City College has 18 athletic teams, ranging from men’s wrestling to women’s golf. Still, there’s one exception to the list.
There’s no male soccer team at City College.
Women’s soccer head coach Jang-Ha Oh laughs when recalling the times students have asked him why City College does not have a men’s soccer team.
“Over and over, the same again,” says Oh, a strong advocate for adding men’s soccer. “Why do we not have a men’s team?”
The laughter ends when he explains: “This is a gender issue, a Title IX issue.”
The federal law Title IX was enacted in 1972 to end gender inequality, which existed against women, in education and other related activities that were federally funded. The institutions, mostly public colleges and universities, were required to provide athletic participation opportunities proportional to student enrollment numbers based on gender, demonstrate continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented gender, and provide full and effective accommodation of the interest and ability of the underrepresented sex.
In other words, Title IX was meant to help fund and form women’s sports teams when primarily men’s sports teams existed and the culture was resistant to the idea that women were competitive athletes.
But more than 35 years later, achieving equality among women’s and men’s teams may not be possible.
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“It’s [athletics], a very large program,” says City College Athletics Dean Mitch Campbell, “with a great many participating.”
For the past five years, female enrollment at City College has held steady at approximately 60 percent, with male enrollment approximately 40 percent. Ten of the 18 athletic teams are women’s sports. As such, it would seem then that women are overrepresented, but according to Campbell, the ratio of male to female athletes is nearly 2-to-1.
A major sport like football, with nearly 90 participants, outnumbers nearly four women’s programs. This disparity in the number of participants raises concerns. According to Campbell, colleges could comply simply by eliminating sports programs. This would also eliminate opportunities for students.
Title IX still sparks debate till this day. Supporters argue it provides more opportunities for women in athletics, while protesters cite that it contributes to the elimination of men’s sports teams.
For now, Oh’s soccer classes are the closest thing City College has to a men’s team. Both Oh and his students believe there is space for the world’s most popular sport at City College.
Polo Adamo, a kinesiology major, says soccer has many avid participants and fans.
“So many people like soccer here, [and] I think we could definitely compete,” Adamo says.
Only time will tell if the wish of intercollegiate soccer team will come true.
