Form Letter from Flo. Take a few minutes to fwd this to the Board Of Regents (emails addy's below).
Copy/paste from Flo: Hey friends and Mav fans!! We put together a quick letter to send out to the Nebraska Board of Regents to show our support for the wrestling team! If you could help us out - it would be much appreciated. Please copy and paste the letter below and send it to the following emails:
tclare@nebraska.edu, hhawks@nebraska.edu, chassebrook@nebraska.edu, bwhitehouse@nebraska.edu, jmcclurg@nebraska.edu, kschroeder@nebraska.edu, bphares@nebraska.edu, rferlic@nebraska.edu, unkregent@unk.edu, unlregent@unl.edu, unmcregent@unmc.edu, unoregent@mail.unomaha.edu, johnchristensen@unomaha.edu
Letter:
March 2011
To the Nebraska Board of Regents and Whom it May Concern:
We are writing you this letter on behalf of the University of Nebraska Omaha's wrestling team, coaches, alumni, fans, and supporters. It is our understanding that, very soon, you will be asked to decide the fate of UNO's wrestling program. We're asking that you weigh the following factors before making your decision:
1) The success of the Maverick wrestling program is undeniable. Six NCAA Championships in the last eight years, eight championships in all, countless All-Americans and Academic All-Americans. Their service to the community has included working and feeding the homeless, visiting patients in local hospitals, delivering drug-free and alcohol-free messages to schools, and hosting countless tournaments for youth wrestling programs in the community.
2) Coach Mike Denney has been at the forefront of this team for the last 30 years. He has taken the team from a winless sport to a program rich in success and tradition. Alumni from the UNO wrestling program include doctors, attorneys, teachers, college coaches, Olympians, and many other success stories too numerous to count – many of whom still live, work, and contribute to the State of Nebraska. What's more amazing is that Coach has done all of this on the same 21,000 dollar budget that he has had since 1979. He works year round to fundraise thousands of dollars to ease UNO’s financial burden – how many other programs are doing this?
3) Other programs in the Summit League compete in wrestling. Both South Dakota State and North Dakota State compete outside of their conference, why is this not a viable option for UNO?
4) The decisions that are made and the actions that are taken at UNO will have a ripple effect in not only college wrestling but other sports as well. If a eight time national championship team that essentially funds itself is not safe from budget cuts, who is and where does it stop? Is one program that much more important than the others?
5) The manner in which this decision was made and announced publically was deplorable. Ten minutes after the wrestlers won their third straight national title - Coach Denney was left a voicemail from Athletic Director Trev Alberts that the wrestling program had been cut. It was posted in the Omaha World Herald before Coach had an opportunity to not only digest this information himself, but to explain the situation to a room full of student athletes who had just poured their hearts into a season in UNO's name. Then AD Alberts proceeds to host a press conference before the team is even home to announce this decision and upon the teams return to the school, had changed the locks on the UNO Fieldhouse doors.
Needless to say, the manner in which this was handled by AD Alberts and Chancellor John Christiansen was both unprofessional and disrespectful to a program that has been nothing short of a huge success. Perhaps their conduct and leadership should be under review.
We’re asking that you consider seriously and carefully before making your decision. UNO Wrestling students, fans, and alumni have contributed to both the school and the State of Nebraska for the last three decades. Despite what AD Alberts and Chancellor Christiansen (employed by tax-payers) have decided, cutting this program out UNO’s curriculum benefits no one.
UNO Wrestling Family
