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Taco Tuesday
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Football Spring Game
UC Bearcat football team prepares for their spring game
THE NEWS RECORD / UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI THURSDAY, APR. 13, 2017
NEWSRECORD.ORG
UC Women’s basketball players’ voices are left unheard DAVID WYSONG | SPORTS EDITOR OPINION
By now, many people know that the University of Cincinnati women’s basketball team will play at St. Ursula Academy next year while their home court, Fifth Third Arena, goes under renovations. The News Record published a column on Monday, showing the perks of playing at St. Ursula next season, but there was one important factor overlooked – how do the players feel? We don’t know. TNR attempted to reach out to players with hopes of hearing their responses to playing at a high school next season – while the men bask in the glory of a Division I college venue at BB&T Arena – but our wishes were respectfully declined because the school’s athletic department “would like to not involve our student-athletes in this discussion.” The most important constituents in this situation are being left out of the discussion. I can tell you how I would feel if I were these ladies.
Now, I know that I am not athletic and I am not a woman, so I’m not sure what my opinion means in the grand schemes of things, but since we can’t hear the women’s voices you will hear mine. I would feel cheated. When high school athletes are recruited by college programs, one factor many consider are facilities. When Cincinnati players chose to be Bearcats, they chose Fifth Third Arena, a venue that holds 13,000 fans and was constructed specifically for Division I college athletes. Playing in Fifth Third Arena isn’t possible next season, so the women should get the next best thing. Instead, they will play on a court with only around 1,000 seats, which was constructed specifically for high school athletes. I would feel undervalued. Compared to Fifth Third Arena, the men will be playing in a smaller venue next season but will still be playing in a venue made for Division I college
athletes – meaning they’re still practically getting what they signed up for. This shows the value the school has on the men’s team compared to the women, who work just as hard as the men – juggling class, practices, games and other obligations student-athletes have – but are being placed into a venue they don’t deserve. Many have called this a Title IX violation, despite a formal complaint not yet being made. UC athletic director Mike Bohn said that looking at this case as a Title IX violation would be misplaced, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “We believe we can create a competitive advantage in there based on the size and the setup,” Bohn said. “It’s a facility that is close to campus and as least intrusive as possible.” Lastly, I would feel unfairly constrained. This ties back to the beginning, where the athletic department said they did not want the players to be involved in the discussion. UC head coach Jamelle Elliott will not be playing at St. Ursula,
Bohn won’t be playing there, but I bet you can guess who can be involved in the discussion. Yes, Bohn and Elliott – not the players. So, the women are being told they must play in a gym that I assume they don’t want to play in, and they are not allowed to voice their frustrations. Maybe the athletic department did bring the players in during
the discussion before the decision was made, and maybe they all came to an agreement. Maybe I’m wrong. But these women of UC deserve more. They deserve a better venue to play in, they deserve to be more appreciated and they deserve the opportunity to have their voices heard.
DAVID GIFREDA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Brandey Tarver (13) takes a jump shot against East Carolina on Saturday January 21, 2017.
Political dog whistling FRANCIS SHUCKEROW | CONTRIBUTOR
FILE ART
UC Title IX Office still seeks new coordinator JUSTIN REUTTER | NEWS EDITOR
The University of Cincinnati Title IX Office is “back to square one” on hiring a new Title IX coordinator, said Vice President of Equity and Inclusion Bluezette Marshall. Interim Coordinator Karla Phillips has led the office since the departure of Title IX Coordinator Jyl Schaffer in 2016. A new coordinator should be hired before the start of the 2017 academic year, said Marshall. “The candidates we have received have been unqualified,” said Marshall. “In the meantime, we’ll be reaching out to individuals at other colleges and universities for a more targeted recruitment effort.” Candidates have largely been unqualified up to this point due to several factors, but largely [there is] a lack of experience doing the job at a campus the size of UC, said Marshall. UC also plans to expand the Title IX Office’s capabilities to investigate Title IX complaints by next year, said Marshall. This could look like growing the office or “leveraging the community” to assist the office. Marshall said she was unsure what the latter could look like. In December, UC came under investigation for a “sexually hostile environment” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights. Out of over 400 Title IX complaints, four resulted in disciplinary actions, according to documents from the university. But this is not representative of the whole picture, said Marshall. “Most cases that go to Student Conduct end in disciplinary action,” said Marshall. “Often, survivors do not pursue
that, they simply request help transferring out of that class, for example. We want to respect how people choose to move forward, we are doing what we can on our end.” Co-President of Students for Survivors Grace Cunningham thinks this is ridiculous. “If survivors are not pursuing the cases, then that should raise quite an alarm,” said Cunningham. “Survivors don’t want to go through that process because they don’t want to be re-traumatized and then have their perpetrator still get away with it because the university doesn’t care.” Most survivors do not pursue disciplinary action because they fear that the university doesn’t support them, and the process simply serves to re-traumatize them, said Cunningham. “A lot of it is out of fear. Most survivors know their assailant, and it is a bit of a scary prospect to look at down the line,” said Student Body Vice President Dana Drage. “Also, a lot of students have heard through the grapevine how the services have been at the university and are afraid to pursue it because of that too.” One of the demands for the university was to create a centralized website listing the resources available for survivors. The UC Title IX page now includes a list of confidential and non-confidential resources available to survivors, as well as a list of genderneutral bathrooms and lactation rooms for recent mothers. Marshall declined to comment on whether she thinks UC is a “sexually hostile environment.” “I will say this. Like many campuses, there are things we could improve on. We are a work in progress,” said Marshall.
Kevin Samy, a former advisor to Barack Obama, and Chris Roessner, an Iraq War veteran and soon to be producer of “Sand Castle,” spoke about political dog whistling at UC. In politics, “dog whistling” is the art of coding divisive sentiment in harmless terms. It is called this because when dog whistles are blown, dogs hear it, but people don’t. Dog whistling is used to allow “non-divisive terms to motivate us around divisive ideas.” The goal behind dog whistling is to “widen the gap between culture and politics…the reality being that often time this is done with racist appeals” and it is important to note that “Both parties use dog whistling as a way to maneuver underneath policies,” said Samy. Samy and Roessner showed a famous Coke advertisement from the 1970s, depicting a community united regardless of race, sex or religion. But this is widely different from the real political
climate of the time. In an infamous interview, Republican Party strategist Lee Atwater discussed using coded racial appeals instead of overt racist language. In a modern setting, this includes phrases such as “family values,”“America first” or “free speech,” said Samy. “When Milo Yiannopoulis says, ‘I am just exercising my free speech,’ most people would agree with free speech,” said Samy.
Institutionalists are interested in making sure institutions are representative of one’s ideas, while looking at the overall effectiveness of the institutions, said Roesnner. This means instead of taking your own feelings and turning them into policy, combating dog whistle politics requires looking at America as an institution, said Roesnner. Furthermore, both Samy and Roessner stress the
We have to remind ourselves that disputes can exist and can be awkward, but they are essential for democracy KEVIN SAMY
“This is used to pull reasonable people further and further into the rightwing tent.” Part of combating dog whistling is not falling prey to ideological thinking, said the two. Ideologues are interested in identity alone and are mostly driven by feelings and shared experiences.
importance of the need to have a dissent with purpose, not just for dissent’s sake. “We have to remind ourselves that disputes can exist and can be awkward, but they are essential for democracy,” said Samy. However, the approach should be based on operating with the
broader institution in mind. “Institutions don’t give a damn about people’s feelings, they want movements which drive policy change,” said Roesnner. Overall, both speakers emphasize that in order to successfully execute the dog whistle project, we must be institutionalists rather than ideologues. The first thing that students can do to recognize and combat dog whistling is to “lean into what people say, translating that into what it means,” said Roesnner. “In the most basic sense, calling out bulls---t, just being clear, checking partisanship at the door and getting to the issues.” Aditya Roy-Chaudhury, president of the UC Democrats, stressed the importance of education. “Just get people educated, get the conversation started, more and more people want to be involved. The best way that we can keep this momentum going is by constantly having events, having programs that get people educated.”
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