Dropping Athletics in Favor of Campus-Wide Wellness

Gutsy move!

Allie Grasgreen … Spelman eliminates athletics in favor of campus-wide wellness initiative:

Many colleges will do just about anything to get a bigger share of the ever-increasing revenue and recognition brought from participation in intercollegiate athletics. This past year alone, universities rushed to join conferences that made little sense geographically or competitively, and college presidents dropped their initial resistance to a football playoff system.

Spelman College is doing the exact opposite. The historically black liberal arts women’s college in Atlanta will announce today that it is completely eliminating intercollegiate athletics at the end of this academic year.

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So rather than dedicate its resources to programs from which only 4 percent of Spelman’s 2,000 students benefit, President Beverly Daniel Tatum decided to direct that money -- nearly $1 million -- and energy toward a campuswide fitness and wellness initiative that she sees as crucial to her students’ health and overall well-being.