Twenty-six members of the William & Mary womenās track and field team wrote a letter addressed to the schoolās administration and board of visitors that indicates they wonāt represent W&M in competition until the menās track and field program is reinstated.
As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the womenās track and field team members characterized their action as āa campaign of passive resistance ā¦ what you should not expect is for us to show up in uniform, representing this institution, until this matter is resolved.ā
The womenās team members will continue to train through the fall semester, according to Juan Conde, a W&M track alum and vice president of an organization called BackTrack Inc. intent on seeing the sport reinstated at the college. They are not scheduled to compete against outside competition until the spring semester.
āTheyāre fulfilling their activities associated with the scholarships they have received,ā Conde said Saturday. āBut theyāre not going to compete.ā
W&M announced Sept. 3 that seven of its 23 sports ā menās and womenās gymnastics, menās and womenās swimming, menās indoor and outdoor track and field, and womenās volleyball ā would be discontinued following this academic year to address structural budget deficits exacerbated by the pandemic
The schoolās womenās swim team wrote a letter to interim athletics director Jeremy Martin on Oct. 21, calling for the reinstatement of the menās swim team for similar reasons. āOur teams make each other better, and we will not give up on half of our family,ā womenās team members wrote in the letter. They also wrote that discontinuation of the menās team would negatively impact recruitment of womenās swimmers because prospects prefer schools with menās and womenās teams.
Meanwhile, BackTrack has called for faculty oversight of an external audit to ensure that distributions of endowment income have been consistent with donorsā written terms. In a letter to administrators last week, the group questions financial data cited when cutting the seven W&M sports in the first place.
