more Title IX backlash
Posted by Brent Finnegan on February 19th, 2007
As you may recall, the JMU BoV came under a fair amount of criticism not too long ago for the way it handled the “Title IX cuts,” reducing the number of sports at the university. 144 male students will be losing their sports — sports that may be the reason they started attending JMU in the first place.
An article in today’s Breeze calls into question the timing of a press release explaining the reason for the board’s actions, considering it was released a day after Steve Landes and other House delegates “took turns pummeling JMU not only for making the cuts, but for not providing athletes, their parents and alumni any chance to participate in the decision.” Some even threatened to cut funding. Landes said, “JMU has botched the way they handled this” and instead “cut the legs out from under 144 athletes.”
Several House Democrats and Republicans are on the side of student activists trying to reverse the decision. The cuts go into effect this summer. The student athletes have a website: savejmusports.org.
It’s unclear what impact or consequences (if any) all this will have on the BoV.
-finnegan
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