On Saturday morning, in protest of what they called unequal treatment from the Athletics Department, all but a handful of members of the Wesleyan Track & Field teams refused to board the bus intended to shuttle them to an away meet at Amherst College.
The boycott was organized by team members in reaction to the Athletic Department’s decision to replace the J. Elmer Swanson Invitational, a home meet that has occurred annually for the past 20 years, with a meet at Amherst. Those who did go chose to do so because only the officially sanctioned event could award them qualifying meet times for future championships.
According to a letter by the team to the Wesleyan community, the relocation was announced on Wednesday, April 1, and was due to inclement weather, which pushed the men’s lacrosse game to the Andersen Track and the men’s and women’s tennis teams’ matches to the Bacon Field House. In the letter, track team members suggested that the conflict could have been resolved by holding the men’s lacrosse game on the Andersen Track after the invitational instead of changing the location of the track team’s competition.
“We believe that this decision represents a culture within the athletic department in which the track team is continually marginalized in favor of other sports teams,” the letter read. “This marginalization is specifically facilitated by teams that bring in substantial donor funding to the athletic department.”
Instead of racing at Amherst on Saturday, April 4, the remaining team members decided to hold an informal meet at the Andersen Track. Nikita Rajgopal ’17, a sophomore on the team, said that the event was a success and commended the team for its activism.
“It went really well,” Rajgopal wrote in an email to The Argus. “Everyone came together as a team and supported one another… Personally, I’ve never been more proud to be a part of WesTrack.”
The team’s letter went on to cite a series of concerns regarding the athletic department’s treatment of the track & field teams, as well as other teams that secure less donation money for the school. This money, the letter contends, has led to preferential treatment for certain teams on campus. Specifically, the letter points to the construction of a new turf field for the men’s lacrosse team as an instance of mistreatment.
“It was our hope that the money donated by those parents would not result in the mistreatment of other teams that consist of more socioeconomically and racially diverse group of people who do not have the financial means to ‘purchase’ the rights to use our track facility,” the letter reads.
In an interview with The Argus, Athletic Director Mike Whalen denied many of the letter’s allegations, but expressed regret at the negative feelings of team members. He pointed out that the decision to move locations made by Track Head Coach Walter Curry, not the athletic department. Curry declined to comment for this article. Whalen also noted that the tennis and lacrosse matches were both official NESCAC events, whereas the track meet was not.
“Much of this was the first time I had ever heard any of their concerns, so this feeling that this was lacrosse taking priority over track & field is simply inaccurate,” Whalen said. “Our intention was to try to have all three teams compete at home—that was our intention.”
Whalen added that Wesleyan hosts more indoor and outdoor home meets than any other school in the NESCAC besides Bates, and pointed to track team’s own facility as an example of the department’s support for the team.
“There was some mention of big donors on the men’s lacrosse team, and I think that’s interesting because the fact that’s not mentioned in that conversation is that the University stepped up and built the new track complex—that didn’t come from outside donations,” he said.
In the letter, the track & field team noted that it does not fault members of the men’s lacrosse team for these issues, but rather blames administrators in the athletic department. The letter did speak directly about the new track facility.
“We appreciate the school renovating the outdoor track and providing a state-of-the-art facility, but it is not very useful if the track team can’t actually access it,” the letter reads. “We only get access to the outdoor track about two days a week during outdoor track season because we can’t practice on the track while lacrosse has practice on the infield. Many of our athletes have suffered from this lack of access.”
Rajgopal noted the importance of this effort in combating unequal treatment and characterized the track team’s attitude in the near future.
“If we’re going to change how the Athletic Department treats us we need to be seen as one of the most hardworking and passionate teams at Wes, and I think we all showed how much we put into and care about the track program,” she said.
On Friday, April 3, some students from the track & field team met with Whalen and other administrators from the Athletic Department. In the letter, team members expressed enduring disquiet with the administration even after that meeting.
“While the athletic department was respectful and listened to us speak, we believe that we need to take a stand against our repeated marginalization,” the letter reads.
Whalen expressed optimism going forward.
“At the end of the day, if this helps us bring some other issues to the surface, then this will have been a valuable exercise,” he said. “I plan to sit down with Coach Curry and talk with him about the concerns voiced by our student athletes and try to figure out if there’s an effective plan that we can try to put in place to figure out if we can help alleviate some of their concerns.”
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the track team members who attended the Amherst meet did so to qualify for the national championship. This has been corrected to reflect that only an officially-sanctioned meet can award times to participants.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the track team members who attended the Amherst meet did so to qualify for the national championship. This has been corrected to reflect that only an officially-sanctioned meet can award times to participants.
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