Scherr, USA Archery Decry JMU’s Decision To Cut Sports Teams

Jim Scherr Responds To JMU Decision

USOC CEO Jim Scherr called James Madison Univ.’s (JMU) decision to eliminate ten varsity sports in order to comply with Title IX “troubling,” according to Calvin Trice of the RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH. Scherr in a letter to JMU President Linwood Rose and AD Jeff Bourne wrote that Title IX requirements “are often used as a smokescreen to get rid of certain sports programs, and too often those programs are Olympic sports.” Scherr wrote, “Your decision damages the hopes and dreams of the next generation of athletes who aspire to one day represent our country in the Olympic Games.” With men’s and women’s archery among the cuts, USA Archery College Program Chair Kari Jill Granville said that she “suspected money, not gender proportion requirements, drives the elimination of sports such as archery that don’t generate revenue” (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 10/12). Granville also penned a letter to JMU in which she wrote, “In the sport of archery, JMU is a juggernaut ... So why would the athletic department cut the varsity status (allegedly under Title IX ... though the men’s AND women’s teams were eliminated) of the most successful team the school has ever known?” (THE DAILY).