The Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., university president, has decided that the athletic scholarship program in both men’s and women’s basketball will continue for the next three years, in part he said to improve residential life at Loyola. Wildes announced his decision in a campus e-mail and explained his reasoning for the continued trial run at a Town Hall meeting Tuesday.

“As we become more of a national university, we have to build a commuter-residential life for students, and it’s more than offering beds,” Wildes said.

As of now, the program will continue through the 2007-2008 academic year, and Wildes was adamant that the scholarships would go to only qualified applicants. All recruits must receive a 3.0 grade point average in high school and a 24 on the ACT. The scholarships pay the athletes’ full tuition, as well as the cost of housing and a meal plan.

No academic standard has been made on what the recruits must maintain in the duration of their college career. The first class of recipients must keep a 2.7.

According to Wildes, an oversight committee still in formation would handle the development of the athletic scholarship program and be in charge of setting such standards.

The announcement comes after a controversial decision last winter when the Rev. William Byron, S.J., former interim university president allocated six athletic scholarships for the first time since the removal of athletics in 1971. In 1991, the Board of Trustees voted in favor of reinstating intercollegiate athletics but against scholarships.

“One reason I extended the program to do this for the next three years would be to give us four years of experience to see if it’s improving,” Wildes said. “I think it’s hard to make a judgment after just one year.”

Wildes also dissolved the Committee on Athletic Scholarships and reinstituted the Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory Council.

In order to create a strategic plan, Wildes asked Francis X. Rienzo, athletic director emeritus of Georgetown University, and Denis Kanach, athletic director of Randolph Macon University, to review Loyola’s athletic department. Rienzo and Kanach will

both make recommendations on strategic directions as well as help identify possible areas of fund raising.

The once-heated topic has met a more tame reaction this semester. Music business freshman Kevin Wuerstlin said he likes the idea of scholarships but says results should follow.

“If people want to come and play sports, that’s fine by me, as long as they’re good and win,” Wuerstlin said.

Political science freshman and men’s basketball team member David Curtin said he believes this year’s recipients are well deserving and that the program should continue.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Curtin said. “The three scholars I know have as high or higher GPA than a lot of people I know.”

The program, he said, allows less fortunate but talented athletes the opportunity to come to Loyola.

“Inevitably, we will be stronger [because] you have players that would have normally gone to other colleges,” he said.

Athletic director and men’s head coach Michael Giorlando said he could not be happier about the renewal.

“This is going to give us a higher level of athletic standpoint and bring more excitement for the athletic department,” Giorlando said.

He also said he is confident in the path the program is taking.

“I trust Father Wildes,” Giorlando said. “I support his decision. I think basketball is the right way to go. First and foremost I am extremely thankful. This gives our athletic department more credibility with the community now that the administration is behind it.”

Giorlando said with the added attention to athletics, more interest will come from alumni and recruiting will be easier.

According to the Jan. 23 issue of The Maroon, Byron said that one of the reasons to give athletic scholarships was to racially integrate the teams. But officials are unsure whether that still holds true. Of the six scholarship recipients, five are white.

“We’re going to recruit the best qualified athletes regardless,” Giorlando said. “If we can, I’d love to increase diversity. But we’re not trying to do quotas. We tried minorities in the past, and they didn’t qualify and same for some Caucasians.”

Wildes attributes the lack of diversity to the tardiness of recruitment.

“I’m hoping that will change this year,” Wildes said. “We got into the recruiting too late.”

As for now, Wildes said he is taking caution in a topic that was thrust upon him in his first year of presidency.

“This is one of the things that I walked into,” Wildes said. “If you rob Peter and don’t pay Paul, you shortchange everybody in this deal.”

Michael Nissman can be reached at [email protected].