After five months of consideration, the Duke University Athletic Council recommended that women's crew be made a varsity sport at the University.
On Sept. 20, the DUAC, which is headed by Kathleen Smith, associate professor of zoology, and includes faculty and student body members, assembled to discuss, among other matters, a draft resolution for the addition of a varsity women's team.
The DUAC formally recommended implementation of varsity women's crew.
"We feel that we are making real strides for women's athletics here at Duke," Smith said. "We're trying to see this happen, possibly as early as next year."
Title IX legislation spurred Duke to set lofty goals for its women's athletics. The DUAC hopes to add two women's sports by the year 2000, and to add 21 women's scholarships over the next 10 years. These goals have impressed the crew team, who have been patiently waiting for this level of support.
"[The team] has really been trying to be vocal about things and get our thoughts heard," said Trinity senior Sara Zdeb, former president of the women's crew team. "The process was hard, but we've been trying our best."
To get the formal approval of the athletic council, the team completed the second phase of a three-stage process for receiving varsity recognition. Now, women's crew is not officially recognized with varsity status; only upon submission of its proposal to the Board of Trustees will it gain varsity status.
The first step of the process required team members to submit a written proposal to the DUAC. In its April 1997 written proposal, Zdeb and Katherine Nesbitt-a second-year law student who coached freshman rowers-outlined crew as a varsity sport and described the opportunities it could present.
"The crew team has submitted at least three proposals to us over the last five years," Smith said. "We found their recent presentation a very compelling case."
Following the submission, team representatives met with the athletic council to ensure that the team fulfilled each of the six criteria for collegiate varsity sports, as outlined in the Duke University Athletic Policy Manual.
These six criteria, adopted by the DUAC, mandate that the sport elicit general support from both the student body and alumni, provide an opportunity for collateral institutional benefits for the University, operate on funding that falls within the financial capabilities set by the Board of Trustees and establish a schedule that is both convenient and competitive.
The DUAC passed the proposal, leaving only one more stage in the varsity approval process. A key role in the approval was Duke's membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which had recently received a grant from the United States Olympic Committee to support women's crew.
"Women's crew is a new sport at the ACC level and the USOC recognizes this," Smith said. "With the [USOC] giving grants, Duke wants to participate in this."
President Nan Keohane, who has recently been concerned with gender equity issues, also voiced her approval through a two-page letter to the committee. Keohane had hoped to attend the athletic council meeting, but was not able to because of a Capital Campaign meeting.
Now, the women's crew team will undergo the final leg of the recognition process, in which it is required to submit a written proposal to the Board of Trustees and meet with the Board's members in December.
"This is really exciting and we've worked a long time for this," said Casey Crotty, a women's crew team member. "The hardest part was getting through the athletic council, so I think the Board of Trustees will give us their approval."
While the women's crew team continues its quest for varsity status, other women's sports are starting to jump on the bandwagon.
"We submitted our proposal and hopefully something will come out of it," said Erin Vagley, president of the women's club softball team. "Softball is the fifth-largest NCAA women's sport, and I think Duke should recognize this."
Also at the Sept. 20 meeting, the athletic council stated that it will begin serious consideration of the second women's sport in the 1998-1999 academic year.
It may wish, however, to hear from the representatives of the softball team as early as the winter of 1998.
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