Within three months, five NIU athletes have either asked for their release from the program or have been removed from their team.

On Feb. 27, in an exclusive interview the Northern Star, Lauren Wicinski said she, Cheyenne Dawson, Jessica Lubic and Haley Morris asked for a release from the Huskies’ volleyball team.

NIU athletic director Jeff Compher said Wicinski and Dawson came to NIU on scholarship while Lubic and Morris walked on. All four players had their own reasons for requesting releases.

“Cheyenne, as a freshman, is from Cleveland, and she said, ‘Look, I’m just home sick. I want to get home,’” Compher said. “That makes sense. That would have happened regardless. The other two kids were non-scholarship players, and frankly, they didn’t play that much. So that in itself isn’t a surprise, where you think, ‘Well, I wanna go somewhere I can play and get a scholarship.’”

The article stated Wicinski had the desire to play at a bigger school.

Compher said NIU athletics did its best to help promote Wicinski and her volleyball career.

“Now, maybe she believes there’s a better opportunity out there for her; that’s up to her,” Compher said. “People always make their decisions based on what they believe is best for themselves. I think that’s what she’s done.”

Compher said NIU athletics will respond to a release request within a seven-day window.

Compher said he asks for a list from an athlete interested in transferring of possible schools. If an athlete is interested in transferring to another MAC school, additional hurdles are created.

“I don’t do a blanket release and let you go wherever you want,” Compher said. “The league has policies on transferring within our league that are very restrictive, so it’s not of anyone’s benefit to transfer within the MAC because you have to sit out the year and then you can’t get a scholarship once you do start playing.”

Compher and NIU athletics had to deal with releasing a player from the program in late January when Tim Toler was dismissed for the men’s basketball team. Toler was originally suspended for two games for breaking a team policy, but was dismissed one week later after the initial suspension announcement.

Compher said Toler’s violation called for his removal from the team, but allowed him to keep his scholarship.

“Once you start a semester, unless there’s some egregious violation of the law, or some academic violation that would cause you to be suspended or expelled by the university, we continue that scholarship,” Compher said. “We want him to graduate, and that’s our priority; academics is still our priority. He came here to earn a degree, and we want him to get that degree.”

Compher said it’s up to a coach to make the decision ultimately “whether it’s appropriate to keep an individual around the team that doesn’t mesh or melt with the team very well.”

“Once they make that decision, we still want that individual to graduate and have some of the services we can provide through academics, but it’s just best they’re not associated with the team,” Compher said.