BACKGROUND
On Sunday, May 17th, the Chicago State baseball team discovered via @tedcahill on Twitter that there was a possibility of their program being cut. With no prior knowledge, the news was an absolute blow to a team that was still recovering from the firing of their longtime head coach Steve Joslyn just weeks prior. Through information gathered on Twitter, the team was informed that there would be a Board of Trustees Meeting on Monday, May 18th that was supposed to decide the fate of the program.
Nobody from the school informed the team of the meeting in a clear attempt to bring a quiet end to the program without giving them a chance.
Despite the attempt, the majority of the Chicago State baseball team and plenty of their supporters were present for the Board of Regiments meeting. Once the presence of the supporters was evident, the Board elected to move the public comment portion of the meeting to the beginning of the meeting rather than the end, where it was originally scheduled. A handful of CSU players and supporters made their voices heard on the call during the public comment portion by stating how much the program meant to them, and how unfair it would be to cut the program.
The board's response to each one of these passionate statements? "Thank you for commenting".
Following the public comments, the supporters stayed on the meeting to wait for item number six on the agenda, NCAA Sports Sponsorship for FY21. While waiting, a few Cougar supporters discussed in the chat room of the meeting the implications that would come along with cutting the program. Among these were the threat of Chicago State dropping from Division-1 if the program is cut. Once this possibility was brought up, the meeting administrator disabled the chat. When a supporter asked for it to be re-activated, they were provided with an irrelevant reasoning and answer from a Board member.
Before the meeting could reach the discussion of sports sponsorship for FY21, it was interrupted by prank callers and the meeting was thus adjourned. The Board members then moved to a private meeting where they opted to "table" the decision on the baseball program until the next meeting scheduled for June 22nd. This was a decision that was made with the understanding that it would put all 30 players on the roster in a very dark situation. For those trying to stay at Chicago State, they must wait until the decision on June 22nd before contacting other schools, thus leaving them very little time to find a new home. This has forced the majority of the roster to enter the transfer portal out of fear of this scenario. You wonder if this action was taken by the Board in an effort to push all of the players out thus allowing them to silently cut the baseball program.
To add insult to injury, the team has yet to receive any additional information from the Athletic Department other than "it is being voted on". Understandably so, these players are frantically entering the transfer portal with no idea what their future holds during this pandemic because CSU is not providing any light whatsoever for them. The clock is ticking for this valuable program that has been around over four decades, and Chicago State is trying to make it go as quietly as possible. For an athletic department that has a banner reading "Student-First Approach" on their website, CSU is doing virtually nothing for these 30 men who are now facing some of the toughest transitions of their life.
DON'T LET THEM END CSU BASEBALL QUIETLY - MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!