Rowing deserves varsity label

On Jan. 17, attorney Robert Newman filed a motion on behalf of the University of Cincinnati women's rowing team, seeking a temporary restraining order prohibiting UC from discontinuing the women's rowing program.

This marks the latest action taken by the women's rowing team against UC that began with a 2005 lawsuit alleging that UC violated Title IX by not providing proper equipment for the team. Late last year, UC announced that it would be making women's lacrosse a varsity sport and discontinuing the rowing team's varsity status.

Julie Idoine, a member of the women's rowing team for three years, said that the team hopes the motion will provide "an outside legal decision of UC's actions regarding switching women's rowing to women's lacrosse and the lawsuit." Ultimately, this decision would help shape the fate of women's rowing at UC.

For the sake of many athletes, I hope this motion succeeds.

UC officials have stated several reasons for their decision to cancel women's rowing as a varsity sport, the popularity of lacrosse being one of them. According to a press release sent out by UC athletics, female lacrosse has a "growth rate at the high school level of 290 percent over the last decade."

While women's rowing may not have the presence that lacrosse does in high schools, Idoine points out that there are still rowing teams that aren't associated with high schools.

In addition, rowing is a sport athletes can pick up without competing in high school, according to Idoine. It seems that UC's view of potential participants in these sports is a bit narrow. Just because high schools don't support a sport, that does not mean there aren't enough participants to fill a varsity roster. The fact that the women's rowing team has a full team now helps prove the interest in the sport to incoming students.

In addition, the roster for women's rowing could be much larger than women's lacrosse. Currently, there are 54 rowers and 25 lacrosse players. But Idoine said that the number of rowers can be much higher, "Women's rowing can have upwards of 60 to 70 women on its roster." As a result, "more women are able to participate [in rowing] at a varsity level," she said. "Varsity lacrosse simply would not sustain those types of numbers on its roster. So, while there may be more high school lacrosse players, there will be less chosen to play collegiately."

Another reason that UC states for the change is the price associated with having both teams at a varsity level. In a press release, University President Nancy Zimpher said the university is trying "to find the most appropriate mix of programs that can benefit the largest number of students all while enhancing the quality for which the UC brand has become known." However, UC is not a small school by any means, and there is obvious interest in both sports, so why can't the university support both? It seems counterintuitive for the university's image to cancel a program, especially when the program has interested members and is successful in competitions.

A major component in athletics is determination. The women's rowing team has proven its determination by relentlessly trying to keep the team competing at the varsity level. When such determination is present, it should be rewarded. It's time for UC to do just that.