Men’s Baseball Program Eliminated

Manchester, CT- July 14, 2011). . . On Wednesday, July 13, Manchester Community College President Gena Glickman suspended the men’s baseball program at MCC. Below is a statement from President Glickman:

Several people have written to express concern about the budget situation at MCC and the impact of the cuts we are making in our athletic program. This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make in my tenure at the college. Our baseball program is top quality and our student athletes some of the best in the country. We have indeed been fortunate to be able to have had such a positive impact for our community and our students. We know how much these programs mean to our student athletes and our community, indeed to our entire college community.

The state of Connecticut is in a difficult financial situation and our budget deficit is projected to be over $3M going into this year. Given the large cut to our permanent State allocation, we are in the untenable situation of having to make draconian cuts to programs and services for students. None of the decisions I’ve had to make are easy and many will impact the livelihoods of our workforce as well as the lives of our students. The elimination of the baseball program is a savings to the college of approximately $150,000 of direct and indirect costs. As we make other cuts to reach our initial State allocation deficit of $900,000, we are balancing these decisions in order to maintain our core mission of teaching and learning.

Our hope is that with changes in higher education governance, the support of our legislators and students, and potentially with the support of private donations, that our resources might once again be able to support the programs and services we all want to see in place.