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College sports in need of changing their gender and racial practices

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As Covid- 19 is responsible for canceling, cutting or even putting most college sports on hold since March. After the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the world has acted against the injustice that has occurred. Student athletes are using their platforms as a way to bring awareness to the social and racial issues. For many during this time they made the decision not to play, but to use their voice and speak out.

Their voices are not going unnoticed, the student athletes are calling on a stronger leadership and responsibility amongst the institutions and the NAACP as it relates to social justice issues. The help of the diversity in leadership will bring fresh ideas and gain an understanding on discussions to help in the sports world. However, there has been an increase of gender and racial hiring, yet colleges and universities are still struggling. On the ‘Division one Football  Leadership College Racial and Gender Report Card’ the data is clear, on Wednesday The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) gave out the report to University of Central Florida. 

They named 130 institutes that are listed in the FSB report card inspection and gave grades to the following categories; positions of chancellor, president, athletic director, faculty athletic representative and conference commissioner. The report also broke down, but did not give grades to head coaches, student-athletes and assistant coaches. 

The Rev. Jesse Jackson released a statement on his thoughts on the report “The lack of diversity in hiring practices is usually based on a trickle-down effect. If there are no people of color at the top making decisions, there is less awareness and sensitivity to the need to include qualified minority candidates as an ongoing priority.” He said the data “indicates that the lack of diverse leadership in the highest ranks of the colleges has resulted in an insufficient number of minority coaches and staff within athletic departments.” 

In 2017 the NCAA embraced a pledge that they committed to diversity and gender equality in Intercollegiate Athletics. Since then 871 schools and 102 conferences have signed the pledge.

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