David BlackburnUniversity of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director David Blackburn took his sweet Southern time explaining his decision to cut men's indoor and outdoor track and field.
Student Government Association president Robert Fisher interjected and prompted Blackburn to pick up the pace so the crowd of about 200 gathered in the Raccoon Mountain Room of the University Center could ask questions.
Then Blackburn handed the proceedings over to associate athletic director Laura Herron, who sped through a 40-page PowerPoint presentation before the floor opened for questions and comments from track and field supporters, alumni and student-athletes -- for about 20 minutes.
"I asked David when the announcement was made if he would have a conversation with the Student Government Association in an open setting so we could ask questions," Fisher said. "I really wish David would have taken less time to provide that context. Laura's presentation, while pithy, we lost a lot of time for real thoughtful questions from the crowd.
"What they did was truncate our schedule in terms of our questions."
UTC senior runner Patrick O'Brien opened the question session by admitting that he's confused. He understands that six male student-athletes are being cut to help address the Title IX proportionality issues UTC is facing but wonders why adding six female athletes wouldn't do the same thing.
"Mr. O'Brien, we've run the numbers on that and we feel that this is a good-faith effort," Blackburn answered. "We felt that this is the best that would affect the fewest number of student-athletes."
Herron said the administration has been asking coaches to add female student-athletes over the past five years. She referenced a conversation with track and cross country coach Bill Gautier.
"He told me that he physically could not get more people on the track," Herron said.
Blackburn said, "To be more direct, your coach, our current coach, won't do that."
At which point Fisher began orchestrating the session to maintain civility. Remaining questions revolved around the numbers necessary for UTC to show the Office of Civil Rights that it is improving its compliance with federal law.
"We think our plan will show a good-faith effort and give us time to recover," said Blackburn, who answered questions for less than 15 minutes before Fisher concluded the proceedings.
"We were told it would be an open forum, but the presentation from Mr. Blackburn didn't allow the group to ask a lot of questions," said recent graduate Lucas Cotter, another Mocs runner. "So we left with a lot of unanswered questions."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.