Illustration by GRACE HUANG/Daily Bruin
By Sara-Mai Conway and Guillermo
Lemus
Since three-time Olympian Chris Ernst and her teammates stripped
naked in front of the Yale athletic department with the words
“Title IX” drawn in marker across their exploited
bodies, women’s crew has become one of the fastest growing
intercollegiate sports in America. Ernst’s stunt, protesting
a lack of women’s showers at the boathouse, took place 25
years ago.
Nationwide, change in women’s athletics is still slowly
progressing, but progressing nonetheless. Title IX was first
enacted in 1972, and in 2001 we are still using it to push for
equality in funding for women’s sports.
At UCLA, women’s crew was dropped from the athletic roster
in 1991, at the height of its championship season. As one of the
last sports to be added, it was the first to go when the athletic
department foresaw a debt in its future. Since then, it has
struggled.
The team quickly dropped from the top of the Pac-10 to the
bottom. Numbers fell when athletes started paying to play and
classes and exams began conflicting with practices and racing
schedules. Equipment quickly became old, outdated and, worst of
all, slow. Neither travel nor transportation to the boathouse could
be financed. Coaches came and went from year to year, as
frustration mounted in response to the team’s inability to
pay them. Great athletes looking to row in college no longer had
UCLA at the top of their list. Even alumni support for the team
declined, in protest against the actions of the athletic
department.
Money matters. When racing a 13-year-old boat against a $35,000
piece of new equipment, it doesn’t matter who the athletes
are. It’s unfair competition. Athletic status matters. Not
being able to send injured rowers to athletic trainers means they
wait in line at the Ashe Center for someone to tell them to take
six weeks off with no exercise for a pulled muscle. This is what we
and every other club sport have endured, yet the crew
“club” competes against other, fully-funded, Pac-10
schools.
In 1993, the National Organization for Women filed its lawsuit
against the 19-campus California State University system, due in
part to a study citing a decline in women athletes over a 13-year
period. Did cutting the crew team in 1991 contribute to this
decline? Of course.
It was not until 1996 that UCLA responded by conducting its own
study on women participating in club and intramural sports, as well
as the opportunities for regional and national competition that
existed in those sports. And it wasn’t until 2001 that the
department supported its conclusion with action by adding another
women’s sport.
Could this have happened sooner? Certainly. Are we excited that
this is happening now? Well …
These are confusing times. While nobody doubts that an induction
into the athletic department is the best thing for everyone in the
long run ““ the only way to once again produce championship
teams ““ we are also all a little anxious. Rowers have been
told that they might not hold a spot on next year’s team. The
same goes for coaches, too.
Athletes that were once confident in their abilities, and
rightly so, are now beginning to question if new recruits will take
their spots. As coaches always looking toward the future, we are
frustrated that we may be handing over a team of the fastest 30
rowers we’ve had in over six years to a newcomer who
hasn’t put in the countless hours of volunteer time to get
them to this level.
We know our efforts will pay off. We know we have built a
winning team. But will we be the ones recognized for it next
year?
Years of sweat put into fund-raising has finally paid off this
past season with the first purchase in over 10 years of two new
boats and a new set of oars. What will the fate of this equipment
be? Then there are those with whom we share the boathouse. Perhaps
a varsity team at the aquatic center would mean that other
recreational programs, such as kayaking or sailing, would have to
sacrifice some of their own office or storage space. And then there
are our fellow rowers.
Certainly the men’s crew team will benefit, as the
endowment once shared by the entire club will be fully theirs, but
there have been instances at other universities where the
men’s team was negatively influenced as a result. When the
women’s team became funded at the University of Southern
California, men’s crew was kicked out of the boathouse they
once shared to make room for more women’s boats and a larger
women’s squad. Things will not become so extreme at UCLA, but
people are worried nonetheless.
Will there be space for the master’s crew team, members of
the alumni association who also row out of the UCLA boathouse? How
will this affect the Marina Aquatic Center junior crew, which
allows over 50 high school children in Los Angeles to participate
in rowing? Of course all these changes may not happen the first
year, but people are still afraid. There are many unanswered
questions, and for most we will have to just wait and see.
Yet, we are happy. We are progressing. Our rowers will be
faster, our team will be larger, we will get to travel to Nationals
and NCAA Championship Regattas. The UCLA women will finally have
the opportunity to regain the status they once had as one of the
best crew teams in the nation.
The support of the athletic department provides access to many
more opportunities. These are opportunities that should be
available to just as many women on campus as men. Equality for
funding in men’s and women’s sports is important, and
this is what Title IX is all about. Understand, this is what we
have been sacrificing for all along.
For us, the goal of every race for the past 10 years has been
not just to win, but to regain acceptance and break open the door
that shut us out in 1991.
As of next year, all but two of the Pac-10 schools will have
varsity women’s rowing programs, each supporting a fleet of
at least four eights, giving many more women a chance to
participate in competitive racing for their universities. We are
grateful to be a part of this, and we anticipate great things.