A Few Notes for the Bloggers at Ms. Magazine

A few days ago, on the 38th anniversary of Title IX, the blog over at Ms. Magazine ran a piece on the critics of the law. Our friends at the Independent Women’s Forum were mentioned, as was the College Sports Council. Here’s the critical excerpt:

But IWF, like other Title IX naysayers, insists that men’s sports have consistently and seriously declined in participants and number of sports in the Title IX era, citing a 2007 study conducted by the College Sports Council (CSC). The CSC, a small nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., is hardly a disinterested observer, however. It’s headed by Leo Kocher, the men’s wrestling coach at the University of Chicago, and since its inception has fought against the proportionality requirement (i.e. if a university’s student body is 50 percent women, 50 percent of its athletes should be women).

To clarify, while Leo Kocher serves as the President of the CSC and is a critical member of our organization’s board, we need to remember that Eric Pearson is our Chairman. As we mentioned a few days ago, Pearson, the former wrestling coach at Princeton, was inspired to start the CSC after his alma mater announced it was going to eliminate the wrestling program to help the school better comply with Title IX.

Over and above that, I’m more than a little puzzled that Ms. seems to think that Leo, or any wrestling coach for that matter, shouldn’t be considered credible because their sport is under threat from the misapplication of the law.
If you follow that thinking to its logical conclusion, I guess we shouldn’t listen to homeowners who are having their property seized to make way for a shopping mall or a superhighway because they’re not a “disinterested” party. While I’m sure that the folks at Ms. would be happier if Leo Kocher and his colleagues in the sport simply knuckled under and disappeared, you’ll excuse them if they decide to take a different course.

No Replies to "A Few Notes for the Bloggers at Ms. Magazine"