Future of Division III

[IC798891]

RE: Linfield

I wish it was a mandatory edict in reporting that if you're going to talk about a college eliminating programs/majors or downgrading things to minors, you should have to report on the number of students enrolled in those programs.

It really frustrates me because, as we saw with the Syracuse story, news sites tend to frame it in the most drastic light possible. (Mention that 20% of programs are shutting down, but bury the fact that those programs only house 1.2% of your students)

It's not that we don't have a right to be frustrated by cuts, and people losing their jobs, and students losing their major. But there's also a responsibility to understand the factors that influenced the institution's decision. Even if, after we hear them,  we still don't agree with it

[Gregory Sager]

Kenyon was downgraded from Positive to Stable in January 2024, so this continues the downward cycle

Linfield University Considers Controversial Program Cuts to Close Budget Deficit

I thought Kenyon was elite enough to be more immune to the tough times, but I was wrong.

My thought exactly. I would've automatically filed Kenyon in the "safe from potential harm" category.

This may explain why they added squash.

We'll really know if Kenyon is in trouble if they add yachting and croquet as well.

Interestingly, Webster University is discontinuing their chess program, one of the most noteworthy and accomplished things they have done over the past 20 years.

Unfortunately for Webster, they needed to run that program with full scholarships in order to maintain that level of success.

I'm sorry to  see that. The chess program was a bona-fide distinctive for that school. I can honestly say that the only institution of higher learning in America that I associate with chess is Webster ... which doesn't sound like much, but it is something. Chess still has the aura of an intellectual activity, and that's exactly the perception that a school that really doesn't have any other genuine academic distinctives should embrace.

[WUPHF]

We'll really know if Kenyon is in trouble if they add yachting and croquet as well.

I spit out my drink...

I'm sorry to  see that. The chess program was a bona-fide distinctive for that school. I can honestly say that the only institution of higher learning in America that I associate with chess is Webster ... which doesn't sound like much, but it is something. Chess still has the aura of an intellectual activity, and that's exactly the perception that a school that really doesn't have any other genuine academic distinctives should embrace.

I understand, though the older I get, the more that I struggle with supporting the institutional vanity projects that do not benefit students broadly speaking.

The chess program would have benefited all students through the publicity, but as that died down, a program with a $1,000,000 budget is apparently no longer worth it.

There is another major chess program in town that is fully supported by a wealthy billionaire.  I am good with that.

The claim by Webster is that the were unsuccessful in fundraising for the chess program.  The former founding director said that was a lack of effort.

I may sound like I disagree with you, but if we were in the same room, I imagine we would mostly agree on the matter.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm sorry to  see that. The chess program was a bona-fide distinctive for that school. I can honestly say that the only institution of higher learning in America that I associate with chess is Webster ... which doesn't sound like much, but it is something. Chess still has the aura of an intellectual activity, and that's exactly the perception that a school that really doesn't have any other genuine academic distinctives should embrace.

I understand, though the older I get, the more that I struggle with supporting the institutional vanity projects that do not benefit students broadly speaking.

The chess program would have benefited all students through the publicity, but as that died down, a program with a $1,000,000 budget is apparently no longer worth it.

There is another major chess program in town that is fully supported by a wealthy billionaire.  I am good with that.

The claim by Webster is that the were unsuccessful in fundraising for the chess program.  The former founding director said that was a lack of effort.

I may sound like I disagree with you, but if we were in the same room, I imagine we would mostly agree on the matter.

Yep.

[y_jack_lok]

Kenyon was downgraded from Positive to Stable in January 2024, so this continues the downward cycle

Linfield University Considers Controversial Program Cuts to Close Budget Deficit

I thought Kenyon was elite enough to be more immune to the tough times, but I was wrong.

This may explain why they added squash.

Interestingly, Webster University is discontinuing their chess program, one of the most noteworthy and accomplished things they have done over the past 20 years.

Unfortunately for Webster, they needed to run that program with full scholarships in order to maintain that level of success.

I remember the billboards along I-70 touting the Chess program in its first year or so. That really riled up the Webster student-athletes whose competition was housed within the athletic department. All those resources devoted to chess and a handful of students that could have been used to benefit so many more students at the university, and not just athletes. Let some Ivy League school -- or NESCAC or UAA school -- take it on.

[WUPHF]

I forgot about those billboards.

[WUPHF]

Not to make too much of the Webster story, but the official story is that they could not raise money to support the program--not a single dollar--and that the program cost one million to run the program.

That figure probably includes a pretty substantial estimate of the cost of the building that might otherwise sit empty.

Webster spokesperson Patrick Giblin told local media outlets that the university "was unable to raise a single dollar in endowments to support the program." He noted that it had "invested more than a million dollars per year of its operating budget to support the program during a time when the university was losing millions each year, and its enrollments at the Webster campus declined by half."

[IC798891]

Webster spokesperson Patrick Giblin told local media outlets that the university "was unable to raise a single dollar in endowments to support the program." He noted that it had "invested more than a million dollars per year of its operating budget to support the program during a time when the university was losing millions each year, and its enrollments at the Webster campus declined by half."

I don't know how many alumni count themselves as former members of that club, but that they weren't willing to help support it says...something to me, and it's not a good thing.

To steal from Boyz in the Hood: "Either they don't know, don't show, or don't care about what's going on..."

But yes, to a larger point, colleges are simply going to have to be making tough decisions about things that only pertain to a small segment of the student body.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I wonder if this is at all connected to the trouble that the one mighty St. Louis Chess Club has had in recent years?  I don't know a ton about it, but I know they're not as strong or as financially well off as they used to be.  It was once a major player in the US chess community.

[Kuiper]

I honestly did not predict that this would convert to a chess thread when I posted about Kenyon's issues

Having said that, at least Webster still has its national championship speech and debate team to fall back on now that chess has been cut

https://news.webster.edu/2026/forensic-debate-team-wins-national-title.php

The Webster University Forensic and Debate Team returned from the Pi Kappa Delta National Tournament and Convention as national champions. The team continued their multi-year winning streak at the March 18-22 national tournament, earning several individual and team awards including two All American awards and a 10th place team finish.

In all, Webster won 27 awards, including the National Championship in Oral History. This is the team's 34th national championship since it was founded in 1993. Additionally, Madi Teska and Maral Mahdinia were named All Americans, the 10th and 11th Webster students to earn that honor. Among her other awards, Teska also placed third in After Dinner Speaking. Mahdinia also won several awards including a top-five finish in Discussion. Rachel Hopper was Webster's other top-10 finisher, taking sixth place in Discussion.

[WUPHF]

I wonder if this is at all connected to the trouble that the one mighty St. Louis Chess Club has had in recent years?  I don't know a ton about it, but I know they're not as strong or as financially well off as they used to be.  It was once a major player in the US chess community.

It is a long story as to how I know this, but this is completely unrelated to the St. Louis Chess Club which is doing well, expanding in to one of the largest facilities of its kind in the Fall.

[WUPHF]

I honestly did not predict that this would convert to a chess thread when I posted about Kenyon's issues

My initial and follow-up comments on Webster were unrelated to your Kenyon posts... they were coming regardless.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

The Northeast - Virginia to Maine - is still, by far, the hotbed of HS lacrosse.  If your school lacks the prominence or geography to draw a fair number of students from this part of the country, it's going to be much tougher to field a competitive squad.

Nationally competitive ... yes, well, you can't overcome generations of sport history overnight. Prior to Y2K the northeastern corridor was practically the only place in America where anybody owned a lacrosse stick. That's changed, but it will take awhile before schools from other parts of the country break through in the national tournament. It's the same as soccer, which has also been a sport predominantly played by northeastern high schools, and thus dominated at the D3 level by northeastern members, until recent decades (although soccer started to break out in the midwest a generation before lacrosse). Soccer still has a pronounced northeastern flavor on the D3 level, although more and more midwestern teams have broken through in the D3 tourney over the past 10-15 years.

The popularity of lacrosse is increasing in the west and midwest, but not really yet at a level where it can feed a lot of college programs.

It depends upon what you mean by "a lot." And it also depends upon the state. Illinois has reached a sufficient saturation level in terms of high school lacrosse that it can supply a pretty fair amount of competent D3 lacrosse players. Just looking at the CCIW's men's lacrosse teams, Augustana's roster consists of 81% Illinois residents (albeit, Augie has a small roster and the team is not very good). Carroll's men's lacrosse is a little over half Illinoisian, which is impressive given the Wisconsin-heavy orientation of most CU sports (see above for my commentary about the very modest success of lacrosse's spread within Wisconsin high schools). Illinois Wesleyan is 40% Illinoisian and North Central is 43% Illinoisian. Carthage and Elmhurst have comparatively low percentages of Illinois residents.

But the important thing to note is where they're getting their out-of-state players. Virtually none of them are from the northeastern corridor. They tend to hail from Ohio, Minnesota, Michiana, and the suburbs of western cities such as Phoenix, Denver, Portland, and Seattle.

Pulling this back up since the weekend saw a bit of a coming out from the midwest in lacrosse as unranked Hope (now 20-0) beat Ithaca 14-11, and then Bates 14-12 - both games at Bates. Marks the first time any team from the MIAA has reached the quarter finals.  The Hope roster (42 total) is 81% Michigan natives (more than 50% of the roster is from wihtin an hour drive of Hope), with the rest a mix from IL, CO, IN, OH, Wa, and CA.

Interesting note: Following that Saturday game (was a 7pm start time) Hope had to quickly fly home so that the 12 Seniors could graduate at 3pm the next day - STUDENT athletes!!

[Gregory Sager]

Pulling this back up since the weekend saw a bit of a coming out from the midwest in lacrosse as unranked Hope (now 20-0) beat Ithaca 14-11, and then Bates 14-12 - both games at Bates. Marks the first time any team from the MIAA has reached the quarter finals.  The Hope roster (42 total) is 81% Michigan natives (more than 50% of the roster is from wihtin an hour drive of Hope), with the rest a mix from IL, CO, IN, OH, Wa, and CA.

Interesting note: Following that Saturday game (was a 7pm start time) Hope had to quickly fly home so that the 12 Seniors could graduate at 3pm the next day - STUDENT athletes!!

Yes, interesting. It does appear that midwestern lacrosse is slowly but surely beginning to make national inroads.

Your postscript about sports and graduation raises an interesting and timely issue, FDF. It's been a tradition at North Park for decades to hold a separate graduation ceremony for senior student-athletes in spring sports whose teams have qualified for postseason tournaments or meets that will take place on Commencement Saturday. It's always held on the Tuesday of Commencement Week in the small and intimate Isaacson Chapel in Nyvall Hall, the seminary building on North Park's campus. It's usually a function that serves North Park baseball teams that have qualified for the CCIW baseball tournament, although sometimes (as happened this year) the softball team also qualifies for their CCIW tourney and thus has its seniors receive their diplomas in the Tuesday graduation ceremony in Isaacson as well. The tradition used to be that the baseball players would wear their North Park baseball caps in lieu of the usual flat-topped and tasseled mortarboard graduation caps, but this year they abandoned that tradition and went with the standard mortarboards, probably because it's becoming increasingly popular in America for graduating college students to decorate and personalize their mortarboards and the NPU baseball players wanted to do that as well.

Given that CCIW schools generally run similar school-year calendars, my guess is that other schools in the conference likewise provide similar auxiliary commencements for their seniors who are spring student-athletes with competition conflicts on Commencement Saturday. And since the CCIW doesn't operate in a vacuum, I'm also guessing that there are other D3 schools across the country that do this. Which schools hold separate commencements for their graduating senior student-athletes who are playing postseason sports in May, and which schools follow Hope's pattern and will move heaven and earth to get their seniors back on campus in time for commencement? And are there any schools that simply tell their seniors, "Sorry, but even though you're on the school's team, if you're going to be playing sports on graduation day you're gonna have to receive your diploma in the mail"?

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Pulling this back up since the weekend saw a bit of a coming out from the midwest in lacrosse as unranked Hope (now 20-0) beat Ithaca 14-11, and then Bates 14-12 - both games at Bates. Marks the first time any team from the MIAA has reached the quarter finals.  The Hope roster (42 total) is 81% Michigan natives (more than 50% of the roster is from wihtin an hour drive of Hope), with the rest a mix from IL, CO, IN, OH, Wa, and CA.

Interesting note: Following that Saturday game (was a 7pm start time) Hope had to quickly fly home so that the 12 Seniors could graduate at 3pm the next day - STUDENT athletes!!

Yes, interesting. It does appear that midwestern lacrosse is slowly but surely beginning to make national inroads.

Your postscript about sports and graduation raises an interesting and timely issue, FDF. It's been a tradition at North Park for decades to hold a separate graduation ceremony for senior student-athletes in spring sports whose teams have qualified for postseason tournaments or meets that will take place on Commencement Saturday. It's always held on the Tuesday of Commencement Week in the small and intimate Isaacson Chapel in Nyvall Hall, the seminary building on North Park's campus. It's usually a function that serves North Park baseball teams that have qualified for the CCIW baseball tournament, although sometimes (as happened this year) the softball team also qualifies for their CCIW tourney and thus has its seniors receive their diplomas in the Tuesday graduation ceremony in Isaacson as well. The tradition used to be that the baseball players would wear their North Park baseball caps in lieu of the usual flat-topped and tasseled mortarboard graduation caps, but this year they abandoned that tradition and went with the standard mortarboards, probably because it's becoming increasingly popular in America for graduating college students to decorate and personalize their mortarboards and the NPU baseball players wanted to do that as well.

Given that CCIW schools generally run similar school-year calendars, my guess is that other schools in the conference likewise provide similar auxiliary commencements for their seniors who are spring student-athletes with competition conflicts on Commencement Saturday. And since the CCIW doesn't operate in a vacuum, I'm also guessing that there are other D3 schools across the country that do this. Which schools hold separate commencements for their graduating senior student-athletes who are playing postseason sports in May, and which schools follow Hope's pattern and will move heaven and earth to get their seniors back on campus in time for commencement? And are there any schools that simply tell their seniors, "Sorry, but even though you're on the school's team, if you're going to be playing sports on graduation day you're gonna have to receive your diploma in the mail"?

Interesting GS - I actually wasn't aware of schools doing that, probably because it has never been an issue for Hope.  It likely never will be an issue since Hope always holds their Baccalaureate Service and Commencement Ceremony on Sunday and, as you are aware, Hope (like Wheaton and some other schools) will not participate in athletics on a Sunday, thus avoiding that conflict.  In fact, the games at Bates this past weekend were on Friday and Saturday due to the Hope Sunday restriction.  All the other locations played Saturday and Sunday.