Update on Women's Club Hockey: FUNDED

Submitted by MightyMatt13 on December 23rd, 2022 at 9:34 PM

Thought people would like a little Friday evening good news. So many athletes, women's sports organizations, and even our Santa have tweeted in support of the raise for ice time. They reached their $20k goal yesterday and a generous donator promised an extra $5k if they can get to the full $30k needed for a full season of ice time. Well tonight another (prominent) doner just made that happen.

I'm not sure what the rules are but the optics haven't been great - not only them needing to raise, but the fact that the raise is explicitly to pay for ice time at Yost. We'll see what comes of what is now a more positive story with so much raised in such a short span of time.

https://maizeraise.umich.edu/o/university-of-michigan/i/maizeraise/s/university-of-michigan-womens-hockey-2022?fbclid=PAAabVrWjVNDlsNMRlr5raxH9c0KoYg3XbpyNklE6d5KKCTHutPRci9b__6vY

TESOE

December 24th, 2022 at 12:26 PM ^

Crew gets my vote as well, just barely over Ultimate. Crew is the traditional and the costs would be lowest - since we have the facilities, tradition and opponents in the water already.  Everything else is under water.

 

Title IX is tricky and not about money necessarily. Title IX does not require equal expenditure of funds on male and female athletes. The only dollar for dollar expenditure requirement is in the athletic financial assistance area, where schools are required to spend dollars proportional to participation rates.

We already have one addtional sport due to the Football being so intensive. I'm not sure how many womens' hockey scholarships we are talking - or the state of Yost. Honestly we could add another sheet of ice at some point anyway, I'd imagine. I haven't seen a write up on this.  Lindenwood practices in a 3 sheet facility that is home to the Blues.

Ultimate is a played by women with as much intensity as men, and would open another kettle of fish.

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 8512

HarBoSchem

December 23rd, 2022 at 11:32 PM ^

Can you explain why they would need to add a men's varsity sports team if the women's hockey team became varsity?

They've increased the women's rowing team's numbers to align with title 9. Is there such a thing as too many women competing at varsity level compared to men? Baseball is still at 11.7 scholarships for 25+ players because of title 9.

In the end, I believe the women's hockey team should be varsity and fully support them.

Joined: 02/11/2011

MGoPoints: 6131

rdonahue87

December 24th, 2022 at 3:10 PM ^

Needs to happen. We consistently come so close to the Director's Cup and there's no reason to believe we couldn't be an elite women's ice hockey program...and it's not like Stanford or Texas are going to add hockey.

If the main "drawback" is having to add a men's sport, that's a terrible excuse. The university has plenty of money and a few million dollars will support one of these less popular sports. The university could legitimately start a Gofundme and have the money in a week.

Joined: 11/26/2022

MGoPoints: 4137

kdhoffma

December 24th, 2022 at 11:18 AM ^

It has never been a title IX issue.  We don’t have a women’s program because the men’s program has always been against it.  Maybe things will change with Red retired and Mel gone… we’ll see.  It’s definitely the right time for the womens club program to push a fundraiser like this.  I’d love to see this be the start to a move to varsity status.

Joined: 07/10/2008

MGoPoints: 4983

TESOE

December 24th, 2022 at 1:36 PM ^

Title IX is an issue even if it hasn't been the issue.  Scholarships need to balance across all sports, and access to facilities needs to be equivalent - within reason (ie ice time would have to be reasonably offered to the women's varsity team instead of funded as available.) I don't know who said what when but Title IX is pretty clear, comes with mandated administration, and is focused on much more than sports equity - but also sports equity.

Title IX does not require identical athletics programs for males and females. Rather, Title IX requires that the athletics programs meet the interests and abilities of each gender. Under Title IX, one team is not compared to the same team in each sport. OCR examines the total program afforded to male student-athletes and the total program afforded to female student-athletes and whether each program meets the standards of equal treatment. Title IX does not require that each team receive exactly the same services and supplies. Rather, Title IX requires that the men and women's program receive the same level of service, facilities, supplies and etc. Variations within the men and women's program are allowed, as long as the variations are justified.

Michigan enforces this, not the NCAA or Department of Education. I don't know of legal issues. I don't think that is a thing. The school knows what is needed (which is what is being said here, I suppose.) But whatever happens, it needs to be a part of the annual Title IX accounting.

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 8512

S.G. Rice

December 23rd, 2022 at 10:10 PM ^

Head guy from a site that's on the blacklist here tweeted earlier that he'd make sure the balance was covered, I see his name on the list of donors so maybe he went ahead and did it before the end.  Good for him if so.

It would be pretty great to have a varsity team, but until that time comes we'll just have to support the club. 

Joined: 07/18/2008

MGoPoints: 23298