T hu r s day , A p r i l 5, 2018
Volume 86
Issue 9
The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport
MCLA earns ‘A’ for women coaching women
BY MAYA MCFADDEN STAFF WRITER
MCLA’s women’s athletics earned an ‘A’ on the Women in College Coaching Report Card for having 100 percent of women’s teams led by women coaches for the first time in the six years of the research series conducted by The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Only two other colleges, Mitchell College and Sweet Briar College, received an ‘A’ in the report with MCLA. The report summary states, “The goal of this research series is to document the percentage of women collegiate head coaches over time.” “I think it represents the hard work we put in as an institution that’s committed to having role models for young women to see themselves in strong future roles,” said Amanda Beckwith, women’s volleyball coach. Many of the women’s coaches spoke about the importance of supporting their student-athletes beyond just the sport and of the significance of women seeing other women in leadership positions. “What we teach students on the
Loren Stock, the women’s basketball a game. field is only a fraction of what we do as coaches,” said Deborah Raber, women’s soccer coach. “The grade is a way to market how important female athletes mean to MCLA.” Laura Mooney was hired as MCLA’s first female director of athletics three years ago and is one of
Green Living Seminar
Conserving landscapes
BY FABIENNE BOGARDUS-STREET STAFF WRITER The Green Living Seminar series continued with its latest lecture on landscape conservation design by Ethan Plunkett, a research associate in the department of environmental conservation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Elena Traister, associate professor of environmental science, said, “I think there is a lot of interest these days in the different ways people are working toward sustainability of how we eat, how we generate our energy, how we use natural resources like wood and water, how we reduce pollution, and how we protect wildlife and biodiversity.” “The Green Living Seminars have always tackled issues relating to sustainability, and this semester the specific aspect of sustainability we are focusing on is that relating to the role of technology,” Trais-
ter said. “Over the course of the semester students have been able to learn about the development of new technologies as well as some remaining technical and social barriers to their becoming widely adopted.” This presentation was focused on landscape conservation and what goes into designing these models. Forest loss, climate change, species loss and temperatures rising are main reasons that lead to the extinction of land. According to Plunkett, “Climate change modifies the risk of global biodiversity loss due to land-cover change.” Groups mentioned that help with land conservation were USGS, USDA, LCCN, and Connect the Connecticut and the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperation (NALCC). The landscape conservation design model had a few key elements, including the 2010 environmental settings,
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photo from MCLA Athletics
coach, instructing her players during
the youngest college athletics directors in the country. “I think it’s incredibly important to have strong female role models and not just in athletics but in all industries,” said Mooney. “With our athletics staff women can see themselves having a career
in athletics because there’s a balance,” Raber said. Raber and Beckwith spoke about women’s sports becoming more competitive and being taken more seriously since they both began coaching. “The women’s game, especially in soccer, has become faster, more physical, and more technical,” Raber said. Beckwith, an MCLA alum, said that she has watched MCLA progress greatly in the athletics department. There have been additions in sports like women’s tennis and lacrosse, the first-ever female athletics director was hired and an emphasis on athletic recruiting efforts has increased along with athletic resources. “When Sue Getchell coached, the female teams had to share uniforms,” said Dot Houston, associate athletic director. Within MCLA’s athletic progression, the department enhanced its support staff for student-athletes with a coordinator of academic success and a coordinator of student athlete development.
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Spring Concert
SAC’s new twist has festival feel and atmosphere BY JACOB VITALI A&E WRITER Instead of a traditional headliner for the 2018 spring concert, the Student Activities Council (SAC) will be hosting two events to take its place. The first event, “A Little Bit of Sound,” will be held on April 16 at 3:20 p.m. on the quad and will feature off-campus performers Ceschi Ramos and House Sparrow, in addition to oncampus performers including hip-hop artist Kam Anderson. The festival will also feature performances from the College’s acapella group, Allegrettos, and the College’s various dance-centered groups including Dance Company, NeXXus and Dysfunk. Ceschi Ramos is a hip-hop, folk artist from New Haven, Connecticut. On his website, he describes himself as being, “first and foremost a singer-songwriter at heart.” He combines technical rapping, folk music, and punk. In 2014, Ramos won the Connecticut Music Award for Best Hip-Hop. House Sparrow is an indie-folk act from North Adams. They are a two-person act consisting of Francesca Shanks and Joe Aidonidis. House Sparrow has played many shows in North Adams and the surrounding communities, including WJJW’s fall concert, “The Sound,” which was co-sponsored by SAC. Senior Kam Anderson is also well-known
by the MCLA community. Last spring, he planned the “Backup Spring Concert” where local artists performed. While the concert had been planned in advance, the event name was a joke reflecting SAC’s decision to bring in a comedian.
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