(CU Independent/Molly Maher)
Sexual harassment and discrimination training gets reinforced at three different levels for all incoming student athletes, said CU Spokesman Bronson Hilliard.
At each of these levels, the same message is reiterated throughout, said Hilliard, passing the standard for students involved in the athletics department set by Nancy Hogshead-Makar in her Title IX report.
All freshman athletes must now complete a class called, “Life Skills,” Hilliard said. Although the class does not focus solely on sexual harassment, there is a section devoted to the topic, Hilliard said. This repeats the policy that is heard by all incoming freshmen at their required summer orientation.
Finally, the message is reinforced from training by each sport’s coach, carried out in the best way that they see fit, Hilliard said.
“Individual coaches all kind of do it in their own way, from inviting guest speakers to generating discussions among the players,” Hilliard said.
Julie Manning, the Title IX coordinator for the athletics department and associate athletic director of compliance, is also a liaison for the women’s volleyball team. Manning said that in addition to the Life Skills class, coaches must comply with CU’s sexual harassment and discrimination policy in another way.
“What we have told head coaches is that in the team handbook, their rules must also contain CU’s policy,” Manning said.
Manning said that this is done to make sure that the policy stays consistent regardless of the coaches’ methods.
Richard Rokos, the head coach of CU’s skiing team, said that although sexual harassment and discrimination training could be beneficial, skiing is a unique sport because it includes both men and women working on the same team.
“Title IX is arbitrary for us because we are exercising equality from the beginning,” Rokos said.
In addition, Rokos said sexual harassment and discrimination cases are very rare on the skiing team.
“This is the sport where everyone is doing the same thing across the line,” Rokos said. “When something like that does happen, we just deal with it in our own way.”
Tracy Chao, an assistant coach to CU’s soccer team, said that she also sees very few incidents.
“It’s not usually a typical occurrence,” Chao said. “But if it does happen, our players have enough people to talk to that it doesn’t become much of an issue.”
Max Harlow, a 21-year-old junior business major, is on the men’s club volleyball team at CU. He said that club sports are different from the official sports in the athletics department, which was why his team didn’t have to undergo the same type of training.
“I’m sure that the coaches are taught about it [sexual harassment], but they don’t have to talk about it with us,” Harlow said.
Harlow said that he thought that Title IX could almost be reverse discrimination when it comes to club sports, since the amount of money given to men’s and women’s teams must be equal.
“Club is the only option for soccer players and volleyball players just because there are not enough girls to play on the opposite side of the spectrum,” Harlow said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Ana Romano at Analisa.romano@colorado.edu.
