SMU’s athletic department grew by a few hands when equestrian was added to the list of varsity sports last week. Women’s equestrian will be available in the fall.
The addition of equestrian at SMU is only part of the struggle, as the athletic administration looks for ways to achieve gender equity. The idea is to give all athletes, regardless of sex, a fair chance to compete.
“Opportunity is opportunity whether it looks like a football player or a rower,” Barb Totzke, athletic director for academics and senior women’s administrator said.
Congress enacted Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 in an attempt to end gender discrimination in the nation’s education and athletic programs.
One way for a university to achieve Title IX compliance is to show a participation ratio in athletics that mirrors the male to female ratio of students.
According to the Higher Education Act Reporting, SMU had 2,466 male undergraduates and 3,005 female undergraduates enrolled in 2001-2002. That works out to a ratio of 45.1 percent male and 54.9 percent female.
In the same time period, a total of 441 participants were represented in SMU athletics. The male athletes represented 60.1 percent of the total, the women 39.9 percent. Administrators hope the addition of equestrian will increase the percentage of female participants, and thus help SMU achieve compliance with the law.
The Gender Equity Task Force’s study of the disparities in women’s and men’s athletic opportunities found that adding a sport would help the university meet NCAA requirements regarding the issue.
Equestrian would be an important addition for SMU in the fight for gender equity in athletics. According to USA Equestrian, the sport’s squad sizes could rival football, which had 92 athletes on the 2001-2002 roster.
“This announcement marks another step in our commitment to enhancing our athletic department and increasing opportunities for our student body,” athletic director Jim Copeland said. “With the successes of our most recent varsity sport additions [women’s volleyball and rowing], we are very encouraged that this program will succeed on the national level as well.”
Critics argue that colleges are adding sports such as rowing and equestrian not because there is a demand from women, but simply to satisfy Title IX. SMU administrators, coaches and athletes strongly disagree with this notion.
“Rowing is one of the things that drew me to SMU,” sophomore Lauren Bradley said. “No one really understands what we go through, the heart and dedication that we all put into it.”
Although rowing was initially added to meet Title IX requirements, it has come to mean more than that. Doug Wright, in his third year as head coach of the SMU rowing team, said that his athletes are just as important as any other.
“It is amazing the leaders that we are creating as a result of women getting a chance to participate in athletics,” Wright said.
Jenny Passow will lead SMU’s hopeful march to prominence as the university’s first-ever equestrian coach. Passow, the current assistant dean of student life and judicial affairs coordinator, is a former Southwest Regional Three-Day Event champion. Passow is excited about the athletics addition and the interest that has materialized.
“Since word of a possible equestrian team leaked out a few months ago, I’ve had dozens of current and prospective students come by my office to ask how they can join the team,” Passow said. “The program is already generating a lot of excitement on campus.”
Equestrian is the third women’s sport to be added to SMU’s athletics repertoire since 1996. Rowing was added in 1999, and the Mustangs’ very competitive volleyball program was started in 1996.
Some schools have tried to achieve compliance with Title IX by cutting men’s teams. Totzke said that SMU has not done this and doesn’t intend to do so.
“If institutions are cutting men’s programs in the name of Title IX, they are flying in the face of the law,” she said.
University officials said the numbers show that much work remains to be done to provide female athletes with the same opportunities as their male counterparts.
“This is a real problem, a real issue,” Totzke said. “There is no way to get around it.”
Nevertheless, SMU hopes to compete at the highest level. The university has produced Olympic-caliber athletes in swimming and diving, track and field and cross country. The equestrian team hopes to do the same.
“I’m thrilled to have this opportunity,” Passow said. “It’s a realization of a dream and a true chance of a lifetime. I plan to take this team as far as we can go. If our other programs can send athletes to the Olympics, there’s no reason we can’t have riders competing on the world stage as well.”
