FDU IS ADDING SPORTS TO TRIM DEFICIT
By Eben Novy-Williams, Sportico
Last week, Fairleigh Dickinson University announced it was adding men’s volleyball. On Tuesday, the school will announce the addition of women’s lacrosse. The two teams will add around 58 new athletes to the athletic department—a 23% increase—and as the school sees it, attract more paying students to its dorms and classrooms.
“This is a perfect way to bring additional students to the campus...and athletes graduate at a much higher percentage than the general student body, so it helps there too.”
“Most universities, especially universities our size, are looking for additional students,” Athletic Director Brad Hurlbut said in an interview. “This is a perfect way to bring additional students to the campus, and fill up dorms. And athletes graduate at a much higher percentage than the general student body, so it helps there too.”
Fairleigh Dickinson is taking an approach championed by a number of economists, who believe “non-revenue” sports are actually cash-positive for many schools. Athletic departments, the thinking goes, often don’t account for the money that non-scholarship athletes pay in tuition, because that money appears on a different balance sheet. For schools that are under-enrolled, smaller sports attract students that likely wouldn’t otherwise come and might be difficult to replace.