Poetry at 3rd Place
Mountaineers vs Eagles
Grass Plates, an experimental poetry showcase, brings a new form of the art. Connor Childers created the event after an English class inspired him.
Find out what it will take for the Mountaineers to notch its first road win of the season Saturday on our game day infographic.
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TheAppalachianOnline.com
The Appalachian 09.18.14
Appalachian State University’s student news source since 1934
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD Vol. 89, No. 8
Sophomore fights to eliminate ‘sexist’ intermural sports rules Morgan Cook
Sophomore music therapy major Kate Rhudy at Espresso News + Wine Bar on Howard Street on Monday evening.
by Nicole Caporaso News Reporter
K
ate Rhudy, a sophomore music therapy student, is a member of an intramural co-ed soccer team through University Recreation, but said she is dissatisfied with the “sexist” policies that come with playing co-ed sports through the university. Rhudy, who said she has been playing soccer since she was a child, realized when she
joined an intramural team at Appalachian State University that the scoring policy for soccer is different based on whether a man or woman scores a goal. The rules, which are available on www.imsports.appstate.edu, state that a goal scored by a female is worth two points, while a goal scored by a male is worth one. An own goal or a penalty shot from a female is worth one point. While Rhudy’s initial main
focus has been soccer, she said she plans on doing extensive research on the rules for other sports and hopefully will be able to abolish all of the she finds to be sexist, not just the ones in soccer. For example, the rules for co-ed flag football, according to www.imsports.appstate. edu, state that a touchdown is normally worth six points, but when a touchdown is scored by a female or when a female throws a legal pass to any player on her team in the end zone, it is worth nine points. Rhudy said these rules were put in place during a time when female participation in co-ed intramural sports was very low, so she believes they were implemented to increase female attendance. “These rules haven’t been evaluated in 20 years and there might have been a reason to have them in the past, but they’re not relevant today,” Rhudy said. “It results in the development of a different game of soccer and it perpetuates a stereotypical gender rule.” Rhudy’s problem with the rules is that they change the game. She said that women are put on offense because of the worth of their goals, and as a result, men are on defense. “I just want the game to reflect fairness to both sexes and
be the real game of soccer,” she said. “The strategy is not teamwork, but to play based on gender.” Rhudy initially filed an informal complaint via email to University Recreation and was asked to show support of a rule change from fellow female players. She is now currently discussing with the Office of Equity, Diversity and Compliance the best way to go about achieving her goal. “The plan is to convince them that the rule, while developed with a sincere intent to increase female participation, no longer serves a strong purpose and actually results in an instance of institutionalized sexism being perpetuated within our university,” Rhudy said. “The reinforcement of gender stereotypes and the playing of a game in which strategy and teamwork is being manipulated to the point where it no longer resembles the game.” Title IX is a federal law passed in 1972 that prohibits discrimination based on sex in federally funded schools, including in its athletic programs. “Title IX guarantees us the right to challenge discriminatory policies,” Rhudy said. “It not only can be applied to sports issues, but also cases of sexual harassment and sexual
Anna Smith memorial book placed in union
Gay? Fine By Me aims to gain allies
Senior marketing major Sarah Huffman writing words of remembrance in a book at the memorial table set up in honor of Anna Smith at Plemmons Student Union on Wednesday. The book was signed by several students and will be given to Smith's parents.
The LGBT Center hosted various events titled Gay? Fine By Me on Tuesday and Wednesday with the purpose of informing the Appalachian State University community about what it means to be an ally and how to show support to fellow students who identify as LGBT. Gay? Fine By Me is an initiative started by Atticus Circle, a group that educates people who do not identify as LGBT to support their equal rights. On both days, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. there was a contact table set up in Plemmons Student Union with T-shirts on sale for $7 as well as brochures, buttons and keychains to give out. Jerry Yelton, a LGBT Center desk shift volunteer said the center does not make any profit off of the shirts and that they are merely used to spread the message. The reason for the shirts being $7 is because that is what the cost was to make them. Yelton said the LGBT Center had craft nights in order to hand-make the keychains and such that were given out as well. The center also hosted workshops, which were open to anyone regardless of his or her identification, in the Price Lake room of the union from 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Between 20 and 30 people attended the workshops Tuesday night, Yelton said. “The workshops are opportunities for people to learn gender and sexuality minorities 101 and to learn how to become a good ally,” Yelton said. “A lot of people see the Gay? Fine By Me shirt and think ‘oh cool, I’m fine with gay dudes, I’m going to buy this, I like the fact that gay guys can get married,’ but they don’t realize all the other facets of the LGBT community.” Calah Faircloth, another LGBT Center desk shift volunteer, said one of the goals of the events was to educate others on how to be the best ally they can be, whether they are in the LGBT community or not. “I really hope that people see we’re an open and welcoming campus, that’s kind of one of the big reasons this is happening,” Faircloth said. Yelton said the workshops were the LGBT Center’s way of expanding upon the T-shirts into a more meaningful and important vocality. “We’re trying to get across the importance of all identities within the LGBT spectrum,” Yelton said. “A lot of people don’t realize that there are so many people that are a part of this community, and we also want to get across the message that allies are very welcome in the center and are a part of this community.”
Morgan Cook
Students among thousands at climate march by Taelor Candiloro Intern News Reporter
Thousands of people will converge on Central Park West in New York City between 65th Street and 86th Street at 11:30 a.m. Sunday as they begin the People’s Climate March through the city’s streets. The People’s Climate March is an event responding to the expected 2014 United Nations Summit on Sept. 23, which will take place in the city and discuss the global climate crisis. Two buses of students from the Boone area will embark Saturday on a two-day trip to participate in this lobbying alongside people from hundreds of different countries. The two buses scheduled to depart are expected to hold roughly 100 students, approximately 10 from Caldwell Community College and 90 from Appalachian State University. The cost per student is $50. Harvard Ayers, professor emeritus of anthropology, said the group has succeeded in offsetting the students’ costs by raising funding from the People’s Climate March, the Sierra Club, the Blumenthal Foundation in Charlotte and individual donors. Ayers said he visited multiple classrooms around campus to recruit students for the trip. As the senior editor of multiple books regarding air pollution and fossil fuel development, Ayers explained that global climate change has become a prominent issue to him personally. “As a social and a physical/biological scientist, I have become a staunch
violence – both males and females are protected under it.” Rhudy said she has received an “overwhelming” amount of support from fellow students. Future possibilities to show fellow student support includes a survey or a petition, she said. Sunni Ryan, Rhudy’s teammate, said she supports Rhudy in her initiative to change the rules. “Women do not need an incentive to play, we are athletically capable beings with an honest desire to compete alongside our male peers in an environment of equality,” Ryan said. “I personally do not want to be rewarded because I am perceived as weaker and less likely to score a goal, I want to play the game I love the way it was meant to be played.” Rhudy said her game plan is to research the rules in other intramural co-ed sports at the university, to research the rules at other universities, and then to offer solutions to University Recreation, with the aid of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Compliance. “Gender does not dictate skill, therefore, it is not a valid enough reason to change the way the game is played,” Ryan said. “Using girls strategically, by placing them in forward positions, for example, warps the sport and, honestly, makes me less eager to participate.”
part of the strong consensus of about 98 percent of the physical and biological scientific communities that now accepts climate change as settled science,” Ayers said. Ayers said he is currently co-authoring a book with bus captain and fellow NYC trip-organizer Dave Harman. The book, titled “Train Wreck Earth,” is expected to cover the impending effects of climate alteration if humanity does not take charge of their impact on the environment. “Those 98 percent of scientists, including me, believe that climate change, if allowed to progress — witness much worse storms, floods, drought and resultant wildfires — will destroy the Earth and the life on it over a fairly short period of time,” Ayers said. Katelynn Mudgett, a sustainable development major at Appalachian planning to attend the march, said she is excited that the trip accommodated her as a student, acknowledging that she would return to campus just before her classes would resume. “With all that taken care of, I could just be excited and ready to show my passion for sustainability and justice as an SD major,” Mudgett said. Michael Aguero, a junior sustainable development major attending the trip, said the event holds weight, not only in the grand scheme, but to the United States and students everywhere. “With the UN involvement, it happening here on our soil; that’s a big thing,” Aguero said. According to www.peoplesclimate.
org, the march is expected to include over 1,400 partnering organizations in addition to the thousands of people gathering from across the globe. The peaceful march will likely become the largest climate event to occur globally. Aguero said it is not only important due to size and location, but because it is an attempt at awareness and attention to a practical issue. “It’s more unified because we’re not thinking about peoples’ money, – though that is important – we’re thinking about our children’s future, the Earth’s future and how we can make it right again,” he said. While building community worldwide, Ayers expects the trip will inspire a global and local perspective in the students choosing to attend. “These students will soon be joining the Town of Boone and Carbon Free Boone, a local non-profit, in working to make Boone and Appalachian a model of solar energy application and conservation of building energy,” Ayers said. The students will be working as interns, volunteers and advocates for urging Appalachian’s administrators to dedicate themselves to using solar panels, Ayers said. “By installing solar and helping residents and others make their homes and businesses more energy efficient, our project will significantly reduce the area’s need for so much electricity from dirty fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — all of which are major contributors to destructive climate change,” Ayers said.
by Nicole Caporaso News Reporter