Stanford University made the decision to discontinue 11 varsity sports — including men’s volleyball, Beatty’s sport — following the 2020-21 season. The announcement was made in an open letter from university President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Provost Persis Drell and athletic director Bernard Muir on July 8. Beatty, a 2016 graduate of Huntington Beach High School, said that the men’s volleyball program drafted a petition to gain support toward reinstating men’s volleyball, adding that more than 34,000 signatures had been collected so far. “Through the talks that we had with the athletic director and people part of the athletic department, it became clear that they wouldn’t be able to just bring back men’s volleyball,” Beatty said. Yvette Tufuga said she had immense gratitude to the university for accepting her two children as scholar-athletes, but she was disappointed to hear about the cuts to the athletic department.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 09, 2020 02:15 UTC