UConn women’s rowers protest school’s decision to cut their team
About two dozen members of the UConn women’s rowing team marched from Greer Field House to Storrs Center on Monday afternoon to protest the university’s decision to cut the team due to budget cuts.
The rowers wrote “Title IX” in marker on their arms and shoulders, carried oars, waved signs and chanted “Title IX is on the line” as motorists honked in support. Some UConn women’s tennis players and swimmers joined the group in solidarity.
“I think a lot of people don’t know the situation that’s going on with us right now, especially because rowing is not a sport people know much about,” said Chloe Ludden, a senior captain from Syracuse, N.Y. “To be able to see all these people driving by, honking at us, it feels like we’re reaching a lot more people.”
Last week, lawyers representing the team sent a letter to UConn president Thomas Katsouleas stating that if the university did not reinstate the women’s rowing program, a class action lawsuit would be filed against the university and the lawyers would seek a preliminary injunction immediately to preserve the status of the team.
The deadline for UConn to respond to the letter was Monday.
“We’re just trying to create some buzz around the reinstatement of our team,” said Erica Bushey, a senior from Simsbury. “Today is the day that the board of trustees and president and athletic director had to make a decision in response to our letter that we sent last week. If we don’t hear from them, we’re going to be pursuing a class-action lawsuit.”
The school announced that it was cutting the team June 24, 2020, along with men’s swimming and diving, men’s cross country and men’s tennis to reduce expenses. The number of scholarships in golf and men’s track and field were also cut. The reductions were expected to meet a goal of trimming $10 million from the athletic department’s budget.
On March 29, 23 women’s rowing alumni filed a Title IX complaint against UConn, stating that the school was out of compliance with Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities that receive federal funding.
Nearly 8,000 people have signed a petition to keep the rowing program alive on the Division I level. On March 26, a group of UConn women’s soccer alumni sent a letter to the university requesting the reinstatement of all the programs cut.
“I think this isn’t a UConn rowing issue; this is a women’s issue,” said Grace Baldauf, a senior from Avon. “There is gender inequality in UConn athletics. Just being able to point that out and make other people aware is really important.
“The basketball team has their own building; the football team has their own building. We don’t have running water at our boathouse. There’s no insulation. We have a porta-potty.”
Baldauf and Bushey said the rowers can’t get into the new Rizza Performance Center, even though they share the same trainer with the men’s soccer team, and they have to ask the trainer to let them in because they don’t have a key code. They also said that in their four years at UConn, they’ve only seen four social media posts about the rowing team.
“There’s a clear differentiation between what some athletes get,” Bushey said. “I’m not going to say we’re not grateful. We’ve gone through these four years and we’ve been so grateful for this opportunity to represent our team and UConn. That’s very fulfilling for us, but it is sad to see the discrepancies in equipment and facilities in general.”
The rowers said they have their smallest team in years — 34 women — because no walk-ons came out for the team in the fall.
“There’s no point of bringing people on and teaching them to row if the program is going to be cut,” Ludden said. “We had a couple people transfer. This is a small team for us, but this whole thing has really brought us together.”
Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.
