Post Pioneer

Many of the runners also criticized C.W. Post for making the announcement in late June, leaving upperclassmen no time to transfer to schools with track programs.

In Newsday, Athletics Director Bryan Collins said, was not callously planned, but a circumstance of budget scheduling. ``I don't think the timing is ever good to drop a program," he noted. "But our budgets do not come up until the end of the school year. We really don't know our situation with budgets until late in the year.''

Mammone, however, wasn't buying it, arguing the administration timed the announcement when students were away for the summer and many administrators were on vacation for the Fourth of July. Indeed, Coe-Perkins, Shenker and Langdon were on holiday the week after it was announced.

"It is absolutely pathetic on how immature the administration has acted in this type of circumstance," assistant track coach Chris Mammone said. "All the incoming freshmen that were not on scholarship are paying to come here for no reason.

Mammone then accused the administration of trying to take an easy way out of the announcement. "I find that it's no coincidence that teams are cut when there is nobody around to fight for it," he said. "The administration members at C.W. Post have no backbone and no respect for anybody else."

"What Post really did was screw the seniors," first-year business administration graduate student and Pioneer photographer Garrett Chapman said. "They can't leave because they are at credit maturity," he said. "The juniors won't have enough time to look for a new school - the rolls at most schools are closed for the fall semester.

Chapman suggested that if the track team must fold, the administration should extend its life one additional year. "Isn't it customary to announce a formal end to the program at this point in time, but allow the athletes to compete for one more season? This allows the seniors to finish their eligibility, and the juniors to red-shirt and transfer," he said.

"This is my senior year, my last year of being part of a team and you didn't even give me a warning that my program was about to be cut," photography major Sarah Lefrancois said. "Giving me my eligibility is useless, as I am not continuing onto grad school [at C.W. Post.]

Others expressed concern for the freshman track runners who enrolled at C.W. Post based on the premise they would be running track. Now, they argue, they are committed to a school that cannot deliver what it promised them when they signed up.

"It also became increasingly obvious that the university did not take into account the incoming freshmen that have already committed to coming to the program," first-year elementary education graduate student and Pioneer sports writer Michael Ringhauser said. "Through the university not coming to this decision until the bitter end of June, these athletes are forced to come to the university and red-shirt their first seasons of collegiate eligibility. Should these students decide to transfer at this point, reality is that they will not be receiving a scholarship at their new university due to the fact that most collegiate teams are already set on their recruitment process."

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