Winston-Salem State University, the historically Black educational institution in North Carolina, has announced major changed to its athletics programs.
The university has been supporting 16 interscholastic sports. But it is now eliminating men’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams as well as the men’s golf team. The elimination of three men’s teams will improve gender equity in the university’s sports programs and serve to strengthen the university’s remaining teams.
“We are more aggressively striving to elevate our sports programs to a higher level of regional and national success,” said Bill Hayes, director of athletics at Winston-Salem State University. “We cannot, however, develop and sustain a consistently high caliber program within our current budget. Therefore, we have made the decision to reallocate funds currently supporting three of our athletic teams to provide more financial support for our remaining program.”
“We need to focus our efforts on getting better at the things we do best,” Hayes explained.