Cleveland State University held its final home wrestling match on Feb. 20, less than a month after its board of trustees announced plans to eliminate the sport and two others.
University leaders said the cuts were part of a continued, broader push to address a budget shortfall once projected to hit as high as $40 million.
But off the mat, another match was taking shape between Cleveland State leaders, state lawmakers and wrestling supporters.
Earlier this spring, Ohio Rep. Phil Plummer, a Republican from Dayton and former wrestling coach, introduced an amendment as lawmakers worked on the state budget. It called for giving $1.6 million over two years to restore Cleveland State’s men’s wrestling program and establish a new women’s team.
Plummer’s amendment came as supporters of the wrestling program kept up a very public push to try to convince the university to reverse their decision.
Plummer’s proposal made it into the House’s version of the budget, but his counterparts in the state Senate left the funding out of theirs. As lawmakers in both chambers reconcile their differences on the budget before sending it to Gov. Mike DeWine, it’s highly unlikely Cleveland State’s wrestling program will reappear.
Public records requested and reviewed by Signal Ohio offer a behind-the-scenes look at tension between public university leaders, determined to stay the course on their own budget priorities, and the lawmakers who help fund the institution.
Politicians saw issue as a possible political win
Shortly after the announcement to end the wrestling program, Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno – a former university board chair and donor – sent a letter to university President Laura Bloomberg in mid-February asking to talk to her about the decision.
The two spoke by phone on Feb. 23 and Bloomberg then wrote Moreno a letter of her own on March 4, records show (Cleveland State’s legal department released these documents June 11 in response to a request Signal Ohio made back on April 7).
Two weeks later, Plummer sent a letter to Bloomberg informing her he was adding in the House amendment to give the university money for wrestling. His March 19 letter echoed some talking points from wrestling supporters, including concerns about cutting the program just a year before the City of Cleveland will host the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.
He also touted the growing popularity of women’s wrestling and how the university would benefit from launching that program.
“In Ohio, not a single Division I university has a women’s wrestling program,” he wrote. “This is an opportunity for CSU to be a trailblazer in women’s athletics.”
Neither Moreno nor Plummer discussed trying to save Cleveland State’s women’s golf and/or softball teams, the two other sports cut at the same time as the wrestling program.
Cleveland State learns of wrestling amendment in mid-March
Records indicate Cleveland State officials first officially learned about the amendment through Plummer’s March 19 letter.
Caryn Candisky, the university’s vice president of government relations, sent the letter and the official budget amendment to a group of six senior university leaders and flagged a follow-up item for the president.
“Laura—Rep. Plummer has asked that you contact him,” she wrote. “We should discuss next steps.”
Candisky also quickly alerted other key higher education figures outside of Cleveland.
She sent the amendment to a lobbyist in Columbus as well as the president of the Inter-University Council, the group representing Ohio’s public four-year universities before lawmakers. That group was already concurrently working on its own effort to convince legislative leaders to give its colleges an increase in state funding through budget proposals.
The next day, CounterPoint Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm reportedly hired by the wrestling program’s supporters to rally public support, sent a press release about the amendment.
Supporters had been questioning whether money was the only reason for the cut. One advocate accused Bloomberg of using the program as a “scapegoat” against higher education overhaul legislation making its way through the statehouse. Another speculated the decision was tied to university officials wanting to let their basketball team take over the wrestling gym.
Cleveland State gets influx of media requests
Bloomberg met with state lawmakers in Columbus about Cleveland State’s budget, including the wrestling program, according to documents compiled to help her prepare for what was described as an “advocacy visit.” Records indicate she spent March 25 meeting with five state leaders – including Plummer.
The House budget proposal was officially released on April 1. News of the wrestling amendment gained public attention when Signal Ohio published a story about it the next day.
Records indicate the university was surprised by the media attention about the wrestling program that followed, setting off a flurry of emails between the university’s top brass.
One reporter told the university that Plummer had described his March meeting with Bloomberg as “not-so-great” and Plummer suggested he wasn’t sure the school would spend the money even if it received it.
That email caught Candisky’s attention, records show. She flagged it in an email to six senior leaders, including Bloomberg and the university’s general counsel.
“Wanted to make you aware of Plummer’s comments…will we spend the money if appropriated? We should discuss,” she wrote.
Bloomberg’s chief of staff then quickly responded that the group on the email chain should reconvene on a phone call to discuss how to proceed, records show.
Records show Bloomberg doesn’t back down
Despite political pressure, records indicate Bloomberg never seemed to publicly waver from the university’s original stance to cut the program.
“After a comprehensive review, I continue to stand by the Board-approved recommendations,” she wrote in her March response to Moreno.
She stuck to the same message in an email to the university’s board of trustees April 2, records show. Bloomberg told them she was sending the email so they weren’t surprised by the news.
“We will continue to work with members of the General Assembly to share our rationale for eliminating three intercollegiate sports as a part of our broader budget reduction efforts over the past two years,” she wrote. “As you know, this effort also included the reduction or merger of over 40 academic programs and reduction of almost 10% of our faculty.”
The president would keep them updated, she said, as the budget made its way through the statehouse.
