The university’s athletic director proposed a swim and dive team at Thursday’s Board of Trustees Meeting. 

Jon Mark Hall, athletic director, proposed a plan for adding a swim and dive team among the university’s athletic programs.

Hall presented a timeline for the new team and Aquatic Center. According to the proposed timeline, the facility could open and a facility director would be hired in the summer of 2021. In the fall of 2021 a swimming and diving head coach would be hired and recruitment would begin. Then in the winter of 2022, the first season would begin. 

“This is an aggressive timeline,” Hall said. “One we might not follow but just a proposal that we sent to the UAC and then on to the president’s office.”

The cost of the proposed plan would be about $375,000, Hall said. That is about $115,000 for a head coach, assistant coach and diving coach. It would cost $180,000 for scholarships and operation, he said. 

He said the plan to start a swimming and diving program was given to the Facility Planning and Fiscal Integrity Subcommittee, was approved by the full board of the University Athletics Council and is currently at the President’s Office. 

Hall said he would expect around 25 men and 25 women to participate in a swimming and diving program.

The majority of students would be new to the university, he said. 

Hall said he foresees the university hosting college meets and two or three high school teams at the new Aquatic Center. 

400 participants competed at the 2021 Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimming and Diving Championship, Hall said. There were 10 men’s teams and 9 women’s teams.

Charles Blaich and Kathy Wise from the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium presented the results of the 2020 Insight Survey the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Council gave in Spring 2020.

1,774 participants took the survey, where 84% of students said they were satisfied with the campus’s support of equity, diversity and inclusion. Blaich said at all other institutions, 74% were satisfied.

The next Board of Trustees meeting will be in person on campus May 7.