At 3:40 PM 10/6/95, Richard Hungerford wrote:
>What can I say?  This season Northeastern's Women's team will have
>athletic scholarships for the first time in many years.  Starting next
>year they are being demoted to a club sport.  Evidently the brass at
>Northeastern believe "that in order to better fulfill gender equity" they
>are downsizing a number of sports and making a few others, like Women's
>soccer a varsity sport.
>
>I don't get it!  Northeastern has been one of the powers in ice hockey
>for years.
 
I was very sorry to hear about this.  Northeastern has a rich tradition in
women's hockey and it would be a shame for them to downsize the sport.  I
remember the great teams they had when I was there in the late 80s - many
players have gone on to play for the US and Canadian national teams.  The
success and stature of the NU program over the years has played a key role
in helping women's hockey grow worldwide.
 
The conflict over women's hockey at NU dates back at least 4-5 years or so,
as I remember a poll taken by the athletic department of what sports women
on campus were interested in playing.  Hockey came in something like 19th
out of 20, behind many sports that were not offered, and it caused many to
question the amount of money that was going into the sport - mainly the
scholarships.  People were upset over the fact that not only did the
women's hockey team give scholarships, but they tended to give them to
Canadians more than Americans.  There was also pressure from outside the
Big Three (NU, UNH, PC) to stop offering scholarships as most women's
programs did/do not offer them.
 
The result was that as Richard has said, the Big Three gave up their
scholarships and then NU head coach Don MacLeod resigned.  Fortunately NU
women's hockey survived that situation, but this would be an even bigger
blow.
 
On the one hand, each of us who wants to see all forms of hockey thrive
should support the NU program in its drive to remain varsity.  On the other
hand, it is difficult to argue against taking the money and using it to
fund something like four additional women's sports - given gender equity
and the amount of increased opportunities that would result.  It is a
difficult situation.
 
But this is a hockey list, and I have to think most of us here want to see
the NU program survive.  I hope some sort of compromise can be worked out.
I fear that other schools may follow suit and either downsize the sport to
give the money to others, or else back off from elevating women's hockey to
varsity.  The sport is just beginning to gain a foothold, but this could
severely hurt it - as Richard says, just at the time that women's hockey is
about to enjoy its first-ever status as an Olympic gold medal sport in
1998.
 
NU certainly has a better chance of sending women players to the Olympics
than the men do, especially now that the NHL will be competing.  I can't
imagine that the school would not want the immense publicity that would
come from having its student-athletes win medals in front of the entire
world.
 
I hope that those who are interested will contact Richard
([log in to unmask]) or send letters to the addresses he gave in his
post to INFO-HOCKEY-L.
 
I also hope that NU women's coach Heather Linstad can gain the assistance
of men's coach Ben Smith, who has gained a lot of respect in and out of
hockey circles and who has much international coaching experience including
a stint as Team USA women's coach this summer.  It certainly can't hurt.
 
Just as Northeastern has finished expanding the ice surface at Matthews
Arena from 187x87.5 to 200x90, it seems only right that the school should
be able to ice top-notch men's and women's programs.  It would be sad if
this were not the case.
 
A side note: I just remembered the Title IX case involving Colgate which
was sued by women players for not providing the same opportunities they
provided to men players (Colgate women were club).  I believe the women
won, although I'm not certain how the suit wound up in the end (I think
there were appeals and possibly a settlement).  If NU does lower women's
hockey to club, would/could they be sued by women players a la Colgate and
would the women have a case?
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
>> Co-owner of the College Hockey Lists at University of Maine System  <<
***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page under construction at:  *****
*****   http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html    *****
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.