An End to the Odyssey: Equal Athletic Opportunities for Women

I. Preface Princess and maids delighted in that feast; then, putting off their veils, they ran and passed a ball to a rhythmic beat. 1 So Homer, c. 800 B.C., sings of Princess Nausikaa before she befriends Odysseus near a stream on the island of Skheria. Homer\u27s adventurer ac- cepts his royal rescuer\u27s game of her own without surprise. Three millen- nia later, many American colleges are still unsure how men and women can have as equal a chance to pass a ball against other colleges as to parse the epic of Odysseus and Penelope in their classrooms. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 2 which bans sex dis- crimination in all education programs that receive federal financial assistance, should have assured those opportunities. Almost a quarter-century later, however, its promise is still unfulfilled, 3 and major litigation to define its application to athletics has begun only recently. These delays have created an air of crisis, division, and anger on many campuses. Because most college presidents and athletic directors do not know what Title IX requires, they frequently overestimate the difficulties of compliance. In my experience, supporters of men\u27s collegiate teams are espe- cially likely to lack clear information, and to be frustrated with what they believe are overly rigid obligations. Yet a generation\u27s delay in enforcement has led women student-athletes and their coaches to view compliance with increasing urgency. We should be asking why equal opportunity has been so long in com- ing. When we ask instead ..

From fortresses to sustainable development: the changing face of environmental conservation in Africa, the case of Zambia.

Environmental conservation in many parts of Africa has for a long time been a centralized matter in which resource management was dominated by the application of the fortress conservation model which posits a sharp divide between people’s livelihoods and conservation. This highly centralised approach confined environmental decision making to bureaucratic circles and excluded local actors who live within or around conservation areas from participating in the resource governance process. In addition, environmental conservation was concentrated in areas designated as protected areas while human dominated landscapes were assumed to be of marginal ecological value. Over the past three decades, however, the rise of sustainable development as a new construct for environment and resource management has seen the emergence of new conservation strategies that challenge the dominance of the fortress conservation model. In Zambia, in contrast to the exclusionary discourse associated with fortress conservation, the embracing of policies derived from the sustainable development discourse has resulted in the adoption of new conservation strategies that emphasise local actors’ participation in resource management and extend conservation policy and practice to agricultural environments. In this regard, this thesis examines the changing nature of environmental conservation in Africa, using the case of Zambia. In particular, the research questions the way in which the new strategies are being contextualized and translated into practice at the local level. It examines the extent to which the new strategies represent the realities and interests of local actors who interact with environmental resources on a day-to-day basis. Drawing on political ecology and livelihoods’ perspectives, the research uses two local level studies from Chongwe district of Zambia to examine this shift in the direction of natural resource policy and practice. By combining insights from political ecology and livelihoods thinking, it links a critical review of conservation discourse and policy with field level studies and thus provides an enhanced understanding of processes of society-environment interactions. While the findings show a definitive shift in policy rhetoric from fortress conservation to sustainable development, the translation of sustainable development initiatives into practice is fraught with both conceptual and practical difficulties, such that the initiatives are far from representing the realities and interests of local actors

The Effects of the Economic Model of College Sport on Athlete Educational Experience

The purpose of this paper1 is to offer an overview of how the current economic model prevalent in intercollegiate sport affects the athlete experience. The author outlines the multiple problems facing intercollegiate athletic departments as they seek to finance their activities and concludes by suggesting that financial stability requires recognizing the overall financial problems of higher education which form the context for athletic financing

40: Marriage record, 1919: James M. Ogden and Marian Dunbar Davis

Marriage record, 1919: James M. Ogden and Marian Dunbar Davishttps://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/dunbar/1042/thumbnail.jp