Following an unsteady start to the season springing from a change in University budget policy, the cheerleading squad is much smaller than in past years and faces uncertainty regarding who will serve as coach in the future.
While the squad usually has a roster of 16 to 20 members, there are currently only six cheerleaders, according to Rick Merriam, assistant athletic director for marketing. The Herald reported Sept. 22 that the squad had nine members and had just held an additional round of tryouts in an attempt to recruit more students.
"We are continuing to explore ways to attract more members to the squad," Merriam wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
While the budget for this year's cheerleading squad is identical to last year's, last spring the University changed how it defines part-time employees - such as the cheerleading coach - on "limited duration payroll," Merriam told The Herald in September. The policy change led the athletic department to re-evaluate its budget and conclude that it could not afford a professional coach.
The squad's coach vacated her position at the end of the spring semester, leaving the cheerleaders with no obvious options other than switching to a student-coach.
Following a selection process over the summer, Cindy Vuittonet '07 was chosen as the student-coach. Several members, however, including one of the squad's three captains, were dissatisfied with the absence of a professional coach and quit the team before the season got underway in September. Vuittonet asked the remaining two captains to leave the squad after they distributed flyers at a football game protesting the policy change.
Vuittonet declined to comment about the current status of the squad, and other cheerleaders could not be reached for comment. Vuittonet told The Herald in September, "The cheerleaders have said they want a professional coach (but) student-coaching is fairly common" on college campuses.
The team's small size this season has kept the squad "ground-bound," Merriam wrote. "With only six members, the level of stunting has been minimized," the squad has not encountered any safety-related issues, a concern cited previously by several members who quit the team.
Official NCAA policy states that teams supervised by "a full-time undergraduate student, student-coach or member of the squad" are not eligible for NCAA Catastrophic Injury Insurance Coverage - an insurance policy that provides up to $20 million per insured person per covered accident, according to the NCAA's Web site. Still, Merriam wrote "the number one thing that limited the level of stunting is the number of cheerleaders."
The squad has performed at all the home football games until Saturday's football game against Yale, according to Jasmine Plummer '08, one of the former captains who was asked to leave the team following the flyer incident. Plummer, the other two former captains and six other former cheerleaders, all of whom were on the team at the beginning of the year, have also attended every home game as spectators, she added.
"We still love the game and cheering and being there," Plummer said, "but we had to get used to being on the stands instead of on the field."
During the summer, Plummer and other cheerleaders were offered the position of student-coach, but she declined because she wanted a professional coach, she said. "It's not a 20-year-old's job. ... It's just too dangerous," she said.
Several weeks ago, Plummer and other former cheerleaders presented Merriam with the alternative of hiring a Providence-based cheerleading coach who had offered to work for the same salary as Vuittonet, Plummer said.
According to Plummer, Merriam said hiring the coach did not seem feasible because of the constraints of the limited duration payroll policy. "It seems like a very big flaw in the hiring system to me," she said.
While he would not comment on individuals, Merriam wrote, "If a volunteer-type situation becomes an option, we will consider it very seriously."
It is unknown who will coach the team next year, though it almost certainly will be a student. Merriam wrote that he does "not foresee any changes to the (Human Resources) policy."
The cheerleading squad is currently classified as a club sport - along with ultimate Frisbee, rugby and sailing - and Merriam expects that "cheerleading will fall under the club sports 'umbrella' well into the future."
