Title IX at UMass

Watch UMass Women and Title IX here.

Co-Educational Fraternity Breaks the Mold

By: Ashley Coulombe and Cassie Greener

While many may associate the federal law known as Title IX with collegiate athletics, it originally made no mention with regards to sports. Written in 1972, Title IX states that “no person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

The most obvious application of this applies to men’s and women’s athletics at both the high school and college level, however it also works to create equality among other organizations, such as honors fraternities.

Phi Sigma Pi became a coeducational organization in 1977, shortly after Title IX took effect. Founded in 1916 as a men’s social fraternity at State Teacher’s College in Missouri, it became national 5 years later. In 1966 Pi Sigma Pi became an honors fraternity, taking with it all of the federal funding options. Given the option to become a social Greek organization or to become co-ed, it’s members decided to let in the opposite sex.

The UMass Chapter, Beta Upsilon, was founded in 1996. It currently has more female “brothers” than male and continues to follow the three pillars set out by the national chapter: scholarship, leadership and fellowship.

“I love being part of a co-ed fraternity,” said UMass Senior Marisa Pacifico, who has been a brother since Spring of 2007, “It’s a great mix of diverse people. I don’t remember a time when I’ve ever gotten in a fight with any of them; they’re all just really cool people.”

There are 45 brothers in Beta Upsilon at the end of the fall semester. In order to rush, students must have at least a 3.0 GPA

“In my opinion, we have a really strong focus on educational requirements, making it a huge priority,” said Pacifico. Unlike social fraternities, members of Phi Sigma Pi are allowed to be members of other fraternities on campus. Pacifico is also a member of Beta Alpha Si – the accounting fraternity.

The chapter receives some funding from the national chapter, as well as some from the University because they are a Registered Student Organization (RSO). But Pacifico explained that most of their money comes from fundraising events that the group holds, such as auctions and book drives. They also hold educational and social events throughout the semester.

“It’s very different from other Greek organizations based on the fact that it’s
not solely a social fraternity,” said sophomore Mary Arventos, who just pledged this semester. “Each brother has to attend social, educational,
service and fundraising events and also be a part of a committee that organizes
the events. Part of being a member is being able to attend a variety of these
events to stay well-rounded.”

Philanthropy also remains a focus for the fraternity, specifically Teach for America. Arventos said she loves “knowing that I’m spending my time doing things that are not only funbut that may help to make even a small difference.”

Both Pacifico and Arventos pointed out that when they came to UMass, they never planned on becoming part of Greek life.

“I met a lot of the people at two of their formals my Freshman year, and I just loved them all so much. I never even thought about joining, but I just became such close friends with all of them,” explained Pacifico.

Arventos shared a similar story. “To be honest, I didn’t really care that it was co-ed. I really hadn’t seen myself joining an Greek organization ever, but I really liked what I saw and what I heard when I went to the first meeting, and I really liked the people -guys and girls. It didn’t matter that it was co-ed, just that I liked what I was doing and who I was doing it with.”

Reflections on Title IX

Watch a short video of Andrew Zimbalist speaking about Title IX here.

Reflections on Title IX at Smith College

By: Ashley Coulombe and Cass Greener

Since it was written into law under the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX has given plenty of opportunites to young college women in athletics as well as caused much controversy among those that carry out it’s message of equal opportunity. Thirty-six years later Robert A. Woods Economics Professor Andrew Zimbalist reflected on this debate in front of a room of female collegiates at Smith College.

Zimbalist, who has taught at Smith since 1974, was promoting his new book Equal Play: Title IX and Social Change at the lecture. Equal Play is his eighteenth book, and he has also published several articles – many on the topic of sports economics. Zimbalist is considered to be a leading expert in the field of economics, as he gives a biweekly commentary on the business of sports for NPR’s Marketplace.

Much of Zimbalist’s talk focused on the origins of Title IX, which means that no person will be excluded from collegiate sports and their benefits on the basis of sex, as well as how it has been dealt with by each presidential administration. During the past eight years Zimbalist noted that Title IX has been thrown to the wayside, however he remains optimistic about the possibilites under the Bush Administration.

Zimbalist also mentioned some of the controversies that arise with Title IX and how scholarships are distributed, specifically at Division 1 schools like UMass Amherst. Among the many he pointed out are that college football teams have almost double the number of players on their roster than an NFL team, and many of them have scholarships. It is this policy, Zimbalist remarked, that takes away from giving money to other athletic programs that most likely do not bring in as much revenue for schools.

Most of the programs that Zimbalist referred to were Division 1 schools like UMass. The crowd that he was speaking to, however, were students and athletes at a Division 3 college. Some of the sports teams at Smith College include basketball, swimming and diving, cross country, and squash.

Following his lecture, Zimbalist fielded questions from the audience, one of which referred to Smith Division III status. She asked, “You’ve talked a lot about the big Division 1 programs, can you talk a little bit about Division III and small liberal arts college and some financial stuff there?”

Zimbalist simply replied that, “the same waste doesn’t exist.” An all girls college, Smith doesn’t have the issue of dividing scholarships among both sexes. Schools like UMass, however, will continue to follow Title IX as law amid controversy.

Jon Stewart: reporter?

I’ve met many students in college who say that they get their news just from watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. If you’ve never seen the show, comedian Stewart anchors the program just like a regular newscast, however it focuses on making fun of the mainstream media, of politicans, and whatever else they find.

In a Bill Moyers interview from 2003 Stewart said this in response to the assertion that his show is “a new form of journalism: “Well then that either speaks to the sad state of comedy or the sad state of news. I can’t figure out which one. I think, honestly, we’re practicing a new form of desperation. Where we just are so inundated with mixed messages from the media and from politicians that we’re just trying to sort it out for ourselves.”

The question has often come up as to whether or not Stewart can be identified as a journalist as well as a comedian because of the role he plays in presenting the news to a younger generation. Here’s a video of the show from early September. Many bloggers pointed out that Stewart was taking on the journalist-role and pointing out something about Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain’s VP pick that news organizations were not. You can see it here.

The show began in 1999 and since then has won 10 Emmy awards including Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program and Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series. In 2004 the show was honored by the Television Critics Association for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information.

In my opinion, this show isn’t going to go away – it’s only going to get bigger. There was even a study ‘done by Indiana University in 2006 that concluded the Daily Show is “as substantive as network news.” As long as there are people out there who are remaining informed on national news by watching Jon Stewart, his name will remain among the “real” journalists – and there are even some occasions when they should be taking their que from him.

Understanding Government Tries to Inform Readers

Better Government through Better Reporting is the slogan for the D.C. based non-profit Understanding Government. They maintain that people lack an understanding of how the executive branch functions – that it’s “supposed to be where policy turns into action.” By making them more knowledgeable, Americans can then hold their government more accountable and become more informed about what happens in the White House.

The Web site operates financially mostly through grants and awards that it receives, as well as through donations. Their main focus is on the “action point” of governmental programs and through investigative reporting they are able to follow both chains of command as well as administration work and “the whys behind a programs successes and failures.”

Understanding Government also offers an award called the Preventative Journalism Prize, which is given to “the journalist who writes the strongest article or series bringing attention to a current social problem before it reaches the crisis stage, and describing solutions that can prevent it from becoming a major crisis.” This year the $50,000 prize was awarded to the Time‘s Michael Grunwald for his story “Why New Orleans Still Isn’t Safe.”

Charlie Peters has been President of Understanding Government since 1999. They also have launched a new project called “Government in my Backyard,” which allows visitors to “connect the dots” between federal, state, and local governments and the work that is being done across the country.

Wicked Local, Wicked Easy

Many Massachusetts residents will appreciate this Web site, if not just for the name. Wickedlocal.com makes sure users know that it’s “wicked” as in “very,” not “witch.” The hyper-local Web site is well-designed and caters to communities across MA.

Wicked Local now has online communities set up for 162 towns and cities across the state. The main site is a collaboration of the “best” stories picked up from the individual sites. Users can register to join their own town community and gain access to local news as well as information about their town.

The site not only presents the news, but offers users a way to participate in it by commenting on news stories and sharing pictures and video. The site is run by Gatehouse Media New England, whose reporters maintain blogs that Wicked Local users can also read. Each town site also has ads taken from local newspapers put online.

Wicked local is a great place for people interested in bettering their community through knowledge and communication to go and participate.

(Conservative) Accuracy in (Liberal) Media

For every news organization there are plenty of “watchdog” organizations set up to critique them. Accuracy in Media (AIM) is among these watchdogs. They state on their about page that when looking at the news media they critique “botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage.”

AIM was founded in 1969 by a group of citizens led by economist Reed Irvine – they believed they saw bias within the media. In order to get their message across and to attempt to keep the news in check, they would send letters to publications when they believed a correction was necessary. If the paper wouldn’t print the correction, AIM would take out adspace to print it. In 1972 they began printing the AIM Report – which people can still subscribe to via their Web site.

To further keep the news in check, they began buying media stocks in 1975 so that they could “keep the news in check” by sending representatives to shareholders meetings. All this and more information on their history can be found here.

While on their Web site AIM writes that it’s goal is to “encourage members of the media to report the news fairly and objectively–without resorting to bias or partisanship,” many believe that the watchdog is not a nonpartisan organization, rather that it is conservative and tends to keep tabs on news organizations that are believed to be liberal-leaning. They recently announced a plan to Boycott the NYTimes.

Through reading it’s Web site and many of its reports, it is clear that while these corrections may be necessary – they are generally one-sided. There is even an ad on their homepage to buy an anti-Obama book on Amazon. It’s time that Accuracy in Media stopped trying to put “nonpartisanship” as one of its goals and formally identify itself as conservative.

The Village Soup

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have government with newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Yet today, our newspapers are disappearing like the morning frost.” -Thomas Jefferson

Villagesoup.com features that quote on the about page of their Web site. With a motto that they are “in the business of helping neighbors grow together” through the sharing of news, ideas, and services, Village soup started online and has since moved to print – a very rare reverse of the norm.

Started in 1997 by Richard Anderson and one of his sons, Village Soup has expanded from a Camden, Maine section to eight others in the U.S. and one in Canada. Anderson left a Chicago and Boston textbook business to go to Maine and eventually start the site. More information can be read on the Media Giraffe Project’s site.

He had this to say about Village Soup, “Yes, we surely have thrown away some money that would have been nice to have. But it is highly worth it. I mean you think about the opportunity to maybe really put yourself — or put this community — on the map as being the founding place of this new industry standard whether it is the Village Soup-licensed product or five other versions of Village Soup. Or somebody’s even got a better version than we have, and a slicker way to get there, or a cheaper way to get there or something, but that we would be identified as where this concept started.”

One of the factors that has led to Village Soup’s success is its openess to use technology in order to reach its goals. According to their about page, they donate “at least five percent of pretax profit to educational, health, arts and advocacy groups and encourage individuals to volunteer their time and talents to such activities.”

Craigslist – the “newspaper killer?”

What started as an email list of San Franscisco events in 1995 has now become one of the most popular advertsing Web sites of its kind. Craigslist.org has also become known as the “newspaper killer;” according to a 2004 estimate it cost San Francisco Bay area newspapers $65 million in employment advertising revenue.

To better understand why Craigslist has been given such an egregious title amongst print publications, I will give some background information on the site. Software engineer Craig Newmark started the site in 1995 as a hobby and in 1999 it became an incorporated for-profit organization. Since late 2000 Jim Buckmaster has been the CEO and President of Craigslist.

While it began in San Francisco, Craiglist now has local classifieds and forums for more than 550 cities and in 50 countries worldwide. It recieves more than 12 billion page views a month. Revenue is earned from retaining a small fee for posting job ads. This year profits are estimated at around $80 million, a 47% increase from 2007. Aside from job and housing ads, using Craigslist is free to post goods, services, romance, local activities, etc. In March of this year Craigslist launched a blog. Ebay also owns 25% of the company, which it bought in August 2004.

In a January 2006 feature in New York Magazine, Newmark rebutted the claim that Craigslist hurts newspapers. “I’m just trying to make newsrooms stronger,” he said. “Somebody invented recently a myth that we’re hurting newspapers. I’ve done a lot of research. That appears to be an invention . . . We’re a minor factor.”

As newspapers like the Christian Science Monitor are forced online and are seeing profits fall, one can’t help but wonder if Craigslist and Web sites like it have in fact been a factor. Only time will tell, as we wait to see who’s still standing in the fight for higher ad revenue profits in a faltering economy.

Citizen Journalism Academy

As the number of opportunities for citizens to get online and transform into journalists grows, so does the chance that they will make mistakes that the professional journalist otherwise wouldn’t. Take the what happened to Apple after an anonymous poster on CNN’s iReport (falsely) wrote that Steve Jobs had a heart attack. But before we all lose faith in citizen journalism, one organization is working to change the perception through time and hard work.

The World Company, which owns the Lawrence Journal-World based out of Lawrence, Kansas, in collaboration with the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas have created a “Citizen Journalism Academy” to start teaching interested community members how to blog, interview, and equips them with the tools to become journalists in their own right.

The Academy is an annual program that began in the fall of 2006 and since has been extremely successful. Students must apply to the Academy and upon acceptance are given a syllabus. Each session consists of 5 weekly 2-hour classes that are free to those accepted.

My Friends, Let us Twitter

I just finished watching the second Presidential Debate, which I also Twittered during for class. Unfortunately, it seems like there’s a substantial lag going on in the hashtag (#umassprez2) so I haven’t seen everyone’s posts about the last section of the debate – but it’s still easy to get a general idea of what was going on in people’s minds about the two candidates.

Going in to tonight, it was clear that expectations were high for Senator McCain because of how he’s always exceled at the town meeting style. Also, with poll numbers starting to favor Obama, he really needed a game changer. To get an idea of why, check out  CNN’s interactive electoral map here.

As for general thoughts about the debate, it seems like many of those online noticed Senator McCain’s excessive use of “my friends,” as well as how he referred to Senator Obama as “that one” when talking about an energy bill. Some of the coverage I’ve been following online, including HuffPo’s live update, also picked up on how Obama has taken a much more authoritative approach to foreign policy.

In the substance areas, most of the pundits are now saying that Obama clearly won the healthcare portion of the discussion, although I didn’t get the sense that UMass students twittering picked up on that as much. Most seemed to comment on the first hour of the debate, which focused on the growing financial crisis, as well as the candidates comments about Bin Ladin and Al Queda.

I was surprised that the last question, “What don’t you know and how will you learn it” didn’t elicit more of a response from users. Although, it didn’t really seem to phase the candidates – they just gave their standard ending comments, minus a joke from Senator Obama.

Sidenote: for a while, the #umassprez2 hashtag was featured at the top of the Twitter homepage. Pretty cool.

That’s it for tonight’s debate… now for the spin!