Monday, May 28, 2007

Thanks, Mills College soccer team

The Mills College soccer team, after having suffered from racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs and harassment, directed their off-field energies into getting the NCAA to change the rule regarding ejection from games. Prior to the Mills College campaign the rule stated that "abusive, threatening or obscene language, behavior or conduct" was grounds for ejection. But, as we see, that language is kind of vague.
At an NCAA meeting* the soccer coach and Mills College athletic director advocated, on behalf of the team, that the language of the ejection rule be changed to read: "engages in hostile or abusive language or harassment that refers to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or national origin, or other abusive, threatening or obscene language, behavior or conduct."
And in March, the NCAA approved the change. Collegiate soccer doesn't start again until the fall so we'll have to wait to see how the rule is enforced and/or changes behavior and conduct.

* There were several other steps in the process that included appearances in front of and changes to other governing bodies. The above link details the process.

1 comment:

E Leb said...

Thanks for recognizing the efforts of all the people at Mills College who worked to pass this rule change. It is an important step towards a safer playing environment for everyone.