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In a statement to the press, Howard's athletic director, Sondra Norrell-Thomas, said the decision was "very difficult, but necessary," claiming: "At this time, we lack the facilities to support baseball and wrestling." But few are buying that excuse. As Mike Moyer, executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, says, "It is hard to believe that lack of practice/competition space can be the culprit, due to the fact that wrestling requires so little space to begin with. I have to believe that Howard University has a space on its campus that can accommodate a 42 x 42 foot wrestling mat." Howard's own wrestling coach doesn't agree the school is being honest about his team's elimination, either. Wade Hughes. He tells the Washington Post Thursday morning, "Howard University would like to look at this as a non-Title IX issue, but from my perspective, it is a Title IX issue in gender equality." Coach Hughes continues: "We've had a wrestling room for years and years and years, and I don't know what [Norrell-Thomas] means. All we need is a practice facility because we've had only one home match since I've been the head coach." The pro-quota Washington Post notes that as of last year, women composed more than 60 percent of Howard's undergraduate student body but only 30 percent of its athletes. That's not a comfortable place for a school to be these days. Still, Howard denies the accusation that they are playing gender/number games. Lawanza Spears, a spokeswoman for Howard University told NRO Wednesday night, "The decision was based solely on the lack of facilities needed to support the baseball and wrestling programs." The timing of Howard's decision was significant: June marks the thirtieth anniversary of the passing of Title IX, and no school wants to be cast as the enemy when the full-blast celebrating and finger-pointing commences. And Howard knows the pain of Title IX grief. In 1993, its head women's basketball coach sued the school for sex discrimination, because she was being paid less than then the men's coach. A subsequent $2.4 million jury award for damages was the first of its kind, hailed by feminists. (A judge later reduced the damages to $ 250,000.) Of this week's Howard cuts, Mike Moyer says, "This appears to be further evidence of the carnage that has resulted from the application of gender quotas in intercollegiate sports." Moyer is getting a tad used to it, with more than 170 wrestling programs eliminated in recent years due to the Title IX number's game. In her recent book, Tilting the Playing Field, author Jessica Gavora quotes Leo Kocher, University of Chicgo wrestling coach, explaining how the game works
Still, you would think liberals would do a double take when they see what is happening. Howard is 86 percent black and prides itself on its focus on black students. But, as is now happening there, it is often black males, often on the lower end of the family-income scale, who are getting the shaft because of their schools' compliance with Title IX. (This happened at Bowling Green State University this semester.) As Mike Moyer points out, "The elimination of the traditional Olympic sports across the nation is having a devastating effect on the availability of college-scholarship opportunities for minorities." Isn't that something liberals and self-appointed black leaders should care a bit about? |
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Wednesday, Howard University announced the immediate elimination of their
men's varsity baseball and wrestling programs. (That leaves Howard with
eight men's varsity teams, and eleven women's.)
