Last fall, a group of five law students won their third consecutive intramural women’s volleyball title. Like other intramural championships, this one happened with little fanfare — but it deserves closer attention.
The team included two former Division-I volleyball players as well as a former state champion in track. Perhaps their team’s success was preordained. Less
obvious is the connection to their success beyond the athletic field. These women are known among their peers as star students, editors of the Law Review and leaders in student government.
I spoke with my classmate Jodee Scott, who played volleyball at the University of Tennessee and Northern Michigan. She believes that playing sports taught her a wide variety of skills. Sports allowed her “to be good at something” and gave her “the confidence to stand out.” Speaking up in class came more easily.
The varied demands of college athletics “teaches you discipline and time management,” she said. As a college athlete, Scott did volunteer work with her teammates. She spoke to wealthy, blue-blooded benefactors. She won and lost games in front of 1,500 people. These experiences built character and “made me look at success in a different way.”
Despite her multiple injuries, Scott wouldn’t trade her volleyball days for anything. Dedication and goal setting, abilities honed in athletics, are vital for law school success. So is the ability to work with people, which she does frequently as president of the Student Bar Association.
For Scott, the term “student athlete” is not an oxymoron. Athletics helped her, and thousands like her, become better students and more dynamic citizens. One major reason is Title IX.
Title IX, passed by Congress in 1972, prohibits sex discrimination in federally-aided education programs. Women now make up a majority of college students, and are no longer rarities at medical, law and business schools. Because of Title IX, America has become a more equal, educated and prosperous nation.
Title IX applies to college athletics, to the dismay of some male sports fans. To reach parity, many colleges have cut men’s sports rather than increase women’s scholarships. The real culprit is football, which hogs an inordinate amount of men’s scholarships and diverts students from books with promises of riches. College women’s sports seem compatible with academics in a way some men’s sports are not.
According to a recent NCAA report, 69 percent of female athletes graduate in six years, compared to 54 percent for their male counterparts. But at the University, the rate is 67 and 66 percent, respectively. Not only do we graduate most of our football players, but athletes graduate at a higher rate than all students.
But success is relative. The University has graduated just 59 percent of all freshmen from the 1995-1996 class, which puts it above only Oregon State, Arizona and Arizona State in the Pacific-10 Conference, according to the report.
Those schools are hardly academic powerhouses. It’s great that our athletes graduate at higher-than-average rates, a testament to their time management skills and the school’s support system. But we need to raise the educational bar for all students. Public universities UCLA and Berkeley graduate 82 percent of their students. For the University to graduate less than 3 out of 5 students is beyond laughable. It’s sad.
The situation won’t get better soon. The University is not spending money needed to keep up with the Pac-10 in academics. Instead, the University receives less and less support from Salem. Boosters spend millions in distant cities to promote star athletes who won’t graduate. And the Bush administration formed a commission last summer to “review” Title IX. Will they practice good sportsmanship, or will they change the rules of the game?
Supporting Title IX doesn’t just level the playing field, it also invites young women to excel on that field and beyond.