Wheaton College reverses field on four varsity sports

A year after eliminating school funding of five varsity sports, Wheaton College announced Thursday it will again fund four of them.

Men’s and women’s golf, men’s tennis and men’s indoor track will get school funding as recommended by a school task force set up in the wake of last year’s cuts. Women’s water polo will become a club sport in 2014.

All but men’s indoor track were funded this year by a group of supporters rather than the school athletic department.

Wheaton College announced it also will consider adding women’s lacrosse as a varsity sport.

The rebound in the stock market during the past year had an effect, as did work within the college to reallocate some resources.

“We have recovered a good part of our losses in our endowment, so that certainly doesn’t hurt,” said Paul Chelsen, vice president for student development.

The school set up the task force after last year’s cuts took the college community by surprise. Chelsen said the school wanted a more transparent way of discussing its priorities. Along the way the task force decided these sports had a high priority.

“When we put all the information together we felt like it was in the best long-term interest of the college to reinstate these sports,” Chelsen said.

The task force included representatives from across the campus, solicited opinions from a school website and considered a large amount of data before making its recommendations, Chelsen said.

“I feel very good about the process, and I’ve gotten some good feedback from our constituencies too,” Chelsen said. “They felt like it was a fair process.”

Women’s water polo will become a club sport because there are only 19 varsity Division III teams in the country, none in Illinois or the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, making travel prohibitive, he said. The sport didn’t grow as anticipated when the school added women’s water polo about a decade ago.

Women’s lacrosse could be added in 2014 because there are other Division III schools that offer the sport in the Midwest and the CCIW is considering adding it.