Michigan State Will “Work To Strategize A Plan” To Reinstate Swim & Dive Programs

There appears to be a path to reinstatement for the Michigan State swimming and diving programs.

The school will begin discussions to reinstate the programs, which were controversially cut in October 2020, Trustee Melanie Foster said in a board meeting Friday.

After requesting a report from the athletic director regarding the school’s athletic program plan, Foster, the Board of Trustees finance committee chair, said that the swim & dive team will be hearing from the finance committee by the end of the semester.

“The board remains committed to listening to all constituents,” Foster said, according to The State News, Michigan State’s student newspaper. “We have heard swim and dive students, alumni, parents and the greater Spartan community.”

Foster said that athletic director Alan Haller will work to “strategize a plan forward” for the swim and dive programs within the next academic year. Haller was not the athletic director when the swim & dive programs were cut—that was Bill Beekman, who resigned in August 2021.

“The board remains committed to listening to all constituents,” says MSU board member Melanie Foster as she tells the swimmers and divers that the board might take up Title IX womens swim and dive issues—2.5 years later.

— Valerie von Frank (@vvonfrank) October 28, 2022

Back in August, after a preliminary injunction was requested by a group of MSU swimmers regarding the school’s Title IX compliance, a district court judge ruled that the university was not Title IX compliant. Rather than being immediately ordered to reinstate the team, the university was given 60 days to submit a plan to rectify the violation.

That plan now appears to include reinstatement of the programs, if all of the stars align.

According to The State News, two other trustees, Renee Knake Jefferson and Kelly Tebay, expressed support for the reinstatement of the teams and apologized for not doing so sooner.

“It’s never too late to do the right thing,” Sophia Balow, one of the plaintiffs in the Title IX lawsuit who would be training for her senior season in the pool if the program was still intact, said prior to Foster’s report, according to the Lansing State Journal.

When the programs were dropped, the university said it did so due to financial reasons amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supporters for the program have been relentless in their pursuit to get the school to overturn the decision. The group, “Battle for Spartan Swim and Dive,” even sent a budget proposal that would allow the teams to be reinstated in July.

A number of swim & dive teams cut in 2020 have since been reinstated, including William & Mary (men and women), Dartmouth (men and women) and Iowa (women).