Brown University Reinstates Men's Cross Country And Track And Field Teams

another casual observer wrote:

I'm going to by cynical here and posit this question:

If the recent events surrounding the death of George Floyd which led to protests across the globe had not occurred - would Brown University still have made this decision?

Brown ONLY made this decision as a result of the George Floyd protests. The optics of cutting a diverse team, in this current climate, left them open to racism accusations.

I'm happy for Brown but the AD makes it clear that they will receive no support. They are going to continue their reign at the bottom of the league.

That is good news. Basically a bs reason for cutting the program is followed by another bs reason for reinstating it.

First it is cut to improve “excellence”. Then they fall back to the favorite scapegoat title IX. Now it is reinstated for minority and diversity reasons. I wonder if some alumnus didn’t step in with financial reasons to keep the program. Something Brown would never admit.

edumacation rulez wrote:

Jonathan Gault wrote:

This is great news. Great job by all the alums and supporters of the program (notably Russell Dinkins) who spoke up and rallied together to save the program. A big win for track & field today -- and hopefully a template to follow for other programs who may be facing the same issue at their school.

God you are freaking clueless. Absolutely clueless. You are a bad person. Do you realize people are dying, unemployed, in food lines, etc. African Americans are targeted by police. But all you can whine about is some privilege track athletes an ivy league school.

You have a platform, but use it to do the bidding of sexist white nationalists. You are disgrace to journalism. You have ZERO real world experience and you live in a bubble.

So get off LetsRun and go march for change.

This is an anonymous running forum. What real world experience are you looking for, an Olympic gold medalist? Gault does a fine job. Why aren't you out saving the world from Carona Virus and looters instead of spending time here?

LRC, Land of the Silver Spooner, Home of the Entitled.

I don't know why my previous post was deleted, but I just want to chime in again to say that it is a gay day for the world of running, and I expect that Rojo is especially gay over this, as the original decision seemed to have him quite upset.

Why bring back men’s XC? Track makes sense to keep diversity up but you can cut 15 white guys out of the pool right there and distribute the numbers to other men’s sports. ??‍♂️

hgjvkvbbbhhhbb wrote:

God. The whiners got their way. Man I feel sorry for this generation. Tonedeaf and selfish

Actually the current generation is paying for the excesses and screw ups of the previous generations.

whyXC? wrote:

Why bring back men’s XC? Track makes sense to keep diversity up but you can cut 15 white guys out of the pool right there and distribute the numbers to other men’s sports. ??‍♂️

I've got 2 reasons.

Even if all brown cares about is a diverse team, your distance and middle distance will suck without xc. If you're going to have a team, you probably don't want to embarrass yourself at Heps. Brown's sprint and field coaches aren't good enough to not make a mockery of themselves without running points and they weren't saving enough to hire better coaches.

The other reason is of course alumni donations Xc is cheap to fund, but they probably lose a whole lot of alumni donations from former runners without it and won't get those donations back with just track. Even a jumper may not want to give much knowing brown was committed to being bottom of the Ivy with no distance points.

Before someone jumps on me and says Brown distance scores no points or low points, ask yourself is that likely to always be the case - they aren't the university of miami in florida.

Besides any social justice type considerations, canceling the programs when they did, was a ridiculous.

Transfer windows had closed and deposits were non-refundable.

The decision was very poorly thought out in these regards alone.

"There will be substantial roster cuts to men's sports" -- meanwhile they have 94 guys on their (bad) football team. How many do you think get cut from football?

edumacation rulez wrote:

Jonathan Gault wrote:

This is great news. Great job by all the alums and supporters of the program (notably Russell Dinkins) who spoke up and rallied together to save the program. A big win for track & field today -- and hopefully a template to follow for other programs who may be facing the same issue at their school.

God you are freaking clueless. Absolutely clueless. You are a bad person. Do you realize people are dying, unemployed, in food lines, etc. African Americans are targeted by police. But all you can whine about is some privilege track athletes an ivy league school.

You have a platform, but use it to do the bidding of sexist white nationalists. You are disgrace to journalism. You have ZERO real world experience and you live in a bubble.

This is even more pointed than I usually am on this website. I know it rattled up some emotional responses in defense of LRC but the point is still a good one. This website wouldn't even talk about George Floyd & mishandled more than a few threads on the topic but then took up this crusade, acting like they care about diversity.

Now it's like they want to pat themselves on the backs like they did some real good when there are so many other issues going on in the world that they could better use their platform to contribute to in a positive way.

I'm happy for the Brown teams. I think this website can also look back at the events of the last two weeks and find ways to do better.

I also agree that, without the George Floyd protests happening, this decision would not have been reversed. It's kind of incredible to think that this website had more of an effect than a mass movement trying to address systemic racism. Take less credit moving forward & find ways to elevate voices that aren't yours.

Great, now y’all can stop whining about the IVY LEAGUE. No one cares

krispy kremlin._._._._ wrote:

zxcvzcxv wrote:

Not remarkable, given the time and the nature of the modern university president, that the only arguments that they found compelling in restoring the programs were that black student-athletes would be harmed and that women's student-athletes (women's track) would be harmed. They would indeed be harmed and that was part of the reason that this was bad. But it was also bad that the remaining male student-athletes were going to lose their program, yet the university cared not one whit about them.

I was thinking the same thing.

The take away: societal forces can harm white males and you can expect few will be upset enough to affect change.

We are in dark days.

Agree. Horrible rationale and incredibly sexist and racist of them.

zxcvzcxv wrote:

Not remarkable, given the time and the nature of the modern university president, that the only arguments that they found compelling in restoring the programs were that black student-athletes would be harmed and that women's student-athletes (women's track) would be harmed. They would indeed be harmed and that was part of the reason that this was bad. But it was also bad that the remaining male student-athletes were going to lose their program, yet the university cared not one whit about them.

Newsflash.....the team is full of white males. This decision helped them as well.

sad state wrote:

That is good news. Basically a bs reason for cutting the program is followed by another bs reason for reinstating it.

First it is cut to improve “excellence”. Then they fall back to the favorite scapegoat title IX. Now it is reinstated for minority and diversity reasons. I wonder if some alumnus didn’t step in with financial reasons to keep the program. Something Brown would never admit.

Dr. Paxson said the school’s main reason for eliminating the men’s track, field and cross-country programs was to remain compliant with a 1998 settlement agreement related to a Title IX lawsuit. Cutting positions for male student-athletes would have allowed Brown to maintain a balance in opportunities for male and female athletes. That wasn’t the reason the other teams, including men’s and women’s squash, fencing and golf, and women’s skiing and equestrian, were shifted to club programs.

Absolutely, the decision helped everybody. I simply think that university presidents have had the spectrum of decisive possible reasons narrowed down to finance, politics, reputation, race, and gender. Among state universities in Republican states, for instance, they are essentially run by trustees appointed by the governor and all decisions are run for this reason through the governor's political biases. Seeking higher funds for their projects means that money is a huge consideration for them over academic quality and equity. Reputation ties in closely to ratings and accounts for the importance of considerations of race and gender, as do Title IX programs. Unfortunately, they go only so far as prevents protests, only paying lip service to them, but often enacting policies that limit persons of color and women from tenure and reduce the # of the former in the student body, because they are looking for wealthier, paying students and higher SAT scores for the rankings and also the graduation rates that figure into state funding calculations. I happen to think that universities should be considering a lot more reasons, especially those tied to the essential purposes of a university, research and teaching.

The team (and other men's track teams in other schools) were cut at the first possible opportunity because track, more than any other sport, or indeed anything else period, states unequivocally that men and women have biological differences.

The left (I'm left, btw) has been gunning for track for some time, the notion being, still, that differences in performance are socially ascribed. Hence the standard order of battle - invade the space (on or offline), dominate the space, steer the narrative and reality will bend to suit the narrative.

We've seen this played out by rote over the past six months or so. Letsrun, among others was identified as an online space, and elite track teams the offline. Seize the narrative, break down the power structures and the lived experience will bend to suit the change in power.

Be in no doubt how important power is to a certain political philosophy. Reality itself exists only as a reflection of power. And be in no doubt how troublesome gender differentiation in sport is to this ideology.

Whatta comeback: Brown is the new Black!