymnastics team at River Falls. One of the reasons the program has been cut is because their facility will be torn down and replaced with a new student center. The facility will not be torn down until the end of next year (June 2003) and reports are that Chancellor Lydecker plans to keep the gymnastics equipment in place until then. The NCGA will be lobbying Dr. Lydecker to keep the team for at least one more year. We could still use your help by continuing to e-mail Dr. Ann Lydecker - ann.m.lydecker@uwrf.edu and call her at: 715/425-3201.

April 12th - UW-River Falls officially drops gymnastics - We would like to thank everyone who took the time to e-mail and express their thoughts. Chancellor Lydecker received over 300 e-mails in a matter of just about 24 hours which is a tribute to your concern

After their most successful season ever, culminating in a trip to the NCGA National Championships for the first time in 8 years, the Falcons learned with just two days notice that their program is being cut. The deletion of this program puts the remaining 5 Division III teams in the Wisconsin Conference in jeapordy. The state of Wisconsin is in serious budgetary problems, but their solutions should not be to sacrifice opportunities for our athletes. Here are the contacts: Chancellor Ann Lydecker - ann.m.lydecker@uwrf.edu phone: 715/425-3201 and the Athletic Director Rick Bowen - rick.h.bowen@uwrf.edu . Both of them can be reached at this address: 410 S. 3rd St. River Falls WI 54022. When you e-mail them please do not include 'gymnastics' in the subject line and cc head coach Jean Delisle (no longer there) -  with any correspondance as she will be collecting and presenting this e-mails in case they are just deleting them all.

April 11th - Another article in the River Falls Journal - Crowd begs UW-RF Chancellor to save three sports (link no longer active)

April 10th - article in the River Falls Journal . According to the article, an official announcement and final decision will be made tomorrow - Friday April 12th, so we have one day to give them a reason to reconsider. Please drop them a quick e-mail!