In previous weeks the former Geneseo club crew team coach, William Greene, was dismissed from his position on behalf of the crew team’s governing body, the Student Association. His absence creates uncertainty for upcoming seasons.
According to Student Association President Adam Hansen, Greene’s firing was handled by SA. However, he cannot comment further about Greene’s removal from the college.
“Based on New York State laws of confidentiality and because it was a personnel matter, I can’t legally disclose what happened exactly,” Hansen said.
Included in each undergraduate student’s tuition statement is a mandatory student activity fee, currently $107 per semester. Joint with programming funds, this money is allocated to support student organizations, services and programs, according to SA.
Like many Geneseo student organizations, the crew team is funded by mandatory student activity fees and thus, governed by SA.
“I oversee all the professional staff,” Hansen said. “[Kathleen Rebban, director of programs, personnel and finance], who also oversees the majority of the professional staff, and we were the ones who met with the individual and we were the ones that made that decision.”
The Lamron sought comment from multiple members of the crew team, including those in leadership positions. All declined to provide a statement about the crew team’s future.
“They still have a budget and they’re on the water right now practicing,” Hansen said. “We already figured out that they can attend all the regattas that they normally would. It was a minor hiccup, it was definitely something we had to overcome, you know sort of a roadblock, but what I think [what] we have for the most part is sort of clear water ahead so I don’t really see any future issues.”
According to Hansen, the process of hiring a new coach has not been successful thus far.
“It’s definitely been slower than we imagined originally, primarily because a lot of the crew coaches are hired over the summertime for the most part and our timeline was really shortened down,” Hansen said. “We did have some plausible candidates that did apply but we didn’t think it was the best decision to hire them based on their recommendations, based on their resumes, so we decided to wait so right now we’re waiting until the spring semester to see if we could find potential applicants.”
Hansen said that SA is currently waiting to fill the vacant head coach position until the spring. The crew team competes in both the fall and spring semesters.
“I was on the team last fall and spring semesters and I quit midseason because of problems I was having,” political science major junior Jessica Buffamonti said. “I was going to rejoin the team this upcoming semester and I don’t think that’s going to work out.”
Buffamonti said in order to compensate for the lack of a head coach, SA approved three student coaches to coach the team.
“They couldn’t be on the water without a coach,” Buffamonti said. “SA approved three student coaches, so I figure two assistant coaches and then one head coach, all students.”
According to the crew team website, the two student assistant coaches are senior Colin Wilcox and senior Mike Taraboletti. Junior Heidi Granville is serving as the head coach.