Be a Good Sport (at Berkeley)

Inside Higher Ed today points to the story below:

Men’s gymnastics program to continue at UC Berkeley

Herb Benenson, Intercollegiate Athletics, May 2, 2011

As a result of fundraising efforts that have raised in excess of $2.5 million, the men’s gymnastics program at the University of California, Berkeley, will be preserved as an Intercollegiate Athletics sport, campus officials announced today (Monday, May 2).

The total, though short of the $4 million necessary to fund the team’s current direct and indirect costs, will support the program for at least 7-10 years in combination with steps to reduce annual operating expenses. Specifically, until the ultimate fundraising goal is met, men’s gymnastics will be limited in its ability to provide financial aid to future student-athletes…

…Since UC Berkeley announced last September that four sports – baseball, men’s gymnastics, women’s gymnastics and women’s lacrosse – would be eliminated and rugby assigned to a newly created tier at the end of the 2010-11 academic year, donors have pledged more than $20 million to allow for the preservation of all five programs at the Intercollegiate Athletics level. These substantial commitments, in combination with expected ongoing fundraising efforts, will fully support the costs, both direct and indirect, of each team and enable Cal Athletics to remain on its path to financial sustainability and honor the campus’s decision to cap institutional support for athletics at $5 million a year by 2014…

Full story at http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/05/02/gymnastics-to-continue-at-cal/

[Photo above shows men’s gymnastics at UC-Berkeley in the early 1900s.]