NEWARK, NJ—NJIT has suspended sponsorship of its intercollegiate programs in men's swimming and women's swimming, effective immediately, Director of Athletics Lenny Kaplan announced today.

Kaplan, who recently informed team members of the school's plans in a meeting on campus, said the decision was necessitated by the need to cut the Department of Athletics budget in the face of the unprecedented $10.1 billion gap in the New Jersey State budget.

The proposed state budget for Fiscal Year 2011 includes reductions of $173.1 million in appropriations to higher education statewide, which, of course, includes NJIT as a whole, and the Athletics Department as a component of NJIT.

"It is never our desire to drop a sport, but the current budget situation requires many difficult choices,” Kaplan said. “This decision was part of a larger set of department-wide budgetary cuts.

“We looked at each sport, and among the areas we considered were:  conference affiliation, schedule, recent competitiveness, level of participation, scholarships, recruiting, staffing, facility, and potential to be competitive in an established Division I conference (NJIT is not in a Division I conference in swimming). After a thorough review, we felt the suspension of the swimming programs was the correct, albeit difficult, move.”

Kaplan did not rule out renewing sponsorship of the sports in the future. “We are intentionally using the term 'suspension', as I have hopes of returning the teams to varsity status at a point in the future when the budget situation is improved,” he said.

The head coaching position of the two programs will be vacant for the forthcoming year and was part of the decision-making process to suspend operations. No team prospects have been signed to National Letters of Intent for the coming year.

Kaplan said that NJIT will honor its scholarship commitments to returning student-athletes from the two programs and that NJIT will assist any swimming student-athletes who choose to transfer to other schools.