Sunday, January 7, 2018

GEOGHEGAN: Cheyney University athletes, coaches locked out of facilities as athletic programs hang by a thread

THORNBURY. Pennsylvania -- You would be hard-pressed to find anyone associated with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference who was surprised to hear that financially troubled Cheyney University was discontinuing its football program. It had been rumored for years.

Now, the latest subject of speculation in league circles is whether one the country’s oldest historically black universities is going to have any athletic programs at all.

All of the uncertainty could be cleared up, of course, with a statement from Cheyney President Aaron Walton, or the school’s interim Athletic Director Sue Kilian. But both have been notably MIA since the PSAC announced the move to drop football on Dec. 8.

In fact, nearly a month later, there has yet to be an official release or announcement from anyone at Cheyney. The school’s athletic website still lists football as one of its four men’s sports. The most recent post for football came on Dec. 6 and is unrelated to the shutdown of the program.

“I just know what we were told in a meeting with the president,” said outgoing head football coach Chris Roulhac. “The conference is aware that football is being discontinued, but I’m not aware if the university has done a public announcement.”

A quick online search answers that question. But here is the pertinent question: Why has Cheyney’s administration refused to acknowledge what everyone seems already to know. Why the secrecy? Why not explain what is happening and why?

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