Female athletes at UIW allege ‘inequality and inequity’

https://www.expressnews.com/sports/local-colleges/article/UIW-female-athletes-inequality-17536872.php

Female athletes at UIW allege pattern of 'inequality and inequity' in athletic department

Greg Luca ,  Staff Writer Updated: Oct. 26, 2022 5:17 p.m. Facebook Twitter Email Comments

Greg Luca

UIW athletic director Richard Duran, left, is under fire for what female athletes say is inequitable treatment within the school's athletic department.

Jessica Phelps, Staff photographer / San Antonio Express-News

At least 25 female athletes at Incarnate Word have amplified a social media post of a five-page speech written by a pair of women's soccer players that alleges a growing trend of "inequality and inequity" within the Cardinals' athletics department.

The approximately 2,500-word speech was delivered at a Monday evening meeting of UIW's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, according to a program source.

A former UIW athletics employee received a draft of the speech and posted it to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon with the authors' names redacted. In about 24 hours, the post garnered more than 150 retweets, including the group of more than 25 current athletes across five sports as well as a few athletics alumni and former employees.

Enough is enough. I've read this over and over and cried because I know A LOT of what these brave empowered student athletes said is TRUE. Wake up @uiwcardinals I'm shaking with anger and so should the female student athletes that leadership has neglected, this is a cry for help! pic.twitter.com/LQnESGJLer

— Margie Olivares (@MargieOlivares) October 25, 2022

The speech outlines an array of issues, including a lack of attention from the department, discrepancies in travel arrangements and amenities for women's teams compared to football, and other areas in which the program falls short of providing for female athletes.

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"UIW needs to find its identity again because the institution I walked into four years ago is not the one I am looking at today," one of the soccer players wrote. "Let me leave you with this reminder: this university was founded by women and was only for females for a long time and currently the message that is coming across is that the university only cares about its male students and athletes."

UIW declined to make athletic director Richard Duran available for comment Wednesday, providing only a statement from the university via email.

"The University of the Incarnate Word takes all student concerns and questions of equity very seriously and the health and safety of our student-athletes is, and always will be, our top priority. The University has already started working through its extensive processes to assure that we remain in compliance with all university rules, regulations and standards and that the concerns listed by the students are heard and fully taken into account."

UIW deputy athletic director DaShena Stevens, the only member of the senior staff present at Monday's meeting, responded to some of the athletes' claims, per a recording of the aftermath of the speech provided to the Express-News.

"I think it's important you guys do share and have a voice in these discussions," Stevens said in the recording. "I want to continue to encourage you guys to have that voice. I do think some of the things you guys addressed in there are not factual, but I also want to open up the door to have that conversation."

The athletes noted in their speech that the women's soccer team bused about 500 miles to Thibodaux, La., to face Nicholls State on Oct. 14, while the football team rode a chartered flight to meet the same opponent in the same city the next day.

The players also outlined the limited nutritional options around both practices and games, including breakfast of "a cold egg sandwich with just cheese with a muffin."

Hotel accommodations for female athletes are inferior to those for men's sports, the athletes wrote, locker room and storage space is inadequate, and women's soccer players are provided just one pair of cleats that reach the verge of falling apart after about two weeks.

"Our solution was to tape and superglue them back together every weekend," the athletes wrote. "D1 institution with superglued cleats, how are we expected to succeed?"

The women's soccer and volleyball seasons opened without online streaming of games before the service was eventually reinstated, the athletes wrote, and the soccer program receives minimal marketing and promotion through the athletics department's social media accounts relative to football.

The players also wrote on the search for a new women's soccer coach following the departure of Emma Wright-Cates at the end of May, saying the team was made "false promises" that the opening would be filled quickly. Instead, the background check on the selected candidate dragged for about three months before the candidate was disqualified.

Players on the interview committee were asked to come up with replacement candidates in the final week of the summer, players wrote, with the department landing on an interim coach with no previous Division I experience two days before the team reported for preseason training.

"Why did this process get to the point where players were asked to think through and compile a list of coaches from their time playing youth soccer?" the athletes wrote. "Last time I checked we are a D1 institution and this sounds like a front-page news story to me."

Players painted their concerns as part of a trend of neglect from the athletics department toward women's sports, alleging Duran "does not pay attention to other team's schedules" aside from football.

A player wrote that her father met Duran at a football tailgate and asked if Duran would be at the women's soccer home opener the next day, only to be asked, "There is a game tomorrow?"

"As a player I felt extremely hurt and appalled that my athletic department does not even care to know when I play," the athlete wrote.

The athletes also wrote of rumors that funding from all sports budgets had been reduced due to technology fees that could not be verified through UIW's IT department, expressing fears the money had instead been siphoned to the football program.

Athletes from multiple sports stepped forward during the meeting to reiterate or outline additional issues, with one noting that even if not everything they hear is factual, the rumors are cause for concern.

Stevens instructed the athletes to voice their issues to their coaches, sport administrators and other senior staff, but she said the program "completed a Title IX report to make sure we're compliant in a lot of areas" and strives to create equity between corresponding sports, such as women's soccer with men's soccer.

Following the meeting, the head of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee called an "emergency meeting" for next Monday and requested Duran to attend, according to a program source. The department began working Wednesday to instead schedule 30-minute follow-up meetings involving Duran, UIW's senior staff and the committee members from each sport.

The redacted version of the athletes' speech was posted to Twitter by Margie Olivares, who worked as a media relations coordinator in the department from August 2019 through June 2021.

Olivares said Wednesday that after receiving a draft of the speech in a group text of former employees, she "just couldn't stay quiet anymore."

Though she had no contact with the authors prior to posting their statement, she said a couple of current athletes sent her messages to thank her for shedding light on the issues.

"For them to be struggling like this was just really unsettling for me," Olivares said. "I wanted the world to read it, because I had experienced it and seen it while I worked there. Staff had mentioned it, had brought it up to administration, and to see that two years after I left, nothing has changed, was even more disappointing."

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greg.luca@express-news.net

Twitter: @GregLuca

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