Volleyball cuts a product of poor management
When times are tough, money is tight and difficult decisions need to be made, university administrators emphasize the nature of their school as inherently businesslike to lessen the blow of bad news.
As any business man worth his salt may tell you, the best way to break bad news to an employee base is on a Friday afternoon at 5 p.m.
Laurier Athletics has taken a staunch, almost religious adherence to this unspoken code of conduct in its handling of the volleyball program discontinuations.
In what was the equivalent of a 5 p.m. Friday announcement, the athletics department sent out an online press release, as well as a mass e-mail to the coaches and players of the men’s and women’s volleyball teams on the morning of April 29 indicating the termination.
While Baxter stated the evaluation of the department had been ongoing for two years, the timeline of notifying all those involved with volleyball came way too late.
Most students had already finished exams, gone home for the summer and made living arrangements for the upcoming school year in the fall. Had the athletics department already made up its collective mind to axe the volleyball programs earlier in the winter, the department could have handled a much smoother transition for volleyball students and coaching staff.
An earlier notification may have angered the school community much as it has done so already, but the blow could have been lessened by students actually having time to make preparations on where they will be moving next year, should they choose to continue playing volleyball at another school.
The harsh financial reality of the past couple of years, mixed with a medium-sized school like Laurier, means that money needs to be distributed effectively and as the administration has stated, the school can’t be all things to all people.
However, this does not excuse the lack of foresight that unfortunately took place within the department and, to a larger extent, the whole university.
—The Cord Editorial Board