March 30, 1995
It appears that the inevitable has occurred and the buzzards have come home to roost, not at Hinkley, Ohio, at SF State. The demise of varsity football exposed a potentially more ominous situation. Gender equity is a quota system which has evolved from affirmative action policies. It should be glaringly obvious that this particular quota system has turned around and bit a portion of those whom affirmative action was established to help ©© minority men. Maybe now minority men will understand the argument against the quota system which, heretofore, was the purview of white men. Welcome to the party.
I find it absurd that there has to be an equal number of male and female athletes participating in SF State's athletic programs. Athletic Director Betsy Alden said: "We needed about 120 (additional) women athletes, about six (additional) teams of 20 women each, if we were going to keep football... there are not even six more sports out there." This statement doesn't even take into account the additional cost to field additional teams in order to appease NOW with its idiotic gender©equity mandate.
Perhaps the statement expressed by one of the minority football players, linebacker Anthony Smith, that many of the team's former street gang members may return to the streets and former criminal behavior because of the loss of the football program, demonstrates one of the hidden benefits of athletic participation.
Extrapolate this situation to the whole university system if NOW is allowed to succeed in its quest for gender equity. If Anthony's fears become reality, that would be the real tragedy of affirmative action in general and gender equity in particular as it applies to college athletics. This situation at SF State speaks ©© no, it screams ©© volumes as to the need for reform of this policy at the very least, or outright abolishment as was indicated by the results of a field poll earlier this month.