At committee meetings Friday, the College of William and Mary’s Board of Visitors discussed the current state of varsity, club and intercollegiate athletics.
There are currently over 2,000 students on more than 500 teams who participate in some form of athletics at the College. Of those students, 501 participate on the College’s 23 varsity teams.
“These numbers represent not only participation, but an opportunity to watch some great sporting events, which is something we are very proud of,” Athletic Director Terry Driscoll said.
The committee on athletics spent the majority of the meeting examining the cost effectiveness of the College’s athletic program.
Currently, $1,654 of every student’s tuition goes toward the College’s 23 varsity athletic teams. This fee covers 54 percent of the total cost of the College’s athletic programs. A separate tuition fee goes toward recreational sports.
To compensate for the remaining 46 percent, the College’s athletic program annually fundraises more than $3 million dollars through the annual fund, donations and ticket sales at athletic events.
“It’s a large fee, but if William and Mary wants to have a successful varsity athletic program, it’s necessary,” College President Taylor Reveley said.
Driscoll also said that there is some dissent among faculty about this fee. According to Driscoll, some faculty members believe that the $1,654 per-student fee could fund academic programs or help increase staff salaries.
“It’s a perennial problem,” Reveley said. “Concern about the size of the fee is nothing new.”
However, the College’s athletic fee is lower than its academic peer schools in the Patriot and Ivy leagues.
“We are a very cost effective program,” Driscoll said. “We don’t have a lot of monetary support for our athletic program.”