While we're talking about lawsuits, here's another one:  The Colgate women's
club hockey team is suing the university in an attempt to gain varsity
status.  Head coach Andy Finizio says that the university has not responded
to previous requests to upgrade the status of the program:  "They basically
brush over the team.  This is a way we'll get attention to the team.  The
university will not work its way to admitting women's athletics as quickly
as men."
 
The ACLU apparently supports the women's team, and one of their attorneys
will represent the team free of charge.  Marcy Waldauer, director of the
ACLU's Central New York chapter, says that Colgate is discriminating against
women hockey players.  "They are not asking for equal funding as the men.
What they are asking for is more funding....It's sex discrimination."
Currently, the women's team gets $3000 per year out of Colgate's
recreational sports budget.  The funding for the men's team was not
disclosed.
 
The university's administration has not commented on the lawsuit, but
Colgate athletic director Fred Dunlap denied the sex discrimination charge,
saying that the decision to upgrade a club team to varsity status is not
based on sex.  Dunlap noted that of the school's 23 varsity sports, 11 are
for women, and Colgate just added varsity women's indoor and outdoor track
this year.  He also said that money was not the main factor in deciding
whether or not to upgrade a team -- the interest level in the sport among
current and future students is more important.  "We're constantly monitoring
the needs of our students.  There's interest on the part of people here [in
the women's hockey team], but there has not been that sort of interest
demonstrated among applicants."  Colgate's team would be at a disadvantage
against varsity women's hockey teams, Dunlap said, because many of the
players did not take up hockey until they came to college.
 
Finizio and Waldauer agree that there is less interest in women's hockey
than in men's hockey, but they say that the only way to generate more
interest among fans and prospective players is to strengthen the college-
level programs.  Waldauer added, "It's that sort of thinking that keeps
[women's hockey] where it is.  There's no reason for them to get involved if
there's nowhere to go.  At the college level, you say, 'Well, there's nobody
interested.'  In fact, there are women interested."  There is also agreement
from two varsity women's hockey team coaches, Keith Howie of Cornell and
Bernie McKinnon of St. Lawrence.  McKinnon pointed out that women's hockey
is popular at New England prep schools and said that Colgate and other
colleges could improve their attractiveness to women players by adding
women's hockey as a varsity sport.
 
Colgate men's hockey coach Terry Slater once coached a club team at the
University of Toledo, and he said the move to varsity can have good and bad
points. "It wouldn't hurt anything.  You just have to look at the overall
picture of athletics.  When there's a varsity team, there's a lot more
pressure on people and more sacrifices than you think you have to make."
However, Finizio said his team knows that. "We discussed it as a team.  The
majority of the people are more into it for the competitiveness of the
game."  He also said he doesn't expect any action on the suit until next
fall.
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
 
"That boy's strong as an ox.  And just about as smart."
-- Foghorn Leghorn