Program News
Once again we would like to welcome you to the UNM Sport Administration Web Site. We hope you are finding all the answers to your questions.
The UNM Sport Administration Program recently completely updated its curriculum and achieved NASPE/NASSM approved status for both the master's and doctoral programs. We are currently one of four doctoral programs and twenty-six master's programs in North America to have achieved such distinction.
Recent Activities
Guest Speaker, Dr. Donna Lopiano, Executive Director Women's Sports Foundation
Sport Admin Grad Students Ross Grippi, Cliff Summar, and Anna Mae Apodaca
with Dr. Lopiano
Women Athletes are Making Gains
by Rachel Heisler, Daily Lobo
Dr. Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, said women athletes and women's athletic programs continue to face inequalities and double standards today, but some improvements have come about in the last 28 years.
UNM's Sports Administration Association featured Lopiano's discussion to kick off the Women's Sports Foundation Tournament, a basketball tournament that features the UNM Women's Basketball team. Lopiano spoke to about 70 people at Dane Smith Hall Thursday.
Lopiano, who has been the organization's executive director since 1992, was University of Texas Athletics Director from 1975 to 1992. She is a member of the National Sports Hall of Fame and the Texas Women's Hall of Fame, among others.
"I believe that no child, male or female, should ever be told that they cannot continue their dream," Lopiano said.
Lopiano said that before 1970, women were restricted in what jobs they could pursue. Title IX, a component of the 1968 Civil Rights Act that stated no person shall be denied access, benefits or the opportunity to participate in any educational program or activity based on gender at any institution receiving federal funding, changed that.
"Title IX has nothing to do with sports, absolutely nothing," Lopiano said. "It was the women's movement effort to open the doors of educational opportunities. It was getting rid of professional school quotas, making sure women could get training in professions that were higher paying than social work and teaching and the lowest paying professions at that time."
In 1974, Title IX was used to cover college athletic programs.
"In 1972, one out of every 27 high school girls played varsity sports, for boys, one in two. Today, for girls, one in three, for boys, one in two."
Lopiano discussed the benefits sports have on females, which include better grades in high school, decreased numbers in unwanted teen pregnancies, decreased drug use, higher self esteem, and better health statistics.
Though Lopiano focused on the many inequalities between genders in sports, she noted new and positive markets have come about since the growth of women's sports in the United States, including the female consumption of sports apparel.
"One of the things we know about women is that they are genetically superior to men," she joked. "They're genetically superior to men when it comes to the shopping gene."
"The woman, now, females, are valued consumers of men's sports, valued fans of men's sports."
She said, it has led to corporate interest in women's sports, but it is an area that has not been fully exploited.
Lopiano said a separation of age groups, with each group thinking of women's sports in different ways, has kept money out of women's sports. Adults 40 years old and younger who have children realize that there daughters have advantages and opportunities to get college sports scholarships, she said, so they support and encourage their daughters to get involved in sports. People 65 years and older also realize that their granddaughters have these opportunities.
The problem group, she said, is the "dinosaurs," the people in the 40-60 year old age group. These people are not intentionally against women progressing in sports, but because they grew up being taught that girls aren't interested in sports, they think supporting women's sports is a waste of money.
"This cannot continue to be a fight between men's and women's sports," Lopiano said.
Association of Sport Administrators Care Run
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