NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY RETAINS ITS VARSITY STATUS!!! ================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Mon Mar 11 10:56:10 1996 From: Richard Hungerford Subject: ECAC Women: NU to stay varsity! (fwd) I talked with Northeastern's head coach Heather Linstad at the ECAC Women's final on Sunday, and the excellent news is that the Northeastern Women's program will remain a varsity sport! Evidently there was a lot of hard work done by many people at Northeastern to keep the fine tradition the Huskies have established. I wanted to thank everyone who sent in letters to the NU Athletic Department. It did help. Merci beau coup! _____________ / good shooting hungerf _____________/ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ THE REMAINING ARTICLES IN THIS FILE WERE FROM WHEN NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY WAS FIGHTING TO KEEP ITS VARSITY STATUS... ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 15:40:04 -0400 From: Richard Hungerford Subject: ECAC Women: Northeastern becoming club team What can I say? This season Northeastern's Women's team will have athletic scholarships for the first time in many years. Starting next year they are being demoted to a club sport. Evidently the brass at Northeastern believe "that in order to better fulfill gender equity" they are downsizing a number of sports and making a few others, like Women's soccer a varsity sport. I don't get it! Northeastern has been one of the powers in ice hockey for years. The Big Three of NU, UNH and PC have dominated the sport until recent years when they lost their scholarships. With scholarships coming back at UNH and NU, I was afraid the Big Three would again take over. Well you can say what you want about the courts coming up with odd plans, but this plan by the Northeastern Administration seems even odder to me. It means the ECAC League will have an opening next year. NU won't qualify for the ECAC Alliance either! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 20:13:58 -0400 From: Richard Hungerford (hungerf@husc.harvard.edu) To: Multiple recipients of list INFO-HOCKEY-L Subject: ECAC Women: Help NU stay varsity I've been able to talk with some people at Northeastern about their pending demotion to a club level team and they seem very positive that they may be able to keep NU at the varsity level. The problem Northeastern is facing is one of gender equity. The feeling is that the women's ice hockey team, particularly with a newly renovated Matthews Arena, is a big plus for the school, and should be kept a varsity level sport. I would like to encourage anybody who cares for the good of women's ice hockey, and especially NU alumni and other alums from schools with women's ice hockey, to write one or both of the people listed below with comments emphasizing the positive force Northeastern Women have been in ECAC hockey and women's hockey in general: Heather Linstad Barry Gallup Women's Ice Hockey Coach Athletic Director Matthews Arena Annex 219 Cabot Gym 238 St. Botolph St. 200 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115 Boston, MA 02115 If you prefer, you can email your letter to me: hungerf@husc.harvard.edu and I will print out and mail your comments to the above people. With the Nagano 1998 Olympics drawing near, now is the time we need to help a still developing sport. The women's game has yet to reach the critical mass of teams it needs to become an accepted sport in the US. Your support is appreciated. _____________ / good shooting hungerf _____________/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Oct 1995 01:08:29 -0400 From: "Andria L. Hunter" Subject: Re: ECAC Women: Help NU stay varsity This really comes as a shock when you consider the progress that women's hockey has made over the last decade. It seems like such a step back. Northeastern has produced a number of quality players over the last few years and has always had very competitive teams. I remember them being our biggest rival when I played for the University of New Hampshire. Some of the players that I can think of who came out of the NU hockey program that went on to play for the US or Canadian National team are: Tina Cardinale - Team USA 1990/92 Jeannine Sobek - Team USA 1990/92/94 Shelley Looney - Team USA 1992/94 Kelly Dyer - Team USA 1992/94 Vicky Sunohara - Team Canada 1990 Laura Schuler - Team Canada 1990/92 There may have been others that I'm missing as well. There are also numerous players who may not have made the National Team, but developed into very good players as a result of having had the opportunity to play at Northeastern University. The majority of players that go on to play for the women's US national team take the US college hockey route, so when you consider that women's hockey has just become an Olympic sport (1998 will be the first time), this really seems unfortunate. I sure hope that things will be resolved. Andria Hunter ============================================================================== | ... She shoots! ...... She scoooooores!!! | | _ __ | | ~o ~o ~o ~o | ~o __|\ )_ | | \____/|) <|> (|\_____/ \/Y\/| `#(|\0__/ /| \__) | | /> /> \ /> . /\ ('\\---' | .| | | | z z . z z \_. z z z z \_\_\ | | | | ` ` |_/ | | TEAM CANADA - WOMEN'S WORLD ICE HOCKEY CHAMPIONS - 1990, 1992, 1994 | ============================================================================== | For women's hockey info via the world wide web: | | http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~andria | ============================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Oct 1995 01:49:22 -0100 From: Mike Machnik Subject: Re: ECAC Women: Northeastern becoming club team At 3:40 PM 10/6/95, Richard Hungerford wrote: >What can I say? This season Northeastern's Women's team will have >athletic scholarships for the first time in many years. Starting next >year they are being demoted to a club sport. Evidently the brass at >Northeastern believe "that in order to better fulfill gender equity" they >are downsizing a number of sports and making a few others, like Women's >soccer a varsity sport. > >I don't get it! Northeastern has been one of the powers in ice hockey >for years. I was very sorry to hear about this. Northeastern has a rich tradition in women's hockey and it would be a shame for them to downsize the sport. I remember the great teams they had when I was there in the late 80s - many players have gone on to play for the US and Canadian national teams. The success and stature of the NU program over the years has played a key role in helping women's hockey grow worldwide. The conflict over women's hockey at NU dates back at least 4-5 years or so, as I remember a poll taken by the athletic department of what sports women on campus were interested in playing. Hockey came in something like 19th out of 20, behind many sports that were not offered, and it caused many to question the amount of money that was going into the sport - mainly the scholarships. People were upset over the fact that not only did the women's hockey team give scholarships, but they tended to give them to Canadians more than Americans. There was also pressure from outside the Big Three (NU, UNH, PC) to stop offering scholarships as most women's programs did/do not offer them. The result was that as Richard has said, the Big Three gave up their scholarships and then NU head coach Don MacLeod resigned. Fortunately NU women's hockey survived that situation, but this would be an even bigger blow. On the one hand, each of us who wants to see all forms of hockey thrive should support the NU program in its drive to remain varsity. On the other hand, it is difficult to argue against taking the money and using it to fund something like four additional women's sports - given gender equity and the amount of increased opportunities that would result. It is a difficult situation. But this is a hockey list, and I have to think most of us here want to see the NU program survive. I hope some sort of compromise can be worked out. I fear that other schools may follow suit and either downsize the sport to give the money to others, or else back off from elevating women's hockey to varsity. The sport is just beginning to gain a foothold, but this could severely hurt it - as Richard says, just at the time that women's hockey is about to enjoy its first-ever status as an Olympic gold medal sport in 1998. NU certainly has a better chance of sending women players to the Olympics than the men do, especially now that the NHL will be competing. I can't imagine that the school would not want the immense publicity that would come from having its student-athletes win medals in front of the entire world. I hope that those who are interested will contact Richard (hungerf@husc.harvard.edu) or send letters to the addresses he gave in his post to INFO-HOCKEY-L. I also hope that NU women's coach Heather Linstad can gain the assistance of men's coach Ben Smith, who has gained a lot of respect in and out of hockey circles and who has much international coaching experience including a stint as Team USA women's coach this summer. It certainly can't hurt. Just as Northeastern has finished expanding the ice surface at Matthews Arena from 187x87.5 to 200x90, it seems only right that the school should be able to ice top-notch men's and women's programs. It would be sad if this were not the case. A side note: I just remembered the Title IX case involving Colgate which was sued by women players for not providing the same opportunities they provided to men players (Colgate women were club). I believe the women won, although I'm not certain how the suit wound up in the end (I think there were appeals and possibly a settlement). If NU does lower women's hockey to club, would/could they be sued by women players a la Colgate and would the women have a case? --- --- Mike Machnik machnik@tiac.net *HMM* 11/13/93 >> Co-owner of the College Hockey Lists at University of Maine System << ***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page under construction at: ***** ***** http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html ***** HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to INFO-HOCKEY-L@MAINE.MAINE.EDU, The College Hockey Information List. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 17:03:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Joan M King (joaking@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu) To: women-in-hockey@plaidworks.com Subject: Northeastern Women's Hockey This is advice from a woman (Julie Ashmun) who devotes all of the time she does not spend at Wang to ensuring that as many woman can play ice hockey as wants to and at the level they want to. This is concerning the possibility of Northeastern losing varsity status. These are suggestions as to who to write to and what to include. All other schools will find this handy too. > From: "Julia Ashmun" (JULIA.ASHMUN@OFFICE.WANG.COM) > > letters to NU should also be addressed to: > Board of Trustees > John A. Curry, President of NU > Barry Gallup, Athletic Director NU > > In their letters references should be made to: > - ex-NU players that have played on the US National Team > - ex/NU players that are playing on the US National Team > (Kelly Dyer (recent NU Hall of Fame), Shelley Looney, > Jeanine Sobek) > - 1994 NCAA "Achieving Gender Equity" manual with emphasis on > Part II, Title IX Basics > - Title IX Policy Interpetation, part VII(C)(4) > - NU's legal councel opinion of NU's compliance with Title IX > which should include: scholarships, equipment & supplies, scheduling > of practices & games, travel & per diem expenses, coaching, locker > rooms & facilities, training facilities & staff, publicity, support > services, recruitment, etc. > - 32 private schools with varsity (and jr varsity) teams in New Eng. > - xx number of colleges with hockey programs > - NU is 5th ranked (?) > - NU was one of the first teams to go varisity and has been an > example to other schools > - mention to the Colgate and Brown Title IX lawsuit. > - also women's hockey is expanding at 40% year according to USA Hockey > > And cc this to: > Office of Civil Right, Thomas Hibino > Exec Committee- American Women's Ice HOckey Coaches Assoc. > Debra Brake, National Women's Law Center > Donna Lopiano, Women's Sports Foundation > Janet Justus, NCAA, Dir. of Education Resources > Diana Evertt, Natl. Assoc. of Girls and Women's Sports > Editorial/Opinion Page of the "Boston Globe" ------------------------------