Federal, State Officials Pressure clemson over discontinuing men’s track
By Zoe Nicholson, Excerpted from Greenville News & Mail
South Carolina State Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston and Dorchester, wrote an open letter to Clemson President Jim Clements and Senate President Harvey Peeler calling on the General Assembly to investigate the team's discontinuation.
"In my view, based on the current demographics of the program, cutting it will have a generational effect on African American males," Kimpson's Dec. 30 letter said.
“We are duty-bound to inquire of our institutions that make big decisions without being fully transparent to the members who represent the universities in all constituents that live in South Carolina" - South Carolina State Sen. Marlon Kimpson
The men's track and field team has the highest number of Black athletes at Clemson who do not generate revenue, according to NCAA reports. Athletes and alumni told The Greenville News the track team offers avenues to higher education and professional sports for athletes from marginalized backgrounds and cutting the program blocks that opportunity for countless athletes.
State Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston and Dorchester, wrote an open letter to Clemson President Jim Clements and Senate President Harvey Peeler calling on the General Assembly to investigate the team's discontinuation.
Kimpson said he does not know whether the choice to cut the team was the right one, but as a state senator, he has a responsibility to investigate the decision after receiving "hundreds of emails and social media" messages.
Kimpson said Clemson Athletics Director Dan Radakovich wasn't transparent when announcing the decision to cut the team. Radakovich said a host of issues — financial, gender equity, and COVID-19 — led to the team being discontinued in June 2021.
"We are duty-bound to inquire of our institutions that make big decisions without being fully transparent to the members who represent the universities in all constituents that live in South Carolina," he told The News and Mail.
As a public, land-grant institution, Clemson is a state agency and liable to interference from the General Assembly.
National activist Russell Dinkins, who successfully helped teams at Brown, William & Mary, and Minnesota Universities reinstate cut track teams, said the complaint is meant to add pressure to the university, especially since it eliminates opportunities for people of color, particularly Black athletes.
"This decision... is unconscionable and, frankly, inexcusable and unacceptable. I don't think that a university should be willing to accept that cost. I mean, that is literally costing educational opportunities for people in a community that's been underserved."
And as pressures mount from government sources, Clemson track athletes are not slowing down in their quest to be reinstated, Dinkins said.
Zoe Nicholson covers Clemson. Find her at znicholson@gannett.com or @zoenicholson_ on Twitter.