This was a story that never was. Hey Farl is alive and well and was never stopped.

(09-16-2019 01:29 PM)bubbadog57 Wrote:  This was a story that never was. Hey Farl is alive and well and was never stopped.

It's a true event that didn't materialize. Thank goodness.

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It seems to me that there may possibly be two different situations at issue here.

HEYFARL exists specifically to provide scholarships to walk-on football players. (https://tribeathletics.com/sports/2015/1...px?id=76). Since the HEYFARL money was raised for that express purpose, it would be very difficult for the College to use those funds for something else. Hence, the announcements of new scholarships for football walk-ons out of HEYFARL funds makes perfect sense.

But it also doesn't indicate anything about the present policy for athletes in any other W&M sport, where HEYFARL dollars cannot be used. Have we heard anything definitive on any other front than football? Any walk-on swimmers or field hockey players getting schollies lately?

(09-16-2019 03:37 PM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  It seems to me that there may possibly be two different situations at issue here.

HEYFARL exists specifically to provide scholarships to walk-on football players. (https://tribeathletics.com/sports/2015/1...px?id=76). Since the HEYFARL money was raised for that express purpose, it would be very difficult for the College to use those funds for something else. Hence, the announcements of new scholarships for football walk-ons out of HEYFARL funds makes perfect sense.

But it also doesn't indicate anything about the present policy for athletes in any other W&M sport, where HEYFARL dollars cannot be used. Have we heard anything definitive on any other front than football? Any walk-on swimmers or field hockey players getting schollies lately?

Right on, Blow Gym rat !! That is exactly what I was wondering about, too. I have yet to see or hear anything about whether scholarships for other sports are affected. My gut feeling is that they ARE still affected by this new policy. None of the olympic sports have the clout of football.

Blow Gym Rat referenced swimmers at W&M ... just wanted to make it clear that the Tribe Men's swim team -- arguably W&M's most successful CAA sport, having won the past 5 CAA Championships in a row -- is a non-scholarship program. That is, no one on the team is on athletic scholarship because they get zero funding from the Athletic Department for scholarships. In fact, the vast majority of the team (to include my son, who graduated this past spring) turned down athletic scholarships at other mid-major or P5 colleges to be a student-athlete at William & Mary. So keep that in mind when you see them awarded their championship rings at a football game later this Fall.

Flat Hat article written by the same student who started the petition:

http://flathatnews.com/2019/09/16/athlet...formation/

More information is coming out about “this story that never was” than came out about the firing of Tony Shaver.

For all of you on here who haven’t been back to W’burg since Tony’s firing, and haven’t tailgated and mingled at the last two football home games like I have, IMO, it is quite apparent that something is amiss.

In a comment to the article (which has since been deleted), a user linked to a longer piece by Mr. Bremer from which the Flat Hat article was apparently excerpted. You can read it for yourself here.

One of the portions edited from the Flat Hat piece includes language quoting the AD.

Quote: On the morning of September 10th, an online petition was published titled, “REPEAL of William & Mary Athletic Department Policy of Freezing Athletic Scholarships”. Within hours, the petition had received 133 signatures, 17 shares, and over 780 views. Also within hours, the William and Mary Athletic Director had heard of this online petition. By 5:06pm of that same day, the Director had requested a meeting with the person who had created the petition. Minutes later, the Director, a deputy director, an assistant director, and a head coach (yes, this individual was a student athlete) had sat down in a large office to discuss “this petition”. During the course of this “meeting” the student was informed by the Director, “There is no policy [of freezing scholarships]. It’s just not true. So now, we have a whole lot of people out there who have been told something which isn’t true. What would you do if you were me?”

I find the bold portion pretty relevant and I wonder why it was left out.

I find the Hawthorne e-mail mentioned in the article to be fascinating, if in fact said e-mail exists and was sent.

This situation seems to be a quarter of a turn off.

Not a fan of this young man’s approach. In no way do I believe in putting the department on blast before a conversation is had with the AD about this. I think it is detrimental to the overall health of the department and would ideally be a last ditch effort. The only excuse I could come up with is maybe the email that was supposedly sent by Peel but, again, as someone who cares about the university I would have kept it in house. Last note: the article made me want to puke. Quite the martyr.

These are the portions that interest me; apparently there were some policy changes going on and the fallout WAS affecting student athletes:

"Why was this freeze enacted? In the words of the Associate Athletic Director in an email sent to the donor parents of a student athlete (now a senior) on July 25th, “This year we were presented with circumstances that required modest reductions across the board. As a result, scholarship increases for returning student-athletes were restricted to written scholarship agreements only.” Another student, with a sibling now also starting their college education this year, contacted her head coach as early as June 25th hoping to receive help to afford school. She received this reply, “… we were informed by our administration late this spring that we (along with other sports) are currently unable to increase scholarships or put current student-athletes on athletic aid for the first time, as a result of a new departmental policy.”

I also wonder what the circumstances were which required reductions across the board. We have been told that Shaver's buyout was specifically funded by certain donors so, if true, then that should not have necessitated budget cuts across all sports.

This whole situation looks and smells bad.


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They've changed the title now to "Athletes deserve clarity on scholarship information", which is a lot better. However, the description on FB still says that the freeze is in affect https://www.facebook.com/theflathat/post...8702202290

Honestly, as both a former, and current (grad), student, I've been disappointed with Flat Hat reporting the last couple years.

(09-10-2019 09:03 AM)Tribeheart Wrote:  If the policy is that scholarship monies are frozen only for a current academic year, then it is understandable, as the Dept, like any business, has to budget and manage. Not really clear in the petition wording.

I may have missed it but I have not seen a definitive response to this. As Tribeheart said, this is a perfectly defensible policy, if the freeze is for the currently academic year only. (See University of Maryland as a poster child for what happens when Athletic Departments are not held accountable to their budgets.)

BTW, I am still trying to recover from the MBB fiasco so I am not a Huge apologist.

My hunch is that there was a problem, others interfered and put a bandage on it, and someone at Flat Hat has his or her heels dug in.

Like everything else, I just wish our Athletic Department would get in front of it and give Tribe Athletics stakeholders a clear explanation.

BTW, I've done some research on change.org and am very skeptical of that organization's agenda.

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(09-18-2019 03:23 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Like everything else, I just wish our Athletic Department would get in front of it and give Tribe Athletics stakeholders a clear explanation.

This. Either our current department is just awful at PR or doesn't care about our fan-base at large. Both are bad.

(09-18-2019 03:23 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Like everything else, I just wish our Athletic Department would get in front of it and give Tribe Athletics stakeholders a clear explanation.



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This times a million.

I haven't engaged on this board lately (and I don't plan to start again), but I do want to let you all know what I know.

I contacted Samantha last week when this broke. She informed me that she had met with the student-athlete who promoted this, and she then sent out an email to all student-athletes to clarify. She stated that there is no such policy. As has been in the past, it remains the coaches’ decisions as to who gets scholarships and how they are distributed.

I followed up today with Anthony Henderson to get more information on the emails from Peel Hawthorne and a coach that were referenced in the blog. They have pursued this and found that there was miscommunication within the department that resulted in the coach conveying incorrect information to the team.

Here is the email:

Dear Tribe,

There appears to be a misunderstanding among some student-athletes on the awarding of athletic scholarships. William & Mary Athletics provides each sport program with an annual scholarship budget. It is at the sole discretion of the head coach of each sport program to distribute that scholarship funding within NCAA regulations. This remains our practice.

Questions about our department policies and procedures are welcome. The best place to start is with your coach. Your sport administrator is willing to engage with you as well, as am I ultimately as athletics director.

We are one Tribe.

Some additional info:

- Scholarship budgets vary by sport and can change from year to year based on several factors, including fundraising success, budget availability, and financial aid costs as determined by the university.

-W&M Athletics currently pays more than $10 million per year to the university for scholarships, and increasing funding for scholarships is the primary goal of Athletics Advancement.

-Several student-athletes have already received increases in their athletic aid this year.

-In the upcoming strategic plan, increased funding for scholarships is one of the key metrics for which Athletics will be held accountable.

We will be hosting a student edition of Tribe Talks on September 17th in the Tidewater B room of the Sadler Center. (Note: this was in the works before learning of the change.org petition)

I look forward to engaging with you all in the coming weeks and months and am excited for the year ahead.

GO TRIBE!
Samantha

(09-18-2019 07:38 PM)Mrs. Got Ribe Wrote:  I haven't engaged on this board lately (and I don't plan to start again), but I do want to let you all know what I know.

I contacted Samantha last week when this broke. She informed me that she had met with the student-athlete who promoted this, and she then sent out an email to all student-athletes to clarify. She stated that there is no such policy. As has been in the past, it remains the coaches’ decisions as to who gets scholarships and how they are distributed.

I followed up today with Anthony Henderson to get more information on the emails from Peel Hawthorne and a coach that were referenced in the blog. They have pursued this and found that there was miscommunication within the department that resulted in the coach conveying incorrect information to the team.

Here is the email:

Dear Tribe,

There appears to be a misunderstanding among some student-athletes on the awarding of athletic scholarships. William & Mary Athletics provides each sport program with an annual scholarship budget. It is at the sole discretion of the head coach of each sport program to distribute that scholarship funding within NCAA regulations. This remains our practice.

Questions about our department policies and procedures are welcome. The best place to start is with your coach. Your sport administrator is willing to engage with you as well, as am I ultimately as athletics director.

We are one Tribe.

Some additional info:

- Scholarship budgets vary by sport and can change from year to year based on several factors, including fundraising success, budget availability, and financial aid costs as determined by the university.

-W&M Athletics currently pays more than $10 million per year to the university for scholarships, and increasing funding for scholarships is the primary goal of Athletics Advancement.

-Several student-athletes have already received increases in their athletic aid this year.

-In the upcoming strategic plan, increased funding for scholarships is one of the key metrics for which Athletics will be held accountable.

We will be hosting a student edition of Tribe Talks on September 17th in the Tidewater B room of the Sadler Center. (Note: this was in the works before learning of the change.org petition)

I look forward to engaging with you all in the coming weeks and months and am excited for the year ahead.

GO TRIBE!
Samantha

Thank you for this

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