Sunday, April 29, 2012

Title IX at SRU: A Brief History and Student's Perspective


As a part of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX is a piece of U.S. legislation that states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance...”

That piece of legislation has been a point for much debate in the United States since its inception clear through to today.

Many athletes, coaches, administrators and spectators have very passionate views on the Title IX legislation. As recently as 2009, Slippery Rock University was in court dealing with Title IX suits filed by former players and coaches.

The university was told that it must improve its women’s softball field and provide additional funding for female athletics as part of a settlement that was filed in December of 2009.

One student athlete, Travis Arrigoni, who is on the track and field team, said that the initial development of Title IX was a very important step for women’s rights but now universities are taking shortcuts to get around actually granting equality.

“In the time Title IX was developed and proposed it was a huge stepping stone for women’s sports,” Arrigoni said. “Today with the environment of big money sports with football and basketball, Title IX needs to be revised to all the lower revenue sports to have a chance to compete on the high level that football and basketball does.”

In Slippery Rock’s 2009-2010 Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) report, there were 299 female athletes compared to 241 male athletes.

One of the areas that is most affected by Title IX is track and field and cross country because there are both a male and female team that compete closely together and unlike basketball where there must be five people on the floor at all times, the track and field sports don’t have a set number of people that must always compete.

Therefore, in order to comply with Title IX there must be a higher amount of females on the track and field teams because of how many men are on the football team.

In 2009, the cross country team had 27 females to 12 males, indoor track had 66 females and 35 males and outdoor track had 66 females to 53 males.


Cheerleader Kristin Karam talks about her thoughts on Title IX implications on cheering and other sports at SRU.

Senior member of the men’s lacrosse club on campus Andrew Lacey believes Title IX must be revised to give an opportunity to club sports like men’s lacrosse that aren’t able to be official sports due to Title IX regulations.

“It’s frustrating that we have to be a part of a different tier than the female lacrosse team because of Title IX implications,” Lacey said. “Any sport that has the interest and desire behind it should be able to take part on 
the NCAA Division II level here at Slippery Rock.”

Overall, the consensus of most of the student athletes on SRU’s campus seems to be that Title IX was an intricate part in giving women rights for equality in sports but now it appears that most universities are just cutting men’s sports over improving the quality of women’s sports which isn’t helping to improve the experience for anyone.

This is the first part of a three part series on Title IX at Slippery Rock. The second part will be up next week and discuss the facility differences between the men’s and women’s teams involving recruiting, financial aid, and operating costs for the stadiums.


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Slippery Rock junior twirler looks toward future in coaching and judging


For 21-year-old dual major in public relations and political science, Emily Strickland, twirling has been a major part of her life since she was a child.

She started twirling at a young age and performed in local parades and then at age 12 she went away to twirling camp where she met her future coach who helped her become a more complete twirler.

Emily Strickland talks about meeting her coach and getting into twirling

After going to the camp, Strickland joined the National Baton Twirling Association (NBTA) and started competing against twirlers who have been competing since age three or four.

Strickland excelled in the sport and eventually won the Senior Intermediate Pageant and became the Miss Majorette of Pennsylvania. After her success in the Miss Majorette competition she went on to compete in the American Youth in Parade competitions against 38 other national and regional champions. She took home eighth place in the competition.

While she has had success in twirling, Strickland has also been able to be involved in other hobbies and sports, unlike some of the girls she twirls against who have only focused on twirling.

“I was lucky enough to be able to do other activities like play the trumpet in concert band and the piano,” Strickland said. “Some girls that I compete against have twirling as their life and don’t get to do other things they enjoy because they become so competitive in it.”

For a story in The Rocket, Strickland showed me how to do different basic tricks that ultimately get incorporated into a routine to tie everything together. 

Video of Emily Strickland teaching a single, double and triple elbow roll.

Strickland works to come up with unique ways to remember the basics of different tricks such as telling the students to imagine that their favorite Kool-Aid is sitting on the table that they make with their arm. When I was getting a lesson from Emily, she showed me how to make a figure eight with the baton acting like it was an ice cream scoop.


Video of Emily Strickland teaching how to pull of the thumb toss

After learning several different tricks and starting to put them all together, it is possible to put together a routine. Strickland shows examples of the elbow roll and thumb toss several times in her routine.

Video of Emily Strickland putting together several different tricks to create a routine.

Strickland has had a successful career in twirling but is considering retiring from twirling to become a coach and a judge.

While there may only be a limited time to see Emily twirl in front of an audience, there is a chance that she could someday be your coach if you're looking to get into twirling, and if you get good enough, she might even be your judge at a future competition. 



Emily Strickland talks about her plans for after she graduates and retires from twirling competitively. 


Pictures of Emily performing her routine.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Professionals stress importance of internships




On Wednesday, students gathered in the auditorium of Eisenberg Classroom Building to listen to a panel discussion from professionals in the communication field about what employers are looking for when hiring.

The panel consisted of Larry Stock, who is the Cultural Center Director at Butler County Community College where he is the head of the Succop Theater, Kelly Ann McMillin, who is the Sociel Media Marketing Manager for Concord Hospitality, Mark Mann, who is the Managing Director of the Butler Eagle and Tracy Alexander Plevel, who is a member of the community relations team at Lifesteps and graduate from Slippery Rock University.

Larry Stock talks about the importance of internships to students at the "What Your Employers Really Want" panel discussion at Slippery Rock University. 


The panel touched on several topics, one of which was discussion on the importance of internships and what potential employers look for when hiring.

Mann, who has been the Managing Editor at the Butler Eagle since 1992, said that there are two questions you should always be prepared to answer at an interview and he feels they are the most important.

“I always ask two questions when hiring people,” Mann said. “The first question I ask is, ‘Why should I hire you?’ and the second is, ‘What do you bring to the company?’ These are two questions you should have very detailed and specific answers for.”

Plevel agreed with Mann’s comments and added that you should focus on more than just getting a degree when at college because extracurricular activities are very important.

“You should definitely get involved in organizations on campus,” Plevel said. “If I see someone applying for a PR position from Slippery Rock and they don’t have PRSSA on their resume’, that automatically brings up a red flag for me.”

Tracy Alexander Plevel talks about how to get involved with organizations during college to add experiences to your portfolio.


Overall, the panel agreed that being prepared and ready to take on any situation that comes your way is very important in preparing for getting a real world job beyond college.
Stock said that one of the most important things that you can gain from college is an ability to think critically and be curious about things.

“The best thing about college is that it teaches you the ability of how to learn and problem solve,” Stock said. “It teaches you how to be a critical thinker and that’s one of the most important things in being in the communication field in the real world.”



The panel also touched on the social media issues concerning jobs. For more information on that, check out Courtney Nickle's blog, "Nickle for your Thoughts" at www.nickle4yourthoughts.blogspot.com