Open letter to Satish Tripathi and UB Athletics from a UB athlete of a cut program

Ed. Note: Last night we were asked to feature an open letter from a student-athlete from one of the four programs that were cut on Monday. Here at Bull Run, we respect the voice of the student-athlete and feel that it needs to be heard. The writer asked for us to forego their identity and which sport they participated in.

An open letter to Satish K. Tripathi and UB Athletics,

I don’t think you truly understand the effect of what cutting our programs has done to us, not just as student athletes, but as human beings.

On Sunday night at 8:36 PM I received a text from athletics saying that there will be a mandatory meeting at 8 AM the next day with Allen Greene and we were to attend unless we had class.

So for starters, you couldn’t excuse us from one class to tell us that you were cutting us. Instead, students found out via Facebook or text because no one in that room apart from you had the ability to talk because we were crying our eyes out. At the very least, you owed us the ability to learn of our fate as a team.

You also decided to tell us on April 3rd of all days. Most schools have spent their scholarship money and filled roster spots months ago. You literally screwed us in so many ways. I don’t think you realize how many times in the past 48 hours myself and my fellow athletes have been told something along the lines of, “We’d offer you a full scholarship normally but we’ve already used all our scholarship money” or “unfortunately the roster is full.”

There is no way you decided our fate at 8:36 PM on a Sunday night. I’ve heard the rumors that you’ve known for a while and it wouldn't shock me if they were true. Why didn't you give us the decency of telling us earlier or at least warning us our programs were in danger?

Another thing that upsets us is the way you told us. Tripathi didn’t even tell us we were the ones who were gone. Greene did it in a cookie cutter style speech, saying something along the lines of, “I have kids I know how your parents must feel.”

No, you don’t.

You don't understand how it feels to have your child find out their sports team is ripped from them without even a reason apart from money. The first thing my parents said was, “What about that field house you’re getting, how are they paying for that?” How can you tell us you can’t afford to continue to highly under fund my sport yet you can afford to build a field house. Don’t even get me started on football’s budget, they are basically last in Division I rankings and stay at hotels across the street for home games when they already get priority housing. But, you couldn’t find a way to trim back their budget?

But most important, I am losing not just my team, but my family.

Personally there is no way I can continue to stay at UB. I can’t be at a school that doesn't care about me. Regardless of the fact I can get a free education because you’re trying to make yourselves look good by letting us keep them. You also fired our coaches fifteen minutes before you told us. They have mortgages and families to support and they didn't even get paid much to begin with, but you’re making 6+ figures so you wouldn’t understand that.

This is the last semester of many at UB and unfortunately we’ll be leaving our closest friends behind and starting over. We’re starting over academically as well because not all of our credits are going to transfer.

I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, but I will never support UB with any form of funding after what they did to us.