Until today, athletes at James Madison University held out hope that its Board of Visitors would reconsider the decision to eliminate 10 teams this summer. The athletes staged rallies and even protested outside the Education Department, whose enforcement of a federal gender-equity law they blamed for the university’s decision.
But after a final plea to the board by a student representative from Save JMU Sports, the board announced today that the teams would still be cut. “I can’t say that we were really surprised,” said the student, Jennifer Chapman, a senior track and cross-country runner. But James Madison should not be surprised, she added, by a lawsuit from athletes’ parents.
