Discussions were held yesterday here at Union about the possible move
to Division I hockey. During the afternoon, Union President Roger Hull,
Athletic Director Dick Sakala and hockey coach Bruce Delventhal discussed the
idea with faculty members, and later in the evening the same three discussed it
with students. I was not at the first discussion, but I can tell you some of
the concerns raised and how they were responded to at the meeting with
students.
	The crowd was large for this type of thing at Union. I would guess
there were about 200 people there. First, President Hull made an opening
statement. He gave a brief description of what the move would involve, and
stated that he had yet to make a decision on the matter. The next 90 minutes or
so was a question and answer session. Students has a chance to raise their
concerns, and the three panelists responded.
	Throughout the discussion, President Hull emphasized that there would
be no special treatment of hockey players. No special admissions policy, no
athletic scholarships, and no preferred packaging of housing, etc. He
emphasized that if the invitation was from any other league than the ECAC or in
any other sport, his decision would have been a definite no. But the ECAC is a
very academically oriented league. He also mentioned that he originally said he
would agree to it only if a women's sport would also be elevated to Division I.
But after talking with the coaches of the women's teams, none were interested.
	The first concern is money. AD Sakala and Coach Delventhal said that it
would take an additional $60,000 to run a Division I program. However, they
anticipate at least that much of an increase in ticket revenue. Achilles Rink
holds 2500 people. Up to 1250 of those tickets will still be given out to
students and faculty on a complimentary basis, as they are now. They have no
plans to begin charging the campus community to see any Union sporting event.
Other tickets would sell for $5 or $7. They estimate a crowd of 1000 paying
customers per game, averaging $6 per ticket, over a 14 game home schedule would
bring in $84,000, up $64,000 from what the ticket sales now produce. So there
would not need to be any cuts in the budgets of any other sport to pay for
hockey. Several people brought up the point that this money should be used to
better the 22 other varsity sports, or to upgrade the Crew or Ski Clubs to
varsity status. The point that these people continually missed is that the
$60,000 in question wouldn't even be there if the hockey team does not move to
Division I.
	People raised the question of how Union would attract any decent hockey
players if we did not offer scholarships. All three panelists felt that this
would not be a major problem. President Hull presented his worst-case scenario,
being 0-24 for the first few years. Some of the students against the move
attempted to dwell on the possibility that Union would never win a game in
Division I. It was pointed out that over the last three years, Union has a 3-2
record against Division I teams, and that while we would not be on the level of
a Cornell or Harvard in the first few years, we could certainly compete with a
good number of Division I teams on a regualr basis. When asked what percentage
of his current players he considered would be Division I caliber players, he
thought about it for a minute and answered that he estimated that half could
compete on the Division I level. He also restated the commitment to give all
current Union hockey players the chance to continue playing. He would not go
out and try to recruit an entire new team for the fall. He said the only
element we are missing is the superstar type player, like a Joe Juneau at RPI.
	Most, if not all of the hockey team was present for the meeting. Brian
Lucey presented a hockey player's point of view. He is a senior, and would not
be around to play next year. His main point was the scheduling system. He said
that it is very difficult having Tuesday night road games, and that the
Friday-Saturday system of the ECAC would be much better for the players. He
also said that he feels we could compete fairly soon and not have to endure a
long string of terrible seasons.
	I don't think that everyone there was convinced that it would be the
right move for Union to make, but those who oppose it were not going to
have their minds changed. Most of President Hull's comments leaned toward
accepting the offer, although he said again at the end that his mind has not
been made up. I think that every concern brought up by any student was
addressed. I left thinking there weren't any negatives to the situation.
	Wednesday, President Hull makes the proposal to the trustees. Hopefully
they will see that this is the right way for Union to go. He said that he
expects to have a decision in about 2 weeks, although I feel the announcement
will be made at Tuesday's game vs. Hamilton.
 
Jim