News broke this morning that Stanford University is reversing its decision to cut 11 Varsity sports, including Men's Rowing and Women's Lightweight Rowing.
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle today, Stanford has officially announced on Tuesday afternoon that all 11 sports slated to be cut will be reinstated.
row2k reported on the original decision to cut sports back in July of 2020. At the time, the school argued that it did not have the economic basis to continue supporting these sports. However, the backlash from the affected athletes, alumni and school supporters was swift and fierce, and culminated in two lawsuits filed in federal court against Stanford in just the past week.
We checked in with Christine Cavallo, who was integral in helping to organize the alumni base, after hearing the news. "I’m ecstatic," she said. "This has been so many hours of work from myself and so many other athletes, alumni, parents and supporters. The cuts and the reasoning behind them were just so fundamentally wrong that I think it actually motivated a lot of us when it felt like progress was running up against a brick wall. The people impacted by these programs are too great, and have strengthened so much of that greatness through their experience on these teams. The value of that is incalculable. So we are just so happy to see it be recognized for the opportunity that it is. It’s so far beyond a financial shortfall."
This is a developing story and will be updated as row2k learns more.