Cheerleading

Approximately half of the states in the unite States have got already recognized high school scoffleaders ender ennoble IX polity (Variants, 2009, p. 41). Since the popularity of free-enterprise(a) enliven is increasing, umpteen colleges and universities are looking to improve Title IX submission with the addition of warring press as a participation opportunity for its fe masculine students. These colleges and universities are faced with the dilemma t lid competitive cheer is non recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a pleasure therefore, the tec feels that competitive cheer should be an extramural first team lark.The purpose of this position paper is to provide various(prenominal) to the problems that colleges and universities face in complying with Title IX and to provide reasons why competitive cheerleaders should be an intercollegiate first team playfulness. Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, female person participation in spo rts has increased dramatically. Girls and women are no longer relegated to the sidelines, further are suiting up and Joining men on the playing fields. The legislation of Title IX prohibits trip out discrimination in educational institutions that receive Federal financial assistance.The lawfulness states No person in the United States, hall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under whatsoever educational program or activity receiving federal official official financial assistance (Carpenter and Costa, 2005, p. 3). Title IX was enacted to atomic pile with all aspects of education, including admissions, recruitment, course offerings, financial assistance, housing, counseling, physical education, employment, restitution benefits, student health, and martial and parental status of students.During the original conception of the amendment there was no obvious accumulation that sports programs and acrob atic activities at the interscholastic and intercollegiate levels were covered under the regulations of Title X. Therefore, a great betray of perplexity generated on how to handle gymnastic sports under the Title IX Amendment. As a result, in 1974, the Cavity Amendment became a component of Title IX which acknowledges that all athletic activities and sports would be included in the legislation.In the 1996 Clarification, the segment of Education provided educational institutions and programs with an extensive range f specific factors and descriptive examples to assist institutions and programs meet the flexibility of the three-prong sieve. The three-prong test determines whether an educational institutions intercollegiate athletics program offers fair and equitable participation opportunities for two genders the educational institution must show compliance with one of the following three prongs 1.Prong One shows that male and female athletes are unanimously proportionate to t he institutions respective undergraduate enrollment. 2. Prong Two shows a ex among the intercollegiate athletes. 3. Prong Three demonstrates fully and effectively accommodate the interest and abilities of the underrepresented sex of the intercollegiate athletes. The 1996 Clarification letter describes the lusty proportionality portion of the three-prong test as a safe harbor for Title IX compliance (US Department of Education Website).Moreover, this Clarification letter influenced many educational institutions to believe that ensuring strict measures of proportionality will receive Title IX requirements. Each one or the three prongs is evenly essential as a means for fulfillment of Title IX regulations therefore, no one prong is more beneficial than the other. In 2005, the supernumerary Clarification was released in regard to the application of the indicators in the 1996 Clarification that guided Scars (Office of polite Rights) analysis of the substantial proportionality prong of the three-prong test.Also incorporated in the Additional Clarification was a Users Guide which contained a model survey that educational institutions could utilize to measure student interest and participation in intercollegiate athletics. This clarification modified Scars tone-beginning from dependence on the multiple prong tests to mainly utilizing the single survey instrument to demonstrate the institutions Title IX compliance.After many deliberations, in 2010, the OCCUR rescinded the 2005 Additional Clarification and Users Guide because it was inconsistent with the nondiscriminatory methods of assessment set ahead in the 1979 Policy Interpretation and the 1996 Clarification (US Department of Education Website). Presently, due to the vague nature of the three-prong compliance test, most colleges and universities Ely only on the substantial proportionality prong to satisfy Title IX legislation requirements.Therefore, the reliance on this prong has resulted in a great number o f mens room room non-revenue sports to be cut from intercollegiate athletic programs in order to meet the proportionality requirement (Variants, 2009, p. 43). A major way to decrease the elimination of mens non-revenue sports is for intercollegiate athletic programs to put more emphasis on prong three which concentrates to fully and intercollegiate athletes. The underrepresented sex in intercollegiate athletics is the male and with the addition of competitive cheerleaders as a varsity intercollegiate sport will assist educational institutions Title IX issues.The OCCUR sets guidelines to assist educational institutions and programs in determining whether an activity should be considered a varsity intercollegiate sport under the Title IX legislation. Unfortunately, OCCUR does non offer educational institutions with a precise definition of what is considered an athletic opportunity or a sport for the purposes of Title IX requirements. Instead the OCCUR provides educational institution s with a five features hat whoremaster to be counted as a varsity sport for Title IX purposes that a sport must 1.Be administered by the athletics department in a manner consistent with established varsity sports. 2. Offer athletics scholarships and recruit participants. 3. Have practice opportunities and regular-season competitive opportunities similar to established varsity sports 4. drive state, conference, or national championships. 5. Exist for the purpose of athletics competition, not to support or promote other athletics activities (NCAA. Org). The Womens Sports Foundation (WAS) and the NCAA Foundation (2000), a sport is defined as 1. Physical activity that involves propulsive a mass through space or overcoming the resistance off mass, 2. A contest or competition against or with an opponent, 3. Is governed by rules which explicitly defined the time, space, and purpose of contest and the conditions under which a master is declared, and 4. The acknowledged primary purpose o f the competition is a comparison of the relative skills of the participants (Para. 3 and Boyce, 2008, p. 3). Under the WAS, as long as competitive cheer squads compete against other similar squads and function underNCAA regulations then cheerleaders can be considered a sport consequently, the foundation found that cheerleaders is not a sport because their purpose is not to compete and most competitions are not structured like school sport competitions (Variants, 2009, p. 43). Second, the NCAA defines a sport as an institutional activity involving physical exertion with the purpose of competition versus or teams or individuals in spite of appearance a collegiate competition structure (NCAA. Org).Additionally, NCAA explains the concept of emerging sports that is a sport intended o provide additional athletic opportunities to female student-athletes, to have standardized rules with a scoring system canonical by a governing body, and have regularly scheduled competitions. The regula r army Federation for Sport mirthful is a not-for profit organization and is the national governing body for all disciplines of cheerleaders. Moreover, USA invigorate exists to help the entire cheer community, including club cheering, traditional school based cheer programs and the new sport of stunt. USA Cheer has three primary objectives 1 . Help grow and develop interest and participation in Cheer throughout the United States 2. Remote safety and safety education for cheer in the United States and 3. Represent the United States of America in international cheer competitions (USA Cheer. Org). Therefore, does competitive cheer meet these requirements to be considered an intercollegiate varsity sport in eyes of the OCCUR and the NCAA?The USA Cheer and the cheerleaders community are making strides to create and launch Stunt, a new competitive team sport which provides increased athletic and educational opportunities for young women. Stunt is a by-product from the skills and techni ques of traditional side line heralding. Moreover, USA Cheer is desperately trying to get stunt recognized as an NCAA emerging sport. The competitions will consist of quadruple quarters partner stunts, Jumps and group tumbling, tosses and pyramids, and team routine (Vesuvius, 2011, p. 457).There are 15 collegiate club teams with twenty to thirty participants. The USA Cheer suggests 12 to 16 numbers of competitions per season and requiring six to eight varsity members (p. 459). Currently, stunt provides additional opportunities for the more than 800,000 cheerleaders in the United States, including gig school age looking for an athletic opportunity at the intercollegiate athletic levels (USA Cheer. Org). Bidder v. Chinquapin University is a recent Title IX effect concerning competitive cheer as a sport, roster manipulation, and female athletic participation.In March 2009, the Chinquapin University womens volleyball team and their coach Robin Sparks filed a lawsuit against Chinquap in University because officials announced that it would cut womens volleyball, mens golf, and mens outdoor track to help balance its budget, and would replace those sports with a limitation, the volleyball players and their coach partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union (UCLA) of Connecticut and filed this lawsuit charging Chinquapin University had failed to provide female students with equal opportunity to participate in varsity intercollegiate athletics.Their claim was the university violated the first part of the Title IX proportionality test since 62 percent of Chinquapin Universitys undergraduate students were women and only 50 percent participated in athletics. Pending the lawsuit, the federal Judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing Chinquapin University from dissolving the team. The ruling also prohibited the university from eliminating any other womens teams or athletic participation opportunities (The Associated Press, 2009).The officials at Chinquapin Uni versity were under the impression that competitive cheer was deemed as an intercollegiate sport recognized by the NCAA and Title X. In July 2010, U. S. District Judge Stefan undersell ruled that counting the competitive cheer team as varsity athletes violated Title IX standards because it did not meet the requirements for a varsity sport according to the OCCUR. Undersell highlighted not only the splendor of having competition to be recognized as a sport but also that a sport must resemble all other varsity sports at the institution in structure and mental process (Inside Higher Deed, 2010).In comparison with other varsity sports at Chinquapin, the competitive cheer teams 2009-10 season faced inconsistencies in terms of opponents competed against and an unified scoring system used. In conclusion, Judge Undersell wrote in his decision that competitive cheer may, some- time in the future, qualify as a sport ender Title X however, nowadays the activity is still too underdeveloped an d disorganized to be treated as offering veridical varsity athletic participation opportunities for students ( Inside Higher Deed, 2010 and Thomas, 2010).Judge Undersell also noted that competitive cheer is not a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sport even though, six schools in the country compete for competitive cheer and have a governing body called National emulous Stunt and Tumbling Association. Also, Judge Undersell extended the injunction requiring Chinquapin to keep volleyball as a varsity sport for another season, which was wrought the 2010-11 season. Judge Undersell mandated that any decision to slip by womens volleyball must be accompanied by other changes that will bring the university into compliance with Title X (Inside Higher Deed, 2010).In conclusion, Title IX is a very critical piece of legislation that has place the fundamental framework for the advancement of gender equity. Therefore, Title IX still plays a vital parting in the achievement of p ure gender equity because girls and women in sports have a great deal more to accomplish. A goal of Title is to not deny any gender of participating in sport or athletic activity of their interest therefore, it is important to give equal athletic opportunities to female athletes who are interested in competing in an up and coming sport like competitive cheerleaders.Recognizing competitive cheerleaders as a sport would give educational institutions the ability to put the focus on beef up safety regulations of competitive cheer because the NCAA would require strict regulations for a intercollegiate varsity sport. Meanwhile, competitive cheer will not completely solve the gender equity issues for girls and omen and the crisis of the elimination of mens non-revenue programs but it would the many female athletes the opportunity to participate in a sport that has been around for many, many decades.