Sports sponsorship: Becker College announced it is adding cross country for men and women beginning in 2003. That addition brings Becker's sport sponsorship total to 14 varsity sports, eight for women and six for men ... Hood College, which will begin admitting residential men for the first time in September 2003, has announced that it will sponsor several men's teams in 2003-04: basketball, cross country, swimming and diving, tennis, and golf. Also added next year will be women's cross country and golf. In 2004-05, Hood will add men's soccer and men's lacrosse ... North Carolina Wesleyan College will begin varsity competition in football in 2004. The school will soon break ground on an outdoor facility that will house football, as well as three other outdoor sports. The search for a head coach is under way ... New Jersey City University announced that it will eliminate its football program because of severe budget reductions mandated by the state of New Jersey. "After reviewing the financial information that was gathered for our annual budget preparation, it was clear that a hard choice had to be made," said university President Carlos Hernandez, who also is a member of the Division III Presidents Council. "Reduce support across the board for all varsity programs -- and in the process, limit the opportunity for other programs to achieve the excellence we seek -- or eliminate the costly program to enable us to provide more support for the remaining varsity programs." In addition, the university's budget analysis indicated that a substantial investment of funds would be needed annually simply to maintain the football program ... Pacific University (Oregon) will add women's swimming as a varsity sport, beginning with the 2003-04 season. The addition, which is really a resurrection of sorts since Pacific (Oregon) discontinued women's swimming 15 years ago, brings the total number of varsity teams at the school to 18. Claudia Kolb Thomas, a three-time Olympic medalist and former women's swim coach at Stanford University, has been hired to lead the program. "When we looked at ways to improve our compliance with Title IX, it became clear rather quickly that swimming was the right sport to add," said Judy Sherman, Pacific (Oregon) athletics director. "Swimming provides more opportunities than the other sports we looked at, and it is a sport that has drawn interest from both current and prospective students ... The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy has announced that it will discontinue men's water polo, men's volleyball, and men's and women's rifle, effective 2003-04, for financial reasons. The academy will retain 23 varsity< >sports, 14 for men and nine for women.

<Facilities: College Misericordia held a dedication ceremony for its new Anderson Outdoor Athletic Complex and Mangelsdorf Field. The 23-acre facility accommodates the college's programs in field hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and track and field. The field features a synthetic surface and a six-lane synthetic track ... State University College at Oneonta has dedicated two new facilities. The school has completed construction on a field house that includes a three-court arena, fitness center, dance/aerobics studio and racquetball courts. Also constructed was a lighted turf field for soccer, as well as an additional turf field enclosed by an all-weather track. The new track has allowed the college to reinstate the men's track and field program and also add a women's program for the first time ... Bridgewater State College has opened the Adrian Tinsley Center, an 84,000 square-foot field house that houses both the school's department of athletics and department of movement arts. The building features a gymnasium with basketball and volleyball courts and a gymnasium with a composite floor for multifunctional use, as well as seating for 1,000 spectators, a 9,000 square-foot fitness center, five classrooms, three specialized teaching laboratories, a jogging/walking track and conference room. Also included are batting cages that drop from the ceiling, permitting baseball and softball teams to practice during inclement weather ... Western New England College has opened its new multipurpose field, Golden Bears Stadium, which has a synthetic turf field made of Astro Play. The lighted facility will be used by the school's varsity field hockey, football and men's and women's lacrosse teams, as well as for the college's intramural programs.

Conferences: The Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has announced that its name will be changed to USA South Atlantic Conference, effective June 30.

Milestones: Tim Shea, head women's basketball coach at Salem State College, earned his 500th victory with a 77-49 win over Bridgewater State College. "It's a milestone that speaks loudly for the program," Shea said. "It means we've had a whole lot of good players over the years." Since Shea took over the program in 1981, the Vikings have made 19 appearances in the NCAA tournament, winning the Division III title in 1986. Under Shea, the Vikings are 500-113, a winning percentage of .815 ... John Dzik, men's basketball coach at Cabrini College, notched his 450th win -- on his birthday -- when the Cavaliers earned a 58-57 victory over Neumann College ... New Jersey City University head men's basketball coach Charles Brown earned his 400th career victory with a 66-64 win over Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden. Brown rallied the Gothic Knights, which came back from a 16-point second-half deficit. Brown has coached at his alma mater for 21 years ... Nan Carney-DeBord, women's basketball coach at Ohio Wesleyan University, earned her 300th career victory with a 55-51 win over Earlham College. Carney-DeBord, in her 17th season at Ohio Wesleyan, was named WBCA Division III Coach of the Year in 2001 after leading the Battling Bishops to their first national semifinal appearance ... Penny Dean, women's swimming coach at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, won her 200th dual meet this year. Dean has led the program for 23 years ... Bob Schlosser, head men's basketball coach at Elizabethtown College, notched his 200th career victory with a 105-76 win over Commonwealth Conference rival Albright College ... Denise Marchese, softball coach at State University College at Oneonta, earned her 100th career victory with an 11-0 win over Bowdoin College. Marchese is in her second year at Oneonta State. She won the majority of her games at St. Joseph College (Connecticut), where she was the head coach for four years.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes