Everyone hates a referee who makes unfair calls. The only thing worse is a ref who doesn’t make any calls.
Welcome to Club Sports at UCLA.
The UCLA Competitive Sports program consists of both Club and Intramural Sports. Club Sports consists of 55 different teams – including sailing, Quidditch, archery and rugby – with 2,500 participants, while the Intramural Sports program consists of 15 leagues with more than 12,000 total participants in a given year.
A lot of students choose to participate in club sports each year to pursue their athletic or gaming interests without having to be a student-athlete or someone who played the sport before college.
But UCLA Club Sports, which is responsible for helping teams with logistics like budgets, gear purchases and practice schedules, seems to do little else. It disregards issues or complaints teams might have and falls short in mediating conflicts between teams. On top of that, there are also gender disparities in how it treats teams.
Club Sports has a responsibility to oversee all clubs and work with its students to give them their money’s worth. It needs to shed its hands-off approach to managing teams, and it should instead be a reliable source that students know will support them – regardless of gender.
That clearly isn’t the case right now, though.
The sailing team’s needs are largely handled by individual athletes, with Club Sports giving little aid, said Leah Ford, a fourth-year psychology student on the sailing team.
“Our team’s relationship with Club Sports is perpetuated by how successful we are in leadership, administratively, financially and in competition,” Ford said.
Club Sports’ bystander habits cause athletes to feel like they can’t depend on the organization. This, in turn, allows gender discrimination to take place on the field.
For instance, some women’s Club Sports members who book fields for practice or play often have to quarrel with male athletes who refuse to move out of the space.
The women’s rugby team was unable to get support to address this mistreatment from male athletes even after asking Club Sports for reinforcement, said Maya Alter, a first-year world arts and cultures student and women’s rugby player.
“If there is a group of women playing pickup soccer and we ask them to leave, they do, but we have had multiple times where men are playing pickup soccer and we said we had the field, but they wouldn’t leave,” Alter said.
Club Sports even seems to have partial treatment in the little support it offers. Teams have to deal with travel on their own, and consequently face difficulties collecting funds and finding transportation.
Nicole Chavez, a third-year psychology student and rugby player, said even though Club Sports is supposed to help teams plan everything for the year at the beginning of fall quarter, her team always runs into more issues in the long-run than the male rugby team.
“I’m the travel chair (for the team), and as far as I know, no men’s team has ever had issues with getting travel, cars, buses, etc., but we run into problems with that all the time,” Chavez said.
Teams also face several challenges when it comes to purchasing new or better equipment. Club Sports determines what equipment teams are allowed to order, approves payments and receives shipments. But for some reason, it seems like only female athletes have a difficult time getting ahold of much-needed equipment.
That seems to stem from Club Sports being more willing to help male athletes than female athletes, said Cat Matel, a third-year international development studies student and women’s rugby player.
“If men’s rugby asks for more materials, Club Sports is more willing to give it to them, whereas women’s rugby has had a lot of issues getting supplies like mouth guards or getting tackle pads,” Matel said.
Alter added that there have been several cases where the men’s rugby team has taken her team’s equipment without asking and has refused to admit fault. This has resulted in the women’s rugby team members having to take their gear home so it doesn’t get stolen.
This gender bias perpetuates the inaccurate idea that female athletes aren’t as capable as male ones. Women’s teams are forced to question their worth when Club Sports disregards or doesn’t help them address their concerns – something we should not tolerate at UCLA.
Certainly, there are teams that have successfully been able to manage their logistics and itineraries themselves. This might give off the idea Club Sports should let teams handle themselves. However, the organization is there for a reason: to specifically work with club sports teams to help them play their sports. Some students choose to not seek help, but those who do should feel like they at least have the organization’s support.
Club Sports’ laid-back approach to its role has disadvantaged teams across gender lines. It’s about time it starts making some calls so athletes can bring their A-game to the field.