UPDATE: Students react to UNCW track getting second chance to keep program running

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — UNCW Interim Chancellor Bill Sederburg has decided to give the school’s track and cross country teams and their supporters time to raise enough money to keep the program running.

In a news release this afternoon, Sederburg announced that the school had reached an agreement with the group Save UNCW Track to raise the money for operations for next year and facilities upgrades. According to the agreement, Save UNCW Track would need to raise by May 31 at least $250,000 of the $330,000 needed to continue the program for the 2015-2016 academic year. The school is willing to pay the difference if necessary.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to applaud the incredible passion, commitment and staying power the running community has shown in support of the track and field program,” Sederburg said in a statement. “It became clear to me that with that kind of drive, ‘Save UNCW Track’ very well may be able to secure enough private funding.”

UNCW Sprinter Lauren Channer is relieved. “Whenever we talked to alumni, or ran into a few,” she said, “they would say ‘Don’t worry, we are fighting for it’. And I guess they did because even though we were hoping something like this would happen we weren’t expecting this to happen.”

UNCW Hurdler Kayli Nichols echoed the same excitement, saying “It really brings us closer together. I’ve been running track since my sophomore year in high school. It’s led to so many opportunities including coming here to UNCW.”

But it won’t be an easy race to complete. A lot of money needs to be raised this year and next.

UNCW says it has a target of $1 million to upgrade the track team’s facilities. Save UNCW Track has agreed to help the university find donors to pay at least $800,000 toward that cost by Feb. 1, 2016. The school says if it cannot raise money to upgrade the facilities, it’s unlikely it could continue the track program beyond 2015-2016.

“The ‘Save UNCW Track’ Committee is excited to finally be given the opportunity by UNCW to raise the funds to sustain UNCW track field and cross country into the future,” Save UNCW Track’s Roy Love said. “We take this responsibility seriously, knowing if we do not accomplish the agreed upon goals, UNCW has stated that it will not have the funds to finance the 2015-2016 track field and cross country seasons.”

In December, UNCW Athletic Director Jimmy Bass announced plans to cut women’s outdoor track and field, women’s indoor track and field, men’s cross country and men’s outdoor track and field, while adding women’s sand volleyball.

Despite protests from student-athletes and supporters and the fundraising campaign to help keep track, last month Interim Chancellor Bill Sederburg said the cuts were final. It’s unclear why the university now would make another statement on the plan.

Stay with WWAY NewsChannel 3 for any developments on this story.