Title IX at SRU: Coaches Perspective and the Future

The women's soccer/softball complex built recently to improve equity on campus

Everyone has their own opinion on equality. The website Dictionary.com defines it as, “the state or quality of being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability.”

Slippery Rock University defined equality in its latest Strategic Plan for Equality in three goals.

The first was to increase the revenue for athletic scholarships among both men and women. I guess you could call that value.

The second was to increase the budget for athletic facility operations, maintenance and upgrades, which would increase rank and ability.

The final was to develop a process that allows more flexibility to maximize resources to best fund all athletic programs. This somewhat falls under quantity.

It seems that the definition of equality in the dictionary is somewhat similar to what SRU looks to do with its athletics. Its strategic plan is to improve all athletics at the university.

Head coach of the women’s soccer team Noreen Herlihy said that she remembers when the campus was in a much different situation with Title IX where women's teams had to drive in vans to games and now they have buses with drivers that take them to games. That's just one of the improvements that she has seen in athletics overall at SRU.

Coach Herlihy discusses what she believes the intent of Title IX was at SRU and what she has seen firsthand. 

In our past part of the series we saw that when it comes to the student athlete on campus, women are very close to equal in receiving scholarships, and ahead of men in the amount of recruiting expenses they are given and the game day expenses.

When it comes to coaches, that equality swings the other way. An average of seven men’s hea coaches showed that the annual institutional salary is $49,638 and for female head coaches, the average is $44,299.

This is a difference of $5,339. Now, there are factors that must be examined such as the length of time that coaches have been on staffs but the raw data shows that male head coaches make more money at SRU than female head coaches.

When you examine the data of assistant coaches there is a swing in the opposite direction. Assistant female coaches make $20,866 on average where male assistants make $18,847, a difference of $2,019.

Once again it seems that while there are some differences between the amount of money given to males and females, equality from a numbers standpoint has been reached or is at least very close to being reached.

As Holly McCoy said in part two of this series about Slippery Rock being in great compliance with Title IX, coach Herlihy seems to agree and believes that the future of Title IX is one where equity will be reached, or at least always strived for, and even if Title IX was taken off the books that'd still be the case.

Herlihy discusses the future of Title IX 

Title IX at SRU: Differences between programs

There are several immediate differences that can be noticed biologically, psychologically and several other ways between man and woman. The one place that another difference is between men and women is in the athletic domain.

Slippery Rock University has gone through several battles involving Title IX and has worked toward meeting equality between men’s and women’s sports programs on campus.

Improvements were made to the softball field after a 2006 lawsuit that was filed and more improvements were made in 2009 when the lawsuit was re-opened. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette has a more in-depth account of the lawsuit.

Below is a slideshow of some differences between the men's baseball field and the women's softball field. While the men's stadium is much more advanced than the women's, improvements have been made to the women's to attempt to make it a state-of-the-art venue.

The 2011 Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act shows the raw numbers of the distribution between men’s and women’s sports.

When it comes to athletically related student aid, men receive $407,093 in total aid while women receive $438,080. The percent of women is higher so when you break down the number per percent, women receive $8,424.62 and men receive 8,481.10.

While the men receive around $60 more per scholarship, the difference per percent is rather insignificant.

There is a bigger difference when it comes to recruiting expenses per percent between the men and the women. Men’s teams receive $20,259 and when you factor in the 48 percent that they make up, you have $422.06 per percent. The women receive $35,087 for recruiting and the 52 percent gives them $674.25 per 

percent.

This shows that on average women’s programs receive an extra $253.19 for each percent of athletes over men.

Does this mean that equality has been reached because women receive more funding than men for recruiting?

Assistant Vice President of Diversity and Equal Opportunity Holly McCoy said that she believes that SRU has done a good job at reaching equality at SRU by first reaching a proportion between the percent male and female athletes and the percent of male and female students. The second part she said is usually referred to as the "laundry list" and consists of funding, recruiting money, etc. 

Holly McCoy discusses the two main components of checking Title IX compliance

Another area to look for differences in equality of funding comes down to the total game day operating 

expenses between the sexes.

Overall, the men’s programs combine for $288,178 in expenses for 259 athletes. The women’s side has 313 athletes and spends $374,099 in operating expenses.

Per athlete, that figures show that game day expenses for men are $1,112.66 and for women it is $1,195.20, a difference of $82.54 for each individual athlete.

Operating (Game-Day) Expenses by Team
	Men's Teams			Women's Teams
Varsity Teams	Participants	Operating Expenses per Participant	By Team	Participants	Operating Expenses per Participant	By Team	Total Operating Expenses
Basketball	13	$3,333	$43,334	13	$2,954	$38,406	$81,740
Football	81	$891	$72,188				$72,188
Baseball	31	$1,807	$56,012				$56,012
Field Hockey				22	$1,577	$34,687	$34,687
Lacrosse				24	$2,248	$53,962	$53,962
Soccer	22	$1,975	$43,444	23	$1,815	$41,746	$85,190
Softball				24	$1,583	$38,003	$38,003
Tennis				10	$2,102	$21,015	$21,015
Track and Field, Indoor	25	$629	$15,718	63	$380	$23,923	$39,641
Track and Field, Outdoor	74	$425	$31,483	86	$592	$50,919	$82,402
Track and Field,X-Country	13	$2,000	$25,999	28	$1,448	$40,534	$66,533
Volleyball				20	$1,545	$30,904	$30,904
Total Operating Expenses Men's and Women's Teams	259		$288,178	313		$374,099	$662,277

Graph provided in SRU's 2010-2011 EADA Compliance Report 

While the numbers show that equality has been reached, it ultimately comes down to the experience that the players and coaches have for the programs and if they are offered an equal chance to succeed in their sports.

McCoy said that she believes the strides made by the university have brought the university into compliance with Title IX. 

Holly McCoy talks about the improvements SRU dealing with Title IX 

Check back later this week for the final part of the series which deals with several coaches views on Title IX at SRU and where Title IX will be headed in the future.

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.

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.

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

Interview with Green Meadows GC manager, Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner, manager of Green Meadows Golf Course in Volant, Pa., talks about the unseasonably warm weather that started preparations for the golf course earlier than usual this year. He also talks about what are some of the responsibilities of running a golf course and some of the things that are offered at the Green Meadows course. The slideshow has pictures of the back nine of the course, which is a Par 36.

1st time to Pittsburgh? Check this out.

View What to do on a first trip to Pittsburgh. in a larger map