LIU golfer sues university over ‘extremely cruel’ removal of scholarship

A Long Island University golfer has taken her school to court, alleging the university unlawfully stripped her of a $46,000-per-year scholarship while she was recovering from what she describes as a rare, debilitating physical injury.

Filed on Friday in Nassau County, Clarice Bell’s lawsuit alleges LIU’s decision not to renew her $46,000-per-year aid for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 academic years was arbitrary, capricious and made in bad faith.

A Holden, Maine, resident who earned the state’s Class C high school individual championship in 2021, Bell was recruited to join the women’s golf team at LIU in 2022.

The letter, included in the court filing, stated the decision followed a “recommendation of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics” and was in accordance with NCAA and university regulations.

The financial aid office’s notification came as no surprise to Bell. That’s because months earlier, in March, the LIU women’s golf team’s new coach, Sarah Detlefsen, informed Bell she was being cut from the team due to “budget cuts,” according to the lawsuit.

Bell appealed the decision, arguing that NCAA policies protect injured athletes from scholarship non-renewal, according to the filing.

In early August, weeks before the fall 2025 golf season was set to begin, the university denied her appeal. But this time they noted now she now qualified for a scholarship “in the full amount of $28,000 per year.”

It’s unclear what aid amount she was actually allocated during the seasons she didn’t play for the team.

The denial letter from the financial aid office stated the decision was made in accordance with university and conference policies, and provided no further explanation.

However, Bell alleges in the lawsuit that, as the dispute progressed, university officials offered new justifications for the decision.

Bell already was aware of this reasoning, stating in her court filing that an administrator in the athletics department told her on Aug. 29 that the university denied her scholarship because Detlefsen, who became the team’s coach in 2024, told the appeals committee that Bell had a lack of team commitment and had missed practices and weightlifting sessions.

That prompted Bell to submit a rebuttal to the appeals committee, according to the filing.

Bell said further in the letter that she “went to every practice (besides the four I missed or was late to because of medical issues/treatments) and lift that I possibly could.”

She supported her defense with evidence showing she had consistently updated Detlefsen on her medical status. In one January 2025 exchange cited in the lawsuit, Bell said a modified workout caused such pain that she was forced to “go outside and vomit.”

Following this, Detlefsen reportedly told Bell to “hold off” on certain sessions and exempted her from others. Bell further alleges Detlefsen sought to exclude her from team activities, including by creating a separate group chat for players that did not include Bell, according to the lawsuit.

In a letter to LIU President Kim Cline last November, Bell pleaded for her intervention on the matter.

“Despite the fact that I have always been respectful to Coach Detlefsen, she has been extremely cruel to me and apparently insisted on lying about my team commitment in an effort to harm me through non-renewal of my scholarship,” she wrote in a letter submitted as an exhibit in the lawsuit.

Bell told the president that her removal from the team and the stripping her scholarship had “created a tremendous amount of anxiety and stress.”

“As a student of this university, I believe I deserve the same respect and fairness that I have consistently shown to my coaches, professors, advisors, and peers,” Bell wrote to Cline.

LIU has not yet responded to requests for comment on the allegations made in the lawsuit.

Bell’s attorney, Alfred C. Constants III, said the scholarship dispute carried both financial and athletic consequences for his client.

“It affected her in two ways. She had to pay for her academic year,” Constants said, “and she lost the chance to continue competing in the sport.”

Constants also noted how his client documented her side of the dispute, noting that “Clarice put a timeline together” detailing her activities and communications during the period in question.

The lawsuit seeks $92,000 in monetary damages to cover Bell’s lost scholarship for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 academic years, stating that she has been forced to finish her degree at another institution.

Bell’s petition is also pursuing coverage of her legal fees, incidental damages “flowing from respondents’ unlawful conduct,” and “such other relief as the court deems just and proper.”

_{Top: Clarice Bell (inset) and LIU Post entrance in Greenvale (Google Maps Street View)}