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Sports programs being cut at University of Ann Arbor amid efforts to improve finances
ANN ARBOR, MI – Concordia University Ann Arbor will discontinue its athletic programs after the 2024-25 season as part of its efforts to overcome financial instability, the university announced in a campus-wide email.
The Board of Regents of the private Lutheran university met on June 6th and asserted that the Ann Arbor campus does not have the resources or capacity to separate as an independent university from its larger affiliate in Mequon, Wisconsin.
Instead, the regents said cost-saving measures would be used to overcome a projected combined budget deficit of $9 million at both campuses.
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Seven days later, cuts to Ann Arbor’s athletic programs were announced. The Ann Arbor campus spends about $5.2 million on athletics annually, according to a university report.
The university’s 26 intercollegiate varsity sports involve approximately 700 student-athletes who represent at least 70 percent of the student body on the Ann Arbor campus, athletic director Lonnie Pries said.
“I don’t think this is going to help (the Ann Arbor campus) from closing, because I don’t think it was ever in danger of closing in the first place,” Pries said. “We fully understand that there needed to be adjustments. Yes, this will reduce costs, but it will also reduce 70% of students enrolled.”
While athletics has contributed to enrollment growth in Ann Arbor, that growth is a false indicator of financial health, officials said, because athletics also significantly increases costs. In 2023, the Ann Arbor campus spent an average of $8,060 per student-athlete to operate intercollegiate athletic programs, officials said.
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“After further review of our financial model, it has become apparent that it is not viable to continue these programs in Ann Arbor beyond next year,” Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor President Erik Ankerberg said in a statement.
Baseball coach and alumnus Zach Johnston said he believes the decision to cut athletics, however, is not just tied to monetary reasons.
“I believe this is due in many ways to politics, ego, corruption. It’s more than just greed,” Johnston said. “It seems to me that there are a lot of judgments being made about how we operate as Christians. I think there’s politics everywhere and I think that’s partly in this decision.”
A subcommittee of the Board of Regents produced a May 31 report task force report on the Ann Arbor campus that makes multiple references to the “confusion of Lutheran identity” on the Ann Arbor campus.
“Although athletics is clearly Christian, non-Lutheran coaches who take teams to visit non-Lutheran congregations confuse the Lutheran identity of the campus,” the report states.
“I was numb (when I got the email),” Johnston said. “It’s like you started a business, made it a success and now it’s being taken away and none of it is your fault.”
Pries had a feeling the decision to cut athletics was imminent, he said, adding that he and other members of the athletics department proposed resolutions to avoid the cuts but were denied.
Pries served as Concordia’s athletic director for 11 years, with the university adding eight varsity sports during his tenure. During his tenure, the Cardinals also won four national championships in baseball, softball and competitive cheerleading as members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference.
“You are sad. You are frustrated. You’re angry. You are hurt. You can run the gamut of negative emotions,” Pries said.
Trey Acker, a rising junior pitcher on the baseball team, said the cut was difficult to accept.
“It’s hard to imagine that when I committed my freshman year,” Acker, 20, said. “I never imagined this would happen.”
The Cardinals have enough players to fill competitive rosters for the 2024-25 season, Pries said.
Concordia University football practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Wednesday, August 23, 2023. Christina Merrill | MLive.com
“I knew for sure I would play this year as long as there was a team,” said Owen Buning, a rising sophomore and tight end on the football team. “We have one last season to do what we came to Concordia to do in the first place.”
Athletic teams on the Concordia Wisconsin campus will continue, a university spokesperson said.
The plan to downsize Concordia University in Ann Arbor been on the move since February, when Ankerberg sent an email to students detailing the school’s financial problems. He said “the Ann Arbor campus had to be reimagined” and “will likely involve both staff reductions and the disposition of property, facilities and equipment.”
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The May 31 subcommittee report states that the Church Extension Fund, an organization that has helped finance Concordia for more than a decade, was contacted about monetary support for the Ann Arbor campus’ independence from its Wisconsin affiliate.
The claim is false, said Jim Saalfeld, CEO of the Church Extension Fund.
“I’m sure if that was the difference between them downsizing the university or not, we would have taken it very seriously,” Saalfeld said. “From day one, I never saw what was characterized as a financial crisis and I saw the finances of the university.”
Saalfeld served as a member of the subcommittee but resigned on April 12 after saying the subcommittee’s work was outside the scope of the Board of Regents resolution.
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