Question

Case 3 – Equity in Care of Athletes

At a two year community college funding for sport is not a priority. However, the school has both female and male sport teams. In fact, the school has five male sports – football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and golf. The school has two sports for women – softball and basketball. They are in the process of adding women’s soccer. However, to do so they are planning to take away some of the scholarship money that has been allotted to women’s basketball and softball. Therefore, they are concerned about increasing the number of female athletes, possibly in order to comply with Title IX, and yet they are not thinking of spending any more money than has already been allotted for female sports.

Furthermore, the sport teams for women are not treated the same as the sport teams for men. One obvious point of inequity is with facilities. However, an even bigger problem is with the lack of an athletic trainer specifically assigned to the women’s teams. There is a trainer and sometimes two trainers at all of the men’s athletic competitions as well as at their practices. This is not so for the women. They often have to call one of the trainers if someone gets hurt. This is especially problematic during the baseball and softball seasons, which run concurrently. The trainers are in presence at the baseball games and on-call for the softball games. This causes obvious problems. Some injuries need immediate treatment, which they might not get in this situation. However, there are also some not so obvious problems. The pitchers for the softball team need to warm up appropriately to avoid injury. They also need to apply ice after pitching a game. Certainly each pitcher should know what to do to avoid problems. However, they might not do the appropriate pre-game stretching and post-game icing without supervision, whereas they would if a trainer was present before and after the game requiring it. This had led to shoulder problems for some of the softball pitchers.

1. How should schools, with limited funds, deal with such a situation as the lack of trainers?

2. If there are injuries is the fault to be placed with the schools, the coaches, or the players? Why?

3. Is it right to increase the number of female sports without increasing the funding?

4. Which is more important, participation opportunities or equity in funding?

5. If a school does not have the funds, should they increase the number of teams?

6. Analyze this situation from the perspectives of the Utilitarian, the Kantian, and the Aristotelian.

Answer 1