Photo by Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

From left, swimmer Justin Stauder, wrestler Nhat Nguyen and runners Kyle Siska and Jeff Kuhland are without athletic programs to compete in after James Madison University decided to cut 10 sports, including men's swimming, wrestling and men's track and field.

Part of a trend

JMU isn’t the only college dropping athletic programs this year for Title IX reasons:

• Ohio University is cutting men’s indoor and outdoor track, and swimming; and women’s lacrosse.
• Rutgers is dropping men’s swimming, tennis, lightweight and heavyweight crew, and fencing; and women’s fencing.
• Butler is eliminating men’s swimming and lacrosse.

About Title IX

The 1972 law bans sexual discrimination at federally funded schools.

Participation requirement

An athletic department can comply with this aspect in one of three ways:

• Proportionality (have the percentage of female athletes match the college’s percentage of female students).
• Continually expand the number of women’s teams.
• Show it is meeting the athletic interests of female students.

Scholarships requirement

• The percentage of athletic scholarship money for women should match the percentage of female scholarship athletes.

Equal benefits requirement

• Men’s and women’s teams must be treated equally when it comes to facilities, equipment, travel money, coaching, publicity, etc.

HARRISONBURG -- Last September, more than 100 James Madison University athletes were summoned to the school's basketball arena.

Some of the athletes joked that they were going to be told their sports were being cut.

But it was no joke. They were informed that JMU would drop 10 varsity teams at the end of this school year, chiefly for reasons relating to Title IX.

"It kind of sucked," Jefferson Forest graduate Justin Stauder, a freshman swimmer, said with a laugh.

Getting the ax are men's indoor and outdoor track and field; men's cross country; wrestling; men's swimming; men's and women's gymnastics; men's and women's archery; and women's fencing.

"It was really shocking and pretty upsetting," said Jefferson Forest graduate Jeff Kuhland, a sophomore runner on the indoor and outdoor track teams. "They took a lot of opportunities from a lot of people."

Among the other athletes affected were wrestler Nhat Nguyen, a third-year sophomore who graduated from Northside; and freshman runner Kyle Siska, a Salem graduate.

"Within a month of being here, you're just punked because [you have] this accomplished dream -- you're at Division I, you're at that level that you really sought to be at -- and then it's like 'No, no more,' " Siska said.

The four -- none of whom are on scholarship -- will not transfer.

They might join club teams on campus next year, but it won't be the same.

"We're Division I athletes. How can you go from Division I to a club team?" Siska said. "You'd be better off competing for a Division III school ... rather than doing some club thing.

"When they said that [at the September meeting], a lot of people took that [club suggestion] as an insult. Do you not know who we are? We're Division I athletes. We're as committed as anybody can be to our sport."

Gender equity

JMU had 28 teams this year, tying it for seventh-largest total among the 327 schools in Division I. All 10 teams being dropped are nonscholarship programs.

The main reason the Board of Visitors voted for the cuts was to bring JMU into compliance with Title IX, the 1972 law banning sexual discrimination at federally funded schools.

An athletic department can comply with the participation aspect of Title IX in one of three ways: by proportionality -- having the percentage of female athletes match the school's percentage of female students; by continually expanding the number of women's teams; or by showing it is meeting the athletic interests of female students.

Two women's club teams want to upgrade to varsity status, but athletic director Jeff Bourne said JMU can't afford to add another team. He said the only way JMU can comply is by meeting the proportionality requirement.

Currently, 61 percent of JMU's students are women but only 50.7 percent of the athletes are. With the dropping of teams, 61 percent of the athletes will be female.

"It's a very, very difficult situation for us as an athletic administration," Bourne said. "We care about the kids and the coaches. ... [But] the female population numbers continue to rise on our campus, and ... [with the] interest by club programs in becoming varsity sports, we had to do something. We are in full compliance once these eliminations are in place."

The Dukes will be left with 18 teams next year, including Division I-AA football. The school will have the minimum number of men's teams (six) a Division I school must sponsor under NCAA rules.

Dropping the teams affected 144 athletes. Three full-time coaches and eight part-time coaches are losing their jobs.

The athletes from Timesland did their part to protest the decision. They were among the JMU athletes who collected signatures from their fellow students on petitions. Nguyen, Siska and Kuhland also were among about 100 JMU athletes who rallied in front of the U.S. Department of Education building last November.

"Title IX was put in for a good reason ... because women were not getting opportunities to participate in athletics," Kuhland said. "I realize there still aren't quite as many sport opportunities, but at JMU, there's a phenomenal number."

Teams less competitive

This isn't the first time JMU has shaken up its athletic department.

In 2001, the university stripped 12 teams of their scholarships: men's indoor and outdoor track; men's cross country; wrestling; men's and women's golf; men's and women's gymnastics; men's and women's tennis; and men's and women's swimming. The archery and fencing teams were already nonscholarship.

The scholarship cuts fixed budget woes and increased the percentage of scholarship money for female athletes, but they were devastating to many programs.

The wrestling team won back-to-back Colonial Athletic Association titles in 1999 and 2000 but has finished no better than sixth at the conference meet in the past five seasons. In three of the past four seasons, JMU has failed to get a wrestler into the NCAA championships.

The men's outdoor track team sent just one runner to the NCAA championships in the past five years. The last time the men's indoor track team sent a runner to the NCAA meet was 2002.

The men's swimming team won nine CAA crowns in a 10-year span, but the last title in that stretch came in 2001. This year, the Dukes finished third at the CAA meet.

JMU has spent a total of $548,923 out of its $19.2 million athletic budget this year on the 10 teams that are being eliminated. JMU will use that money to restore scholarships to men's and women's golf, men's and women's tennis and women's swimming. None of the money will be shifted to football or basketball, said Bourne.

One of the reasons Madison is dropping women's fencing, women's gymnastics and women's archery is because those sports aren't sponsored by its conference.

JMU is 'wrong'

Although some JMU athletes plan to transfer, the four from Timesland have opted against it.

"I like it here," Stauder said.

"I made a lot of friends."

Stauder, who was a second-team All-Timesland swimmer at Jefferson Forest, said he picked JMU after also being recruited by George Mason and Old Dominion.

"I love being in the mountains," he said. "I wouldn't want to be in the city."

Stauder might join the triathlon or swim club next year -- club teams operate outside an athletic department's umbrella -- or become involved with Masters Swimming.

Nguyen, who was a second-team All-Timesland wrestler, said VMI was the only other Division I school that was interested in him when he was at Northside.

Nguyen has a double major in math and philosophy. He is a junior academically, so he said he has no choice but to stay at JMU.

"If I transfer, I'll lose a whole a lot of credits," he said.

Nguyen will miss being part of a varsity squad, but he will join the club team so he can continue to wrestle.

"I've been doing it since I was a little boy," he said.

Nguyen said he opposes JMU's decision, not Title IX itself.

"What JMU is doing is wrong," Nguyen said.

The runners

Siska, who was a second-team All-Timesland runner, said VMI was the only other Division I school that was interested in him when he was at Salem. He will return to JMU in the fall but hasn't ruled out transferring at some point.

"It's a tough decision," the freshman said. "Even if I were able to run somewhere else, am I going to take a chance and run but be at a place I don't like? I like JMU a lot."

Siska might run unaffiliated at a few open meets next year, and might join the club track team. He was "appalled" when he learned JMU would drop men's track.

Running "is extremely important to me," said Siska, who will compete on a JMU relay team at the IC4A championships this month. "It was the biggest thing in high school for me, and it's been the biggest thing in my life for a long time."

Unlike the others, Kuhland didn't pick Madison with the intention of being a college athlete. The former second-team All-Timesland runner enrolled as an ordinary student but missed being part of a track team and joined the Dukes after the fall semester of his freshman year.

"Everyone in sports seems to be better types of people, a lot more fun to be with," the Jefferson Forest graduate said.

"You make friends on teams and they're kind of unlike any other friends. You get really close to the guys on your teams. I'm going to miss that."

Kuhland, who has a double major in business management and sports management, looked into transferring but decided to stay at JMU.

"If I transferred, I'd be behind in school," the sophomore said.

"There's nowhere else in Virginia I really wanted to go besides JMU. I kind of felt I already had so much time invested in JMU and had everything planned out with the majors."

He might join the triathlon club or get into snowboarding. He will do a 50-mile run in the Appalachian mountains with a friend in the fall.

But the CAA championships last month marked the end of his college track career. He will miss it.

"Being on a college team is unlike any opportunity," he said.