Gender and Sports

1

• Gender and Sports
• Does Equity Require Ideological Changes?

2
What is sex?

• The biological characteristics of maleness of
  femaleness.

3
Three biological characteristics can be used to
identify a persons sex.

• Physical Appearance
• Genitalia are commonly used at birth, but not
  without some occasional errors.
• Hermaphrodite
• Physical abnormality

4
The Second Biological Characteristic

• Hormones
• Hormones can also be used, but hormone levels
  vary greatly between members of the same sex.
• Hormone levels are also influenced by physical
  activity.
• Males and females have the same hormones.
• Estrogen
• Testosterone

5
The Third Biological Characteristic

• Chromosomes
• Chromosome testing is used to measure the
  presence of either XX or XY pairs.
• Chromosome testing is not frequently done, but
  when the test is done some errors do occur.
• Olympic FEM-testing has been criticized for many
  years.
• Errors are associated with all methods of
  determining individual sex.

6
Sex Category is the assigning of a person (or
self) to either male or female sex.

• What attributes do people use to identify
  someone's sex?
• Hair length?
• Physique?
• Skin complexion?
• Voice?
• How often are you wrong???

7
Will women ever be able to

• Run as fast?
• Jump as high?
• Lift as much?

8
Sexism

• The belief that a persons behavior is the product
  of their biological sex.

9
Participation and Equity Issues

• Participation by girls women has increased
  dramatically since the early 1980s due to
• New opportunities
• Government equal rights legislation
• Global womens rights movement
• Expanding health fitness movement
• Increased media coverage of womens sports

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Reasons For Caution When Predicting Future
Participation (1-4)

• Budget cutbacks and the privatization of sport
  programs
• Resistance to government regulations
• Backlash among those who resent strong women
• Under representation of women in decision-making
  positions in sport programs

12
Reasons For Caution When Predicting Future
Participation (5-7)

• Continued emphasis on cosmetic fitness
• Trivialization of womens sports
• Homophobia and the threat of being labeled
  lesbian

13
Gender and Fairness Issues in Sports

• Inequities in participation opportunities
• Often grounded in dominant definitions of
  femininity in a culture
• May be related to religious beliefs
• Establishing legal definitions of equity
• Support for athletes
• Jobs for women in coaching and administration

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Legal Definitions Title IX in the US

• Title IX requires compliance
  with one of these three tests
• The proportionality test
• A 5 percentage point deviation is okay
• The history of progress test
• Judged by actions progress over past 3 years
• The accommodation of interest test
• Programs teams meet the interests and abilities
  of the under represented sex

16
Title IX Categories of Support for Athletes

• Access to facilities
• Quality of facilities
• Availability of scholarships
• Program operating expenses
• Recruiting budgets
• Scheduling of games practice times

• Travel and per diem expenses
• Academic tutoring
• Number of coaches
• Salaries for all staff and administrators
• Medical training services and facilities
• Publicity for players, teams, and events

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Coaching and Administration Reasons for Under
Representation

• Women have fewer established connections in elite
  programs
• Subjective evaluative criteria used by search
  committees
• Support systems professional development
  opportunities for women have been scarce

19
Coaching and Administration Reasons for Under
Representation

• Many women do not see spaces for them in
  corporate cultures of sport programs
• Sport organizations are seldom sensitive to
  family responsibilities among coaches and
  administrators
• Women may anticipate sexual harassment and more
  demanding standards than those used to judge men

20
Strategies to Promote Gender Equity (1-4)

• Confront discrimination and be an advocate for
  women coaches and administrators
• Be an advocate of fair and open employment
  practices
• Keep data on gender equity
• Learn and educate others about the history of
  discrimination in sports and how to identify
  discrimination

21
Strategies to Promote Gender Equity (5-9)

• Inform media of unfair and discriminatory
  policies
• Package womens sports as revenue producers
• Recruit women athletes into coaching
• Use womens hiring networks
• Create a supportive climate for women in your
  organization

22
Cheerleaders Reproducing Definitions of
Femininity?

• Cheerleading in the late 1800s was a male
  activity it changed after World War II
• Cheerleading today is a diverse phenomenon, but
  cheerleading sometimes is organized in ways that
  reproduce traditional gender logic
• Be attractive, and pure wholesome
• Support men as they work
• Be an emotional leader without receiving material
  rewards

23
The Two-Gender Classification System
24
Girls and Women As Agents of Change

• Sport participation can empower women
• But this does not occur automatically
• But personal empowerment is not necessarily
  associated with an awareness of the need for
  gender transformation in society as a whole
• But elite athletes seldom are active agents of
  change when it comes to gender ideology

25
Why Elite Athletes Seldom Challenge Traditional
Gender Ideology

• Women athletes often fear being tagged as
  ungrateful, man-haters, or lesbians
• Corporation-driven celebrity-feminism focuses
  on individualism and consumption, not everyday
  struggles related to gender
• Empowerment discourses in sports are tied to
  fitness and heterosexual attractiveness
• Women athletes have little control or political
  voice in sports or society at large

26
Boys and Men As Agents of Change

• Gender equity also is a mens issue
• Equity involves creating options for men to play
  sports not based exclusively on a power and
  performance model
• Equity emphasizes relationships based on
  cooperation rather than conquest and domination

27
Changes in Gender Ideology Prerequisites for
Gender Equity

• Gender ideology is crucial because
• Gender is a fundamental organizing principle of
  social life
• Gender logic influences how we
• Think of self and other
• How we relate to others
• How we present ourselves
• How we think about and plan for our future

28
Gender Logic

• Based on a
• Two-category Classification System
• Assumes two mutually exclusive categories
  heterosexual male and heterosexual female
• These categories are perceived in terms of
  difference, and as opposites
• System leaves no space for those who do not fit
  into either of the two categories
• The two categories are not equal when it comes to
  access to power

29
Sports Celebrations of Masculinity

• Gender is not fixed in nature therefore, people
  must work to maintain definitions
• Sports are sites for preserving forms of gender
  logic that privilege men marginalize women
• Dominant sport forms highlight and reward
  virility, power, and toughness
• Sport images and discourse glorify a heroic
  manhood based on being a warrior

30
Gender Logic in Sports Girls and Women As
Invaders

• Girls and women in sports often threaten the
  preservation of traditional gender logic
• Through history, myths have been used to
  discourage participation by girls and women
• Encouragement varies by sport, and whether the
  sport emphasizes grace or power
• Being a tomboy is okay as long as traditional
  femininity cues are presented

31
Women Bodybuilders Expanding Definitions of
Femininity?

• Competitive bodybuilding for women did not exist
  before the 1970s
• Women bodybuilders often are perceived as deviant
  in terms of gender definitions
• Women bodybuilders challenge traditional
  definitions of gender, despite commercial images
  that highlight heterosexual attractiveness
• Femininity insignias are used to avoid social
  marginalization

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Gender-based Double StandardsDo They Exist in
Sports?

• What would happen if
• Mia Hamm beat up a man or a couple of women in a
  bar fight?
• A rugby team mooned tourists in Washington, DC?
• A basketball player had four children with four
  different men?
• Anna Kournikova was photographed with near naked
  men ogling and hanging on her?

34
Homophobia in Sports

• Popular discourse erases the existence of gay men
  and lesbians in sports
• Gay men and lesbians challenge the two-category
  gender classification system
• Being out in sports creates challenges
• Women risk acceptance
• Men risk acceptance and physical safety
• Most people in sports hold a Dont ask, dont
  tell policy concerning homosexuality

35
Strategies for Changing Ideology and Culture

• There is a need for
• Alternative definitions of masculinity
• Critically question violent destructive
  behavior
• Alternative definitions of femininity
• Becoming like men is not the goal
• Changing the ways we talk about do sports
• Lifetime participation, an ethic of care, gender
  equity, and bringing boys and girls and men and
  women together to share sport experiences

36

• Race and Ethnicity
• Are They Important in Sports?

37
Defining Race Ethnicity

• Race refers to a category of people regarded as
  socially distinct
• Share genetic traits believed to be important
  by those with power and influence in society
• An ethnic group is a socially distinct population
  that shares a way of life
• Committed to the ideas, norms, and things that
  constitute that way of life

38
Minority Group

• Refers to a socially identified collection of
  people who
• Experience systematic discrimination
• Suffer social disadvantages because of
  discrimination
• Possess a self-consciousness based on their
  shared experiences

39
The Concept of Race

• Racial categories are social creations based on
  meanings given to selected physical traits
• Race is not a valid biological concept
• Verified by data from Human Genome Project
• Racial classifications ambiguous
• because they are based on continuous traits with
  arbitrary lines drawn to create categories
• Racial classifications vary from culture to
  culture

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Racial Categories Drawing Lines in Society
Snow white
Midnight black
Continuous Traits skin color, height, brain
size, nose width, leg length, leg length ratio,
of fast twitch muscle fibers, etc. Discrete
Traits blood type, sickle cell trait,
etc. Racial category lines can be drawn anywhere
and everywhere! We could draw 2 or 2000 the
decision is a social one, not a biological one.
Some people draw many others draw few.
42
Race in the United States

• A primitive but powerful classification system
  has been used in the U.S.
• It is a two-category system based on the rule of
  hypo-descent or the one-drop rule
• The rule was developed by white men to insure the
  purity of the white race and property control
  by white men
• Mixed-race people challenge the validity of this
  socially influential way of defining race

43
Tiger Woods Disrupting Dominant Race Logic

• CABLINASIAN
• CA Caucasian
• BL Black
• IN Indian
• ASIAN Asian

44
Using Critical Theory to Ask Questions About
Racial Classification Systems

• Which classification systems are used?
• Who uses them?
• Why are some people so dedicated to using certain
  classification systems?
• What are the consequences of usage?
• Can negative consequences be minimized?
• Can the systems be challenged?
• What occurs when systems change?

45
Race Ideology in History

• Racial classification systems were developed as
  Caucasian Europeans explored and colonized the
  globe
• These systems were used to justify colonization,
  conversion, and even slavery and genocide
• According to these systems, white skin was the
  standard, and dark skin was associated with
  intellectual inferiority and arrested development

46
Race Ideology in Sports Today

• Race logic encourages people to
• See sport performances in racial terms, i.e.,
  in terms of skin color
• Use whiteness as the taken-for-granted standard
• Explain the success or failure of people with
  dark skin in racial terms
• Do studies to discover racial difference

47
Traditional Race Logic Used in Sports

• Achievements of White Athletes are due to
• Character
• Culture
• Organization

• Achievements of Black Athletes are due to
• Biology
• Natural physical abilities

48
Searching For Jumping Genes in Black Bodies

• Why is the search misleading?
• Based on oversimplified ideas about genes and how
  they work
• Assumes that jumping is a simple physical
  activity related to a single gene or interrelated
  set of genes
• Begins with skin color and social definitions of
  race

49
A Sociological Hypothesis

• Race logic discrimination sport opportunities
• Beliefs about biological cultural destiny
• Motivation to develop skills
• OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS

50
The Power of Race Logic

• Black male students often have a difficult time
  shaking athlete labels based on race logic
• Young people from all racial backgrounds may make
  choices influenced by race logic
• In everyday life, race logic is related to the
  cultural logic of gender and social class

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Sport Participation andAfrican Americans

• The facts show that
• Prior to the 1950s, African Americans faced a
  segregated sport system
• African Americans participate in a very limited
  range of sports
• African American men and women are under
  represented in most sports

53
Sport Participation andNative Americans

• Native Americans comprise dozens of diverse
  cultural groups
• Traditional Native American sports combine
  physical activities with ritual and ceremony
• Native Americans often fear losing their culture
  when they play Anglo sports
• Stereotypes used in sports discourage Native
  American participation

54
Images of Native Americans in Sports

• Using stereotypes of Native Americans as a basis
  for team names, logos, and mascots is a form of
  bigotry
• regardless of the intentions
• Are there conditions under which a group or
  organizations could use the cultural and
  religious images of others for their own
  purposes?
• What would happen if a school named their teams
  the Olympians and used the Olympic logo (5-Rings)
  as their logo?

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Sport Participation andLatinos Hispanics

• The experiences of Latino athletes have been
  ignored until recently
• Stereotypes about physical abilities have
  influenced perceptions of Latino athletes
• Latinos now make up 25 of Major League Baseball
  players
• Latinos often confront discrimination in school
  sports
• Latinos have been overlooked due to faulty
  generalizations about gender and culture

57
Sport Participation andAsian Americans

• The cultural heritage and histories of Asian
  Americans are very diverse
• The sport participation patterns of Asian
  Americans vary with their immigration histories
• Little is known about how the images of Asian
  American athletes are represented in the media
  and minds of people in the U.S.

58
The Dynamics of Racial Ethnic Relations in
Sports

• Race and ethnicity remain significant in sports
  today
• Todays challenges are not the ones faced in the
  past
• Racial and ethnic issues DO NOT disappear when
  desegregation occurs
• The challenge of dealing with inter-group
  relations never disappears
• changes in terms of the issues that must be
  confronted

59
Eliminating Racial Ethnic Exclusion in Sports
(I)

• Changes are most likely when
• People with power and control benefit from
  progressive changes
• Individual performances can be measured precisely
  and objectively
• Members of an entire team benefit from the
  achievements of teammates

60
Eliminating Racial Ethnic Exclusion in Sports
(II)

• Changes are most likely when
• Superior performances do not lead to automatic
  promotions
• Team success does not depend on off-the-field
  friendships

61
The Biggest Challenge Integrating Positions of
Power

• Power in sports is not readily shared
• Even when sport participation is racially and
  ethnically mixed
• The movement of minorities into coaching and
  administrative positions has been very slow
• Social and legal pressures are still needed
  before power is fully shared

62
Needed Changes

• Regular and direct confrontation
• of racial and ethnic issues by people in
  positions of power
• A new vocabulary
• dealing with new forms of racial and ethnic
  diversity
• Training sessions dealing with practical problems
  and issues
• Not just feelings

63
The Racially Natural Athlete?

• There is no evidence showing that skin color is
  related to physical traits that are essential for
  athletic excellence across sports
• or in any particular sport

64
Socially Constructing the Black Male Body Race
Ideology in Action

• In Euro-American history there has been
• Strong fears of the physical power and prowess of
  (oppressed) black men
• Powerful anxieties about the sexual appetites and
  capabilities of (angry) black men
• Deep fascination with the movement of the black
  body
• THEREFORE, the black male body
• valuable entertainment commodity

65
Research Summary(Genetic Factors Athletic
Performance)

• Are there genetic differences between
  individuals? YES
• Are genetic characteristics related to athletic
  excellence? YES
• Could one gene account for success across a range
  of different sports? PROBABLY NOT
• Might skin color genes physical performance
  genes be connected? NO EVIDENCE

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Research Summary (Continued)

• Are physical development the expression of
  skills in sports related to cultural definitions
  of skin color and race? DEFINITELY YES
• Do cultural ideas about skin color race
  influence the interpretation of and meaning given
  to the movement and achievements of athletes?
  DEFINITELY YES

67
Social Origins of Athletic Excellence

• A cultural emphasis on achievement in activities
  that have special cultural meaning
• Resources to support widespread participation
  among young people
• Opportunities to gain rewards through success
• Access to those who can teach tactics and
  strategies

68
Consequences of Race Ideology in Sports

• Desegregation of revenue producing sports
• Continued racial exclusion in social sports
• Position stacking in team sports
• Racialized interpretations of achievements
• Management barriers for blacks
• Skewed distribution of African Americans in U.S.
  colleges and universities

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Sport in SocietyIssues and Controversies

• Chapter 12
• Sports and the Media
• Could They Survive
  Without Each Other?

70
Characteristics of the Media

• Print media words images printed on paper
• Newspapers, magazines fanzines, books,
  catalogues, event programs, trading cards
• Electronic media words, commentary, images we
  receive through audio and/or video devices
• Radio, television, film, video games, the
  internet and computer publications

71
The Media Provide

• Information
• Interpretation
• Entertainment

72
Media Content

• Media content is always edited and
  re-presented by those who control them
• Editing decisions are based on one or more of
  these goals
• Making profits
• Shaping values
• Providing a public service
• Building artistic and technical reputations
• Expressing self

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Media and Power

• The media often serve the interests of those
  with power and wealth in society
• As corporate control of media has increased
  become more concentrated, media content
  emphasizes
• Consumerism
• Individualism
• Competition
• Class inequality
• as natural and necessary in society

75
What If . . .

• All television documentaries were sponsored by
  environmental groups, or by womens
  organizations, or by labor organizations?
• Would we ask questions about the content of those
  programs, why we see what we see, why we hear
  what we hear?
• 99 of all sports programming in the media was
  sponsored by capitalist corporations?
• Should we ask questions about the content of
  those programs and whose interests they might
  serve?

76
Characteristics of the Internet

• The Internet
• Extends and radically changes our connections
  with the world
• Is not limited to sequential programming
• Enables each of us to be the editors of our own
  media experiences
• Gives us the potential to create our own
  spectator sport realities and experiences

77
Video Games Virtual Sports

• Research is needed to
  help answer questions such as
• Do video games replace time spent watching media
  sports?
• What are the dynamics of playing video sport
  games and virtual sports?
• What are the differences between playing a video
  sport game and playing in organized sports or in
  informal games?

78
Do Sports Depend on the Media?

• No, when they exist for the players themselves
• Yes, when they are forms of commercial
  entertainment
• Media coverage attracts attention and provides
  news of results
• Television has been a key factor in the growth
  and expansion of commercial sports
• Television expands commercial value of sports

79
Have the Media Corrupted Sports?

• This is not likely because
• Sports are not shaped primarily by the media in
  general or TV in particular
• Sports are social constructions that emerge in
  connection with many different social
  relationships
• The media, including TV, do not operate in a
  political and economic vacuum
• Government regulates the media, and economic
  factors set limits to control

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Do the Media Depend on Sports?

• Most media do not depend on sports for content or
  sales
• Daily newspapers have depended on sports
  sections to boost circulation and advertising
  revenues
• Many television companies have depended on sports
  to fill program schedules, attract male viewers
  and the sponsors that want to reach them
• Many sport events have audiences with clearly
  identifiable demographics

82
Trends in Televised Sports

• Rights fees have escalated rapidly since the
  1960s
• Sports programming has increased dramatically
• As more events are covered, ratings for
  particular events have decreased
• Audience fragmentation has occurred
• Television companies use sports events to promote
  other programming
• Television companies increasingly own teams and
  events

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Global Economic Factors in the Sports-Media
Relationship

• Global economic factors have intensified the
  sport-media relationship because transnational
  corporations have needed vehicles for developing
• Global name recognition
• Global cultural legitimacy
• Global product familiarity
• Global ideological support for a way of life
  based on consumption, competition, individual
  achievement, and comparisons of status and
  material possessions

87
Alcohol Tobacco Sponsorships

• Corporations that sell alcohol and tobacco see
  sports as a key vehicle for promoting their
  products in connection with activities defined as
  healthy by most people
• If they cannot sponsor televised events, they
  will put signage on people, equipment, and
  facilities to be seen during television coverage

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Corporate Executives Television Sports
Sponsorships

• Many male executives of large media corporations
  love sports
• Masculine culture is deeply embedded in these
  corporations
• When sport emphasizes competition, domination,
  and achievement, executives feel that these are
  crucial factors in their companies
• They will pay big money to hire coaches to
  motivate employees around these themes

90
Images and Messages in Media Sports (I)

• Media coverage is constructed around specific
  themes and messages
• Success themes
• Emphasis on winners, losers, and final scores
• Emphasis on big plays, big hits, and sacrificing
  self for team success
• Masculinity and femininity themes
• Coverage privileges men over women
• Heterosexuality is assumed homosexuality is
  erased
• Coverage reproduces dominant ideas about manhood

91
Images and Messages in Media Sports (II)

• Race and ethnicity themes
• Racial ideology has influenced coverage of black
  athletes
• Whiteness is erased in coverage it is assumed as
  the standard
• Nationalism
• We - They distinctions are common
• Individualism
• Mental and physical aggression

92
Media Impact on Sport-Related Behaviors

• Active participation in sports
• Some negative, some positive effects
• Attendance at sport events
• Generally increase attendance at elite events,
  but may decrease it at local events
• Gambling on sports
• Media are indirectly linked to gambling
• Internet may change this to direct link

93
Audience Experiences With Media Sports

• Research shows that
• Watching television sports is not a major
  activity in the lives of most adults
• Football widows and men who just sit in front of
  the TV watching sports are not as common as many
  people think
• Men and women who live together often share the
  experience of watching sports
• Most partners in couples accommodate each others
  viewing habits over time

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The Profession of Sports Journalism

• The work of sports journalists does matter when
  it comes to cultural ideology and public
  consciousness
• Tensions between players and sportswriters has
  intensified as differences in their salaries and
  backgrounds have become more pronounced
• Ethical issues have become increasingly important
  in sports journalism because the stakes are so
  high for teams, athletes, coaches, owners, etc.

97
Comparison of Sportswriters and Announcers

• Sportswriters
• Work behind scenes
• Seldom recognized
• Low salaries paid by publications
• Low regulation by sport management
• Job focuses on providing information

• Announcers
• Celebrity status
• Public recognition
• High salaries often paid by management
• Comments regulated by management
• Job focuses on selling the sport

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Sport in Society Issues Controversies

• Sports in High School and College
• Do Varsity Sport Programs
• Contribute to Education?

101
Arguments For and Against Interscholastic Sports

• Arguments For
• Involve students in activities
• Build self-esteem
• Enhance fitness and lifetime participation
• Generate spirit and unity
• Promote support
• Develop and reward valued skills

• Arguments Against
• Distract attention from academics
• Create dependence
• Increase passivity and injuries
• Create superficial and transitory spirit
• Waste resources
• Create pressure and distort status system

102
Experiences of High School Student-athletes

• Research shows differences between those who play
  varsity sports and those who do not
• Research suggests that these differences mostly
  are due to selection and filtering processes
• Those who play sports often bring to sports
  characteristics that make them different from
  others who do not play sports

103
Methodological Problems

• Research on the consequences of playing varsity
  sports is difficult to do because
• Growth and development among students is due to
  many factors
• Meanings given to sport participation vary by
  context and from one person to another

104
What the Research Tells Us

• Be careful when generalizing about the
  educational value of varsity sports
• Long term studies are needed
• Student-athletes may be treated differently by
  significant others
• Varsity sports exerts an influence on the larger
  student culture in high schools

105
Student Culture in High Schools

• Being a student-athlete often is a source of
  status and popularity
• More for men than women
• Sports are sites for major social occasions in
  the school
• Sports often reproduce dominant ideologies
  related to gender, social class, and race and
  ethnicity

106
Interscholastic Sports Are Valuable If They

• Enable students to be noticed, rewarded, and
  taken seriously as human beings
• Connect young people with adult advocates in
  their lives
• Provide occasions to learn things that are
  applicable beyond sports

107
Do Athletes Rule U.S. High Schools?

• Data on this issue are scarce research is
  need on the following
• How many students have been physically and/or
  verbally mistreated by athletes?
• How many people know of cases where athletes have
  mistreated others?
• Are some athletes more likely than others to
  harass or intimidate other students?

108
Intercollegiate Sports and the Experiences of
College Students

• Intercollegiate sports
  are not all the same
• They vary by Division in the NCAA
• They vary greatly from big-time
  entertainment-oriented programs to smaller, less
  expensive, athlete-oriented programs

109
Characteristics of Big-time Programs

• Usually have a primary emphasis on football or
  mens basketball and their revenue generating
  potential
• About 1 in 3 programs make money
• Full scholarships are available to some athletes
  in nearly all of the 18-24 sports
• Teams often travel extensively
• Quality of skills competition is high

110
Student Athletes in Big-time Programs

• Participants in revenue producing sports usually
  have scholarships
• Time and energy commitments to sport are
  exceptionally high, and participants often must
  choose between
• Working out and practicing sports
• Doing coursework
• Engaging in social activities
• Academic detachment is a commonly used coping
  strategy among athletes

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The Diversity of Student-Athlete Experiences

• Some coaches and programs give priority to
  academic involvement
• Some student-athletes give priority to academic
  involvement. Usually if
• Past experiences reaffirm importance of academic
  achievement
• Social support fosters academic identities
• Non-sport career opportunities are perceived
• Contact experiences expand confidence apart
  from sports

113
Grades and Graduation Rates Among Student-athletes

• Graduation data are confusing because there are
  so many ways to compute statistics
• Graduation rates among student athletes are
  higher than for comparable students except in
  big-time revenue producing sports
• Information on grades must acknowledge
• Athletes often are overrepresented in certain
  courses and majors
• Athletes in entertainment-oriented sports come to
  college with lower grades and test scores

114
Recent Reforms in Big-time Programs

• The purpose of many new rules and standards
  passed since the mid-1980s has been to
• Send messages to high schools students that
  academic achievement does matter in college
• Set new guidelines for universities that had
  ignored academic issues
• Provide college student-athletes the support they
  needed to meet academic requirements

115
Academic Support Programs

• Research is needed on these programs because they
  are very diverse in terms of focus and philosophy
  
• Recent media coverage suggests that some programs
  focus on eligibility, not learning
• Too many programs are administered by athletic
  departments rather than faculty with academic
  appointments

116
Academic Integrity Issues

• Restoring academic integrity to programs where
  athletic success is tied to millions of dollars
  of revenue and the emotions of boosters and
  alumni is difficult
• Raising academic standards is important, but it
  must be done in ways that do not unfairly
  disadvantage certain students
• Prop 16 and similar rules must be critically
  examined to test their fairness

117
Questions About the Benefits of Interscholastic
Programs

• School spirit often is enhanced, but does this
  improve the overall academic climate?
• Most programs lose money, but are the
  expenditures worth it in academic and
  developmental terms?
• Are the public community relations functions of
  varsity sports worth their costs?

118
Varsity High School Sports Problems
Recommendations

• Overemphasis on sports development and big-time
  models
• Regular critical assessments and new sports
  focused on lifetime and co-ed participation
• Limited participation access
• More teams in more sports where size and strength
  are not primary
• Gender equity and opportunities for students with
  disabilities

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Varsity High School Sports Problems
Recommendations

• Emphasis on varsity sports may distort status
  system among students
• Avoid fostering sport-based systems of privilege
• Give equal attention and recognition to the
  achievements of students in activities other than
  sports

121
Intercollegiate Sports Problems
Recommendations

• Focus on entertainment and commercial values
• Impose cost containment and spending limits
  measures on athletic departments and sports make
  a financially level playing field
• Lack of athletes rights
• Student-athletes must be voting members of
  decision-making committee
• University must employ an independent
  ombudsperson for appeals and advocacy
• Drop the myth of amateurism in revenue sports

122
Intercollegiate Sports Problems
Recommendations

• Gender inequities
• Cut football expenses through cost containment
  and limitation rules
• Fund womens sports on an investment basis to
  foster development
• Distorted priorities related to race relations
  and education
• Aggressively recruit ethnic minority students,
  faculty and administrators
• Employ strategies to create culturally diverse
  campus cultures

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Sources of Isolation For Black Student-athletes

• Racial and ethnic stereotypes used by some
  students
• Time and emotional energy devoted to sports
• Barriers to developing relationships with other
  students
• Lack of campus activities representing the
  interests and experiences of black students
• Lack of self confidence among black students
• Cultural and experience differences between
  blacks, whites, and other ethnic minority
  students
• Feelings of jealousy among white students who
  think black student-athletes have it made