Cornell to cut funding to 11 varsity teams

Is Cornell going broke?

No doubt the Ithaca, N.Y., school has felt the brunt of the recent recession as has any other university, but according to the Cornell Daily Sun, the university if requiring 11 of its 36 varsity sports teams to be completely self-funded by 2015.

"There is a major ongoing effort to raise this money," Andy Noel, Cornell's director of athletics and physical education, told the newspaper. "We're visiting alumni all year and on the phone a lot as the fiscal year closes. ... It's a real challenge each year to generate the income that ... allows us to have competitive teams."

The 11 teams on the list: baseball, golf, lightweight rowing, sprint football, men's and women's polo, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's squash, and equestrian.

Cornell first started trimming its budgets in 2009, when a five-percent cut was implemented by the University across-the-board to every department. In each year since, the school has made additional cuts to Cornell Athletics.

Without funding from the University, the teams will have to stay afloat by means of operating income such as ticket sales (which are minimal for all programs but men's basketball, football and men's hockey), philanthropic gifts and endowments.