I can understand what teh folks at Ferris State are going through.  There are
few things more frustrating than seeing the program you love and support
getting cut by people who deal only in dollars and cents.  Administrators can
very easily lose sight of what a hockey program brings to a University.  In the
case of Ferris State, it brings national notariaty (as Mike Machinik has
pointed out.)  It also brings opportunity to the atheletes who participate in
the program.  The worst part is the breaking of a promise the University makes
to the people in the program.  The University promises to provide the
opportunity to compete and the Div I level while working toward a college
degree.  That is an opportunity many atheletes would have found elsewhere had
they known of the impending budget crisis.
 
The crisis at Ferris strikes very close to home for me.  I was invovled in
Notre Dame Hockey in 1982-83 when the program was cut to a club status.  It is
very rough time on all invovled.  My heart goes out to those invovled in Ferris
State Hockey (and other effected sports) and I hope things can be resolved with
a minimum of hardship.
 
     - Pat
.
 
- Patrick E. Fleming ---------------------------------------------------
- Department of Chemistry ------------- Bring back the magic -----------
- The Ohio State University ----------- Don't make life so tragic ------
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