Despite the university’s efforts to pledge their support to the eight athletic teams facing elimination next season, lingering distrust may still hamper fundraising efforts.

Parents and alumni from the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams quickly reacted to the cuts, forming their own nonprofit organization, Save UMD Swimming and Diving, to collect funds separately from an athletics department account. Several parents said they’re skeptical of the department’s account, noting they’re afraid university officials will funnel the funds into the basketball and football programs.

“It’s highway robbery; they’re holding these poor kids for ransom,” said parent John Tynan, whose son is a junior on the swimming and diving team. “I wouldn’t give them a dollar for a cup of coffee ’cause I’d be afraid they would spend it on Gatorade for the football team.”

University President Wallace Loh said although the concerns from parents are understandable, the university has a proven record of fiscal responsibility with donations. The athletics department pledged to return all money given this year if the teams aren’t saved.

“We have hundreds of millions of dollars in our endowment, everybody else trusts us,” Loh said. “We spend it wisely, we give periodic reports at least once a year, even twice a year to all our donors.”

In November, Loh announced eight Terrapins teams would be cut to address the athletics department’s $83 million debt, unless the university and teams could raise the necessary funds by June 30 to support the programs for the next eight years.

Of the $2.8 million needed, Save UMD Swimming and Diving has fundraised about $20,000 and has $430,000 in verbal commitments, according to parents, and the athletics department has collected $68,631 as of last Monday. The teams missed their April 2 benchmark.

While men’s outdoor track and field is more than halfway to its deadline of $940,000, the other five potentially cut teams – men’s indoor track and field, men’s cross country, women’s water polo, women’s acrobatics and tumbling, and men’s tennis – are millions of dollars short.

Athletics department officials said they are still courting big donors – including alumni who wish to rename the natatorium after a former coach – and several parents said they are optimistic they will find support outside the campus.

“If there’s disappointment from a parent, it’s probably because some of the ideas they put forth weren’t accepted by the athletics department,” said Frank Rellihan, a parent who is fundraising in the Washington business community.

Kim Spina, whose son is a junior on the team, said fundraising on a small scale – such as with T-shirt sales – is difficult enough without considering the “rumors going around.”

“Until we come up with that lump sum, there’s no guarantee and I don’t know what the university would do with that money,” Spina said.

Assistant Athletics Director Ryan Bowles said parents have not approached him with concerns about whether the department would return their donations.

“It’s disappointing because we certainly feel like we’ve explained it to them,” he said.

Within the parents’ steering committee, there are different ideas about where Save UMD Swimming and Diving’s money will go if it is not enough to save the team on June 30. Rellihan said members of the steering committee have discussed giving it to the coaches as severance pay.

However, officials said several of the steering committee’s ideas are still negotiable. That includes fees for the teams’ towel laundering and renting office space for the coaches in Eppley Recreation Center, which amounted to just about $6,937 last year, according to Campus Recreation Services Director Jay Gilchrist.

Bowles said there is currently no free office space available in Comcast Center, but the department can consider making those changes next year if the team reaches its June 30 deadline. If swimming and diving reaches its goal, it must raise $5.79 million by Dec. 31, 2012 and $11.57 million by Dec. 31, 2013.

“When we presented the plan to the swimming and diving steering committee, they expressed a happiness with that plan,” Bowles added.

lurye@umdbk.com