New School Basketball Team Suffers from Lack of Support, Money

It was a Friday night, and The New School basketball team was beginning its season with a practice game against Cooper Union. All of the players were ready to show their skills on the court, and the coaches were eager to start the new season successfully, but something seemed wrong. There were more people on the court than in the stands, the players on both teams didn’t have matching jerseys, and the whole affair was taking place inside a gym lined with signs congratulating the Lady Tigers of Simon Baruch Middle School – since neither The New School nor Cooper Union have a home gym.

Four years into its existence, The New School basketball team is still vying for proper uniforms and a mascot. Over the course of those four years, there has not been an increase in budget, an increase in institutional support or even an increase in fans. Head coach Mike Moss and team president Shane Galvin both agree that the team is plagued by its share of problems.

For a student organization that is widely unrecognized by most of the student body, institutional support is crucial. The Office of Recreation and Intramural Sports currently funds Moss’ yearly salary of $5,000, as well as the team’s two practices a week at Pace University and Washington Irving High School. But the basketball team still needs more.

“Gym space is very expensive, but we need to practice,” Galvin said. “To learn our plays, we need more than two practices a week.”

Moss started coaching the team last fall, having played on the squad on occasion as a graduate student. When former coach Justin Hill left his position at the end of the 2010-2011 season, The New School’s senior vice president for student services, Linda Reimer, hired Moss to coach the team. But now, Moss is not so sure why.

“She just doesn’t seem to support us at all,” Moss said. “They shouldn’t have hired me if they weren’t serious about it. It was really mistaken management.”

The team recently requested $4,000 in funding from the University Student Senate for the upcoming season to help pay for gym rental space and new uniforms. But the proposal did not pass, receiving only six of the eight required votes. While the USS granted the team $10,000 last year for the 2011-2012 season, senate co-chair Katherine Towell said that the USS has been unable to pass many of its larger funding requests this year due to budget constraints.

It is a recurring theme, as The New School administration has looked to cut costs in the wake of the university’s financial realities. The Office of Recreation and Intramural Sports has seen its budget slashed by almost half since last year, which affected many of the university’s sports teams and organizations. Support from the Office of Student Development and Activities, meanwhile, has also been limited.

Erin Orr, coordinator of student organization for the Office of Student Development and Activities, said that OSDA director Shannon Logan has “not been able to care for matters involving the affairs of The New School’s sports organizations,” as Logan has been “too busy.” Orr and Diane Yee, the newly appointed director of the Office of Recreation and Intramural Sports, have since begun working on a sustainable plan to support and promote these student groups.

Still, the basketball team’s financial difficulties have resulted in a slow start of the upcoming season. When asked about the team’s needs, Galvin was both light-hearted – “People over six feet, we could use a couple of those” – and realistic.

“A gym,” he said, “we’d love a court, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”