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 Athletics Programs Cut Based on Sex 
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I bumped into an interesting article about athletics programs being cut based on the sex of the student population. The cuts surprised me ...

James Madison University in Virginia is cutting athletics programs to match the sex ratio of their student population. For every guy at James Madison there are about 2 girls but for every male athlete there was only one female athlete. The University decided that the disproportionant ratio of athletes did not meet Title IX standards, the federal law from the Civil Rights movement that demanded equal, non-discriminatory access to school programs for all student populations.

In protest, the men's swim team stripped down to speedo's and ran laps around the University's Education Hall to "to show how they have been figuratively and actually left out in the cold". Here's a funny article about the protest:
http://www.thebizofknowledge.com/2006/11/james_madison_university_demon.html

I find this situation hilariously ironic. On one hand I have usually been critical of college athletic programs, on the other I am also critical of reverse civil rights. Title IX does not demand, at least not from the copy I have read, a numerical match between school programs and student populations. The law sounds like it should prevent discrimination and provide access to programs that a school offers. And the law has been in effect since the 1970's, so why is James Madison all of a sudden changing?

As the population of women attending college continues to grow faster than men, I'm sitting back to see if this interpretation of civil rights, an interpretation that seems to be some kind of extreme feminism, actually overcomes the problems men created or if it repeats them ...

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Justin Pittman


Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:51 pm
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justin,

i agree with you. this is alittle absurd and i'm not sure how i want to articulate my response to that article. it kind of makes me laugh a little. and i appreicate how the men's swim team handled this... they will probably one of the first to go. you're right in saying that title ix was created to PREVENT discrimination, and i feel like this is discrimatory in itself...

thanks for sharing,
janelle

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janelle rose knox


Sat Nov 04, 2006 8:39 pm
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Being on the cross country team I have heard so much about title IX and JMU. THe mens XC team was also cut there and our guys team was not too happy about it. I also know that Furman is unable to have an indoor track team because of this and they sometimes enter races under the team name of title ix. Scholarship money available for men and women athletes is also extremely uneven in sports like mine. It isnt fair that programs get cut just because there is an uneven number of men and women who want to participate in athletics. There are also more mens sports taht do not have women equivalents, so the number of athletes of each sex shouldn;t be equal at all. I know I'm talking too much about random examles and not about the main point...but eventually I think some changes to title ix will have to be made so that programs stop getting cut for no real reason at all.

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Meghan Gaffney


Sat Nov 04, 2006 9:03 pm
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This came up as problem in my county when I was entering high school. There was talk of cutting wrestling and golf; sports that only guys participated in and there was not a female equivalant to it. It never got very far and we still have those teams.. maybe I should try to find out whatever happened to the controversy.

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Heather Wiles


Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:07 pm
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All though I do feel that some schools are a little uneven in their women/men ratios in clubs, sports, etc., I do not feel that athletic programs, such as wrestling or golf, should be eliminated. Even though I would have really enjoyed having a few more options in athletics during school, I came to the realization that it just was not possible at the time. Cutting back on sports that are all ready established, I feel, is a little unfair to those who participate in the sport. I feel that if the sport itself is not generating enough revenue for the school or participation in the sport, then yes it should be eliminated. However, I feel that instead of cutting back the options for catagories in athletics, the school should try to establish more sports for girls. A good example of this was when I was in high school. There were some girls who wanted to wrestle, however, it was only a male sport. So the school and athletic department worked with the conference to allow the girls to participate in the sport. So in conclusion, I feel that to say this is "discrimination" is a little too quick-witted. I feel like there are other routes that can be taken to help this subject rather than eliminating sports all ready established for those reasons.

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Christin Peterson


Wed Nov 08, 2006 11:01 pm
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