Leigh Torbin ([log in to unmask]) wrote: : While much has been said lately about Title IX and the likely : hood of many schools adding women's ice hockey at a Varsity : Intercollegiate level, I thought I'd point this out. : The Boston Globe today published the second installment in a three : part series on Title IX, and published a chart showing each New England : D1 school, and how the male/female ratio of athletes compares to the : male/female ratio of their student body. Some interesting numbers here : for Hockey East and ECAC schools which responded to the Globe's inquiry. : Students Athletes # of Sports difference in # of : School %M %F %M %F M F male athletes/stu. : Boston College 47.0 53.0 61.0 39.0 17 16 +14% : Boston Univ. 48.0 52.0 60.0 40.0 13 9 +12% : Maine 53.4 46.6 61.0 39.0 10 9 +6.6% : Massachusetts 52.0 48.0 54.0 46.0 14 15 +2% : New Hampshire 43.0 57.0 56.0 44.0 13 14 +13% : Northeastern 57.0 43.0 65.5 34.5 12 10 +7.5% : ECAC : Brown 51.0 49.0 61.0 39.0 16 17 +10% : Dartmouth 53.0 47.0 57.0 43.0 20* 20* +4% : Harvard 57.5 42.5 62.0 38.0 21 20 +4.5% : Vermont 47.2 52.8 54.0 46.0 13 13 +6.8% : * includes coeducational sports (can someone at Dartmouth please explain : this!) : ** Providence and Yale did not respond, UMass-Lowell and Merrimack : apparently were not queried by the Globe. : As this data shows, at all the schools above, male athletes : occupy a greater percentage in the athletic department than they do in the : student body, a major Title IX no-no. Although exact equality is not : required, the percentages should be reasonably close. Both UMass (2%) :-) : and Harvard (4.5%) are within a comfortable five%, which shouldn't be a : problem at all. The NCAA will also look at the school's efforts to better : comply, and by adding five women's teams in two years, UMass is all set : there. The numbers need not be exactly equal, because the school's student : body sways greatly from year to year, as freshmen enter and seniors : leave, so a few % points either way are permissible to account for this : change. : What worries me are BC, BU and UNH. All three have greater than a : 12% gap in their two percentages. BC and BU each have over sixty percent : of their athletes male, while they are a minority overall in the student : body. Somebody better keep this from the guys in Overland Park, Kansas, : because this could be trouble. : Obviously, as a means of conforming, I'd support the addition of : women's hockey. It requires a decent amount of both athletes and dollars, : and is a great game. BC and BU both have club level teams, that could be : elevated. UNH already has one of, if not the best women's program in the : country. My advice to them is to add and/or boost other women's sports, : preferably ones with large rosters such as track, swimming or crew. Why : schools like BC or BU, who have to change something, and have first class : facilities with great traditions, can't offer Varsity women's hockey is : beyond me. : The other alternatives are of course cutting men's sports, which : nobody wants to see. UMass axed hockey in 1979, and men's soccer in 1990, : much to the dismay of many. Fortunately both have been reinstated. How : much joy was there in Madison when Badger baseball was cut in 1990 after : a proud 117 year history? How much happier would it have been if the team : stayed, AND the athletic department also gave the badger faithful a : women's hockey team to root for as well? (Having read "From Red Ink to : Roses" by Rick Tellander--a MUST read for Wisconsinites with an interest : in business--, I'm well aware of the finacial woes the school : was suffering at the time, but this is interesting food for thought) : Adding women's teams makes more people happy, which is the point of : ameteur athletics. This should be done instead. : The Boston Globe today offers up Brown as case No.1 of why this should : be done. Schools had better wake up to the realities that Title IX press : upon college athletics before it's too late, and they find themselves : being sued by their female athletes. : Leigh : [log in to unmask] : My opionions are not nesecarrily those of the UMass Athletic Department, : its Media Relations office, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian or WMUA.