As much as I'd like to see more green space and fewer vehicles on campus, I don't think that an All-Pedestrian campus would work out. People who work on campus every day are not well served by a pedestrian only campus. There are handicapped and elderly faculty/staff that need adjacent parking to their offices. There are people such as myself that work both in the office and in the field and we need to bring samples and gear directly to the labs on campus on a daily basis. What would work better is a compromise with a pedestrian-only center campus around the congested Quadrangle area but with reasonable vehicle access to most of the campus.
does anybody have any thoughts on my original question? i'd really like to know why stuff like that doesn't happen often.
I'm not sure on Title IX but I think that the equality numbers are based mainly on number of scholarships. If things like facilities were also considered then it would be next to impossible to make things equal, especially since we just spent a ton of money on the football stadium expansion. So I don't think Title IX is a barrier to building a new baseball stadium and that will get done in the near future as funds are available. And on another note I think it is absurd rule. I have no problem with women's teams like basketball, softball, swimming, gymnastics, soccer, track and field, etc. Sports that girls actually participate in during high school and have to put in work to be good enough to make a college team should be offered on the college level. But it goes to far sometimes. I read somewhere where a school was starting a rowing team because it was cheap and didn't really need new facilities built. They were having open tryouts and having to advertise in the school paper that said "no rowing experience necessary" just to get enough girls to have a team. And the most insane part is that these girls were getting full athletic scholarships for doing a sport they had never played before. This while men's teams, with athletes that had spent years training and practicing to be good enough for a college scholarship, were getting cut to make room for the women's rowing team. ABSURD!!
the taf did the football expansion in order to not have to deal with title IX. i'm pretty sure that facility upgrades have to be somewhat equal. i think that the whole deal about a new softball field, even though they spent a few million a ew years ago building one.
howbouta men's soccer team The only thing that really pisses me off about Title 9 is the fact that LSU chooses not to have a men's soccer team. There are plenty of legitimate club teams around that would feed right into a good SEC team. I don't understand why LSU still doesn't have one, the only other thing i can think of besides Title 9 would be financial reasons, but somehow that still doesn't seem like a problem.
Re: howbouta men's soccer team Women's soccer is rather new at LSU starting only 4 or 5 years ago. Right now LSU is at about 12% deficit in being in complaince with Title IX. Adding a men's soccer team would pull us in the wrong direction. I don't see any new men's teams being added in the near future. During my freshman year at LSU I had an English paper on Title IX, I read some articles and essays citing that some schools, particuallry smaller school with small budgets, are cutting men's sports to get into complaince and not adding any new women's teams. This is a flaw I see in the system along with the fact that football alone account for about 85 scholly's and that is all in one sport where most other teams only have a dozen or so at most like basketball, baseball, gynastics, etc........
I have a couple friends that play soccer and a few years ago they were spouting rumors that LSU was going to add a men's soccer team and drop men's swimming and diving. And I agree that cutting of men's programs is really stupid but I think it's also stupid to add pointless women's programs like rowing. I think that originally the law had nothing to do with athletics but somebdy read deep between the lines to apply it to women's athletics. The bottom line is that more men play sports competitively as kids and during high school and there shouldn't be a strict 50/50 rule for mens to womens sports.
I agree with you about more males playing and competing porportionatly than females, but one of the arguements I have heard is that if females are given the chance to participate in sports at an earlier age(junior high and hish school) you will have women growing up with sports therefore you will increase the percentage of women participating. Until there is a sport with the sheer number of players that football has, then balancing the oppurtunities will be very difficult.
i see so until women start playing football we won't see another new men's sports program form. although there is a women's club rugby team here at LSU, maybe LSU can make them official, hehe. it just sucks for those of us that play soccer at LSU competitively, but what am i saying, we've got football and baseball programs here that other schools only wish they had.
Lets look at Title IX this way, these numbers are from the Orlando Sentinel: http://www.orlandosentinal.com/sports/college/orl-sptbudgetcht09020903feb09.story LSU Football revenue is $29,488,232 minus expenses of $9062372 which equals a profit of $20,425,860. All LSU womens sports combined revenue is $421,801 minus expenses of $5,782,945 which equals a loss of $5,361,144. My question: Since women constitute 55% of the population and control 60% of the money in this country, why aren't they supporting the womens teams? Half of the people in Tiger Stadium football games are women. If the women in this country would support their gender, then womens sports would pay for themselves and Title IX would be unneeded. But even though women are not a minority in this country,Title IX gives them a free ride at the expense of mens Olympic sports which have disappeared. And football covers the costs. Women aren't being discriminated against. Women are failing to support womens sports. Just my opinion...while my girlfriend ain't here.
