Fisk’s decision to end gymnastics program ‘makes it look like it was a waste’ — Andscape

Fisk University’s decision to end its women’s artistic gymnastics program, the first at a historically Black college or university, at the end of the 2026 season has sparked a range of emotions among those with personal ties to the team.

In a June 6 statement announcing the move, the university cited challenges in scheduling competitions and creating a recruiting pipeline as a member of the HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC).

Fisk’s decision to discontinue its gymnastics program, which began competition in 2023, comes nearly a year after Talladega College, the second HBCU to add a gymnastics program, ended its own program after one season of competition. After 2026, Wilberforce University, the third HBCU to add women’s gymnastics, will be the only HBCU with an operational program.

Corrinne Tarver, the new gymnastics head coach for Southern Connecticut State University, was the first head coach for Fisk’s gymnastics program. Tarver, who resigned in February, disputed the reasons the university gave for discontinuing the program.

“The rationale they’re using for why they dropped the team is ridiculous, and it’s shortsighted. If it’s true, then they didn’t bother to get to know what was going on in the program because recruiting was not an issue,” Tarver told Andscape.

“I didn’t have to reach out to girls for recruiting. I didn’t have to beg people – they wanted to come to Fisk. I got a number of emails from athletes who wanted to go because they wanted to go to an HBCU.”

Fisk’s athletics department did not respond to requests for comment.

Naimah Muhammad and Kiara Richmon, who both graduated in May, transferred to Fisk in fall 2022 to be a part of the inaugural roster. During the program’s first season, Muhammad and Richmon expressed their excitement about having the opportunity to compete at an HBCU. Now, the university’s decision has left both alums shocked and confused, they said. 

According to Fisk’s current roster, there are eight underclassmen who will have to finish their collegiate careers elsewhere after next season. Fisk standout Morgan Price, who in 2024 became the first HBCU gymnast to win a national title in all-around competition at the USA Gymnastics Women’s Collegiate National Championships, committed to the University of Arkansas in May.

Andscape spoke with Muhammad, Richmon and Tarver about their reactions when they learned Fisk was ending the gymnastics program, the impact of the decision and how ending the program affects the HBCU landscape.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

What was your initial reaction to finding out Fisk was discontinuing the gymnastics program?

Richmon: When we were told the news, they didn’t even have the decency to tell the whole team – they only told the current athletes that were still on the team. I feel like that was really like a slap in the face to me and Naimah and all the other girls that were on the team because … we started the team. For them to just tell only the people who were on the current team and to tell them right when they got on the call, they were just basically like, “So, Fisk gymnastics is no longer going to be a thing after this season.” It was a sense of like they just didn’t care.

On top of that, it was told to the whole school an hour later. We didn’t even have time to process or digest anything before people started blowing up our phones asking questions and asking for answers. We were just as shocked as they were.

Muhammad: One of my teammates just texted me like, “They’re getting rid of the gymnastics team.” That was very shocking to me because we’ve had so many conversations with our athletic director and the leadership at our school about the future of our gymnastics team just because so many things seemed unclear and we were unsure about a lot of stuff going on in terms of our leadership. She basically told us, “We’re not going to get rid of the team. We want to make sure you guys are good. We want to make sure you guys get what you need. We’re not getting rid of gymnastics – we love gymnastics.” Then just to find out a few months later the team is being discontinued. Then they sent a statement out through our school’s email. I read it, and it just made me so angry because I’m like, “That doesn’t make sense.” Everything they said was so contradictory.

It just made me mad because it’s like you say you care about your athletes. You say you care about these girls. You say gymnastics is the pride and joy of this school, and you’re not treating us like we are your pride and joy. It feels like we’re actually the opposite, like we’re a burden, like we are too expensive.

Tarver: My initial reaction was to check on the girls on the team. I mainly talked to the girls that were still going to be on the team because they’re the ones that were going to be directly affected by it. … They were kind of still trying to process it. They were mad.

I’m gonna be honest – I wasn’t surprised by it. I pretty much thought it was going to happen based upon signs that were happening. I had made statements that I could make gymnastics more self-sufficient and they didn’t want to hear it. It didn’t seem to be important. The first indicator for me was that pretty much all the promises and commitments that were made to the program were taken off the table. I was told to stop talking about building a gym and that we were not building a gym. We weren’t going to get a practice facility.

What were some of your most memorable moments at Fisk and what did the opportunity to compete at Fisk mean to you?

Richmon: Fisk did mean a lot to me, because I started at a different school, at a predominantly White institution (PWI). I left my PWI and was trying to go other places. I was actually going to commit to the University of Iowa before I saw that Fisk had started its program, and I was so excited to finally be around people that looked like me because I grew up at a Christian white school, so it’s not many of us there. So to have this opportunity to be around girls that are just like me, to be coached by female athletes that look like me was a big thing. 

I’ve never been on a campus where I felt like all these people were just there for you. I know there’s a lot of girls that are in my exact shoes, that just went to PWIs their whole life and they’re searching for something new. … For that to be ripped away from so many people, even our teammates, it is very heartbreaking.

Muhammad: Fisk has given me the opportunity to really grow and explore the best version of myself. I had no idea what Fisk was. … The only reason I came to Fisk was because I’m a gymnast. I want to do gymnastics. That’s it. They didn’t have any HBCUs with a gymnastics team, so all of a sudden here comes one. It was an opportunity of a lifetime, so I took it. 

I was the type of person that all I cared about was gymnastics. … Then being at Fisk – being around a bunch of gymnasts that looked like me and had similar experiences that I had – it was comforting and I felt like I could be myself. Being at Fisk gave me an opportunity to be like, “OK, now who am I outside of being a gymnast? … I felt like I could really explore and grow into who I am. Now I know I am more than a gymnast because of the opportunities of being on the gymnastics team. Because I was at an HBCU I could finally understand that I’m more than just an athlete. I am this amazing, excellent Black woman, and I did not get that experience at my PWI.  

Tarver: There’s tons of highlights. … The biggest one was when we competed at Georgia because it was very, very surreal that my team was competing in the same building I did. (Tarver was the first Black gymnast to join the University of Georgia’s gymnastics program.) That was huge for me. The first time we competed, the first meet and that first routine – Naimah hitting it because she had been struggling a little bit in practice. So for her to go out there and just nail it, it was incredible. Morgan Price’s 10 on the beam was a big highlight for me because I was a beam coach. Morgan won a national championship and then in the same year (Talladega College’s) Kyrstin Johnson won a vault national championship. So it was just kind of like, “Hey, guess what? HBCU gymnastics is definitely quality.”

Fisk is the second HBCU to discontinue its gymnastics program. What type of message do you think it sends to other HBCUs?

Muhammad: It makes it look like it was a waste. … I’ve always wanted to have HBCU gymnastics. I remember when Talladega first got established and then they announced Wilberforce was going to come in. I said, “Oh my God, another one! We finally have the HBCUs coming.” Now they’re cutting these programs left and right. It just feels like we can’t even have anything, and it makes it look like HBCUs aren’t responsible enough to maintain and keep these programs alive.

Richmon: Naimah said what was on everyone’s mind. I 110% agree with her. I hope Fisk opens up their eyes and says, “You know what? This program actually does mean something” so girls can continue to build a legacy.

Tarver: I think this might end up killing HBCU gymnastics, at least for a while. … I think the new landscape of college athletics is changing. HBCUs are going to have a struggle to keep up with the other big schools when it comes to paying the athletes. If they’re trying to be competitive in that market, then they’re not going to take money to put toward a new team, especially one that is going to be more expensive like gymnastics. Financially, it makes it that much harder. 

With the current political climate and the fact that they’re reducing Pell Grants, reducing a lot of these funds that help our minority students go to college, that’s going to hurt these schools because it could hurt admissions. It could hurt especially a school like Fisk that’s private. That’s going to really impact their bottom line because they don’t have the state funds. … So it’s going to make it less attractive to add sports in general, especially a sport like gymnastics, when they look at it and say, “Oh, well, they weren’t successful, so why should we add it?”