CONCORDIA – Following a recommendation from Cloud County Community College President Dr. Adrian Douglas and a formal vote by the Board of Trustees, the Cloud County men’s and women’s soccer programs have been suspended indefinitely.
The action is effective immediately, leaving the T-Bird athletic department with 10 active sports competing within the National Junior College Athletic Association along with cheer and dance teams for a total of 12 teams.
“Let me first say that our soccer programs have performed well on the field and we have some great students here” said Cloud County Community College President Dr. Adrian Douglas. “This decision is not a reflection of the students, but rather an institutional peel back to explore ways to improve the student experience at Cloud County Community College.
“Our reasons for recommending temporary suspension of the programs involve several issues that affect our entire institution.
“When I have various groups from the campus community in my office with issues that have something in common, that tells me that something larger is happening and we need to explore it.
“We need to restructure our recruitment and admissions processes and enforce English proficiency requirements for all international students.
“As an open admissions institution, we want to remain true to our guiding value of accessibility but we have to do that in a way that will allow us to have an environment that fosters student success.
“We have learned that many of our students find us through international recruiting agencies not affiliated with CCCC.
“The recruiting agents supposedly help them navigate the process of preparing them to come to the United States.
“Students pay a lot of money to these companies for this assistance, anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000.
“The federal government has even recognized this as a problem and has issued a regulation that colleges and universities are not to issue I-20s to third parties (only to the student).
“These companies are often ‘soccer focused’ so it is unclear to us whether the point of emphasis is being placed on coming to the states to study or to play soccer.
Any current student at Cloud County Community College on a soccer letter of intent that decides to transfer will be given a full release from their LOI while students who decide to remain at Cloud County will have their letter of intent honored for the 2020-2021 academic year.
--cloudtbirds.com--