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Debate over student-athlete pregnancy issue to intensify
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By Greg Johnson
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics is examining whether grants-in-aid should be affected when scholarship student-athletes become pregnant. Currently an institutional decision, some stakeholders in college sports believe a broader solution should be considered.
The matter gained momentum this spring when media aired stories about student-athletes who have signed agreements that could affect their athletics aid should they become pregnant. Some student-athletes have not had their athletics aid renewed until they are able to compete again, while other reports cited student-athletes having abortions to keep their athletics aid.
That prompted widespread discussion on whether the institution was obligated to honor the scholarship commitment in cases of pregnancy. Some people believe the scholarship should extend during the pregnancy (that is, handled like a medical condition), while others believe the aid should not be awarded if the athlete can’t perform.
NCAA President Myles Brand has asked the Committee on Women’s Athletics to review the Association’s guidelines and policies related to pregnant student-athletes. Brand asked the committee to determine if additional guidance for member schools, or a rule change, is needed when considering the well-being of student-athletes who are pregnant.
The CWA will discuss the subject at its meeting July 9-11 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“We want to act judiciously here,” said CWA Chair Janet Kittell, senior associate athletics director at Indiana University, Bloomington. “I don’t think it calls for emergency legislation, but I do think it calls for at least a thorough discussion and thoughtful response.”
As with so many other socially oriented issues, the pregnancy matter is complex because the NCAA membership is so diverse. Institutions that are publicly funded may have a different philosophies and missions than private or religious-based colleges and universities. Those missions often drive institutional decisions.
“I would hate to see a national policy,” said Monmouth University Athletics Director and former CWA Chair Marilyn McNeil. “I get upset when we talk about pregnancy being this strange thing or something that needs to be treated differently. We don’t have a national policy for ankle injuries — I’m struggling with why we need a policy for pregnancy.”
Bylaw 14.2.1.3 in the Division I Manual is the only rule regarding student-athlete pregnancies. It states: “A member institution may approve a one-year extension of the five-year period of eligibility for a female student-athlete for reasons of pregnancy.” While that addresses eligibility, it remains up to the institution to continue the scholarship.
“It is a good time to have a conversation, and the media reports gave this topic the attention it needs right now,” said Atlantic Coast Conference Associate Commissioner Bernadette McGlade, referring to an ESPN “Outside The Lines” episode that focused on a case at an ACC school. Before that, McGlade said, the pregnancy issue had not been discussed in ACC business meetings.
“So much of this depends on the timing of the pregnancy,” she said. “Sometimes it may not affect someone’s playing time at all, while other times it can. Maybe it is being handled really well in most situations — perhaps that’s why it has been under the radar until now.”
Moral and ethical factors
The complexity is exacerbated by the moral and ethical dilemma. Should pregnancy be treated like any other medical condition, or should it be treated differently because the student-athlete chose the sexual activity and must deal with the outcome of her decision?
It’s not the first time those questions have been raised.
“We handle pregnancy issues on a case-by-case basis,” said Ohio State University Senior Associate Athletics Director Miechelle Willis. “We don’t have a policy other than making sure the student-athlete is getting their medical needs addressed. We don’t take away aid or require them to be back within a certain time. This should be handled by the institution. Sometimes we try to regulate a little too much. I don’t think this is different from any other aid issue or medical-care issue.”
While many institutions don’t have a written policy covering pregnancy, most rely on communication among athletics administrators, coaches, medical staff and the student-athlete to reach a satisfactory outcome.
“When I asked our sports-medicine folks what our policy was concerning this, there was no hesitation — they said we treat pregnancy as a medical condition,” said North Carolina State University Senior Associate Athletics Director Nora Lynn Finch. “I went to financial aid and to the people in our compliance office to see where the line should be drawn, and they said it should be treated like an injury. We have not had a coach express any preference for another policy. I’d be shocked if a coach wanted to talk to me about a stricter policy than just treating it as a medical condition.”
Not everyone sees it that way. University of Indianapolis Athletics Director Sue Willey said she has discussed the matter with female student-athletes on her campus, and they believe athletics aid should not be renewed in the case of pregnancy until the student-athlete returns healthy enough to play.
“Most of our female athletes feel becoming pregnant is a choice,” Willey said of the student-athlete population at the Methodist-affiliated school. “If you become pregnant and aren’t able to play, then you shouldn’t have your scholarship maintained. As an administrator, I am inclined to support that. If we just open it up and say pregnant student-athletes can keep their scholarships, that counts against equivalencies. You are handcuffing your coach, because you are using part of your equivalencies for a kid who can’t play.”
Five years ago, Tiffin University was featured in an HBO story about a pregnant volleyball student-athlete who was allowed to keep her athletics aid while she tracked statistics for the team. Tiffin Faculty Athletics Representative Bonnie Tiell, who has been active in NCAA gender-equity issues, said students are in a unique position because they aren’t classified as employees. They are not protected by federal labor laws or programs, she said.
Tiell said she supports each institution developing a policy that is applied consistently. For instance, if someone is out a year because of a shoulder injury and the student-athlete’s aid is renewed, then a pregnant student-athlete should be afforded the same opportunity.
“It should be an institutional policy, and there may need to be a special clause in there for pregnancy as far as assistance, counseling and confidentiality,” Tiell said. “It has to be addressed more specifically than a temporary disabling injury or medical condition.”
Before she became Tiffin’s FAR, she was an athletics administrator and coach who dealt with student-athlete pregnancies more intimately. She strongly believes the institution is responsible for some level of support.
“In 15 years, I knew of three pregnancy cases,” Tiell said. “I am certain there were more (that she didn’t know about). Some left, and I never knew they were pregnant. They just left and had a kid. It is the stigma that goes along with being pregnant and unmarried.”
The after effects
The pregnancy issue doesn’t end with the scholarship outcome. Even if a student-athlete keeps her athletics aid, she still faces life challenges after the baby is born, such as who will watch the child while the student-athlete is at practice or competing in a game.
Beth Miller, senior associate athletics director at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, whose institution doesn’t take away athletics aid in such cases, said her department had a case in which the student-athlete’s parents cared for the child while she remained on scholarship. In another case, a North Carolina student-athlete kept the child and worked out a day-care schedule on her own.
“After you have the child, you need to find some way for the child to be cared for so you can continue to compete,” said Miller, who will be joining the CWA this fall. “If not, then it would probably be best for the student-athlete to voluntarily give up the scholarship to take care of the child.”
Monmouth’s McNeil said a student-athlete pregnancy can also teach a life lesson for all members of a team. She cited two cases in which a student-athlete received support from her teammates in terms of caring for the child. In each case, it was like the entire team was raising the infant, McNeil said.
“You have to teach a young mother that you have to have several backups,” McNeil said. “You can’t just miss practice because your baby care is not coming through — so what are the backups? We understand that when you reach the end and don’t have any alternatives, then yes, you can miss practice.”
With so many variables involved in the issue, it should create an interesting debate for CWA members. As with other issues, CWA recommendations will be vetted through the governance structure. If any of the recommendations involve legislative proposals, they will be handled through the normal legislative process.
That could be the case even though both parties agree to the terms, said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, associate professor of law at Florida Coastal School of Law, and a former student-athlete at Duke University and 1984 Olympic gold medalist.
“You can’t contract away your civil rights,” she said. “If someone would’ve been renewed (for athletics aid) except for this pregnancy, it would be considered a violation of regulations interpreting Title IX.”
That is because any rule or stipulation applied to women must be applied equally to men. In other words, an institution would have to ask men who potentially could become a parent to agree to a similar contract.
Title 34 106.40 says pregnancy should be treated as any other temporary disability. The law states: “A recipient shall treat pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy and recovery there from as a justification for a leave of absence for so long a period of time as is deemed medically necessary by the student’s physician, at the conclusion of which the student shall be reinstated to the status which she held when the leave began.”
According to NCAA Bylaw 15.3.4.1, reduction or cancelation of athletics aid can be done if the student-athlete becomes academically ineligible; voluntarily withdraws from the sport for personal reasons; fraudulently misrepresents information on an application, letter of intent or financial aid agreement; or engages in serious misconduct.
NCAA Bylaw 15.3.4.1.2 says an institution can reduce or cancel athletics aid of a student-athlete who is found to have engaged in misconduct by the university’s regular student disciplinary authority.
Hogshead-Makar, who was a swimmer at Duke, suggests institutions consider all aspects of the law regarding student-athlete pregnancy to make sure policies are compliant.
“We don’t want to have policies that either encourage or discourage,” she said. “We want to have policies that enable and provide women with choices on what is best for them.”
The matter gained momentum this spring when media aired stories about student-athletes who have signed agreements that could affect their athletics aid should they become pregnant. Some student-athletes have not had their athletics aid renewed until they are able to compete again, while other reports cited student-athletes having abortions to keep their athletics aid.
That prompted widespread discussion on whether the institution was obligated to honor the scholarship commitment in cases of pregnancy. Some people believe the scholarship should extend during the pregnancy (that is, handled like a medical condition), while others believe the aid should not be awarded if the athlete can’t perform.
NCAA President Myles Brand has asked the Committee on Women’s Athletics to review the Association’s guidelines and policies related to pregnant student-athletes. Brand asked the committee to determine if additional guidance for member schools, or a rule change, is needed when considering the well-being of student-athletes who are pregnant.
The CWA will discuss the subject at its meeting July 9-11 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“We want to act judiciously here,” said CWA Chair Janet Kittell, senior associate athletics director at Indiana University, Bloomington. “I don’t think it calls for emergency legislation, but I do think it calls for at least a thorough discussion and thoughtful response.”
As with so many other socially oriented issues, the pregnancy matter is complex because the NCAA membership is so diverse. Institutions that are publicly funded may have a different philosophies and missions than private or religious-based colleges and universities. Those missions often drive institutional decisions.
“I would hate to see a national policy,” said Monmouth University Athletics Director and former CWA Chair Marilyn McNeil. “I get upset when we talk about pregnancy being this strange thing or something that needs to be treated differently. We don’t have a national policy for ankle injuries — I’m struggling with why we need a policy for pregnancy.”
Bylaw 14.2.1.3 in the Division I Manual is the only rule regarding student-athlete pregnancies. It states: “A member institution may approve a one-year extension of the five-year period of eligibility for a female student-athlete for reasons of pregnancy.” While that addresses eligibility, it remains up to the institution to continue the scholarship.
“It is a good time to have a conversation, and the media reports gave this topic the attention it needs right now,” said Atlantic Coast Conference Associate Commissioner Bernadette McGlade, referring to an ESPN “Outside The Lines” episode that focused on a case at an ACC school. Before that, McGlade said, the pregnancy issue had not been discussed in ACC business meetings.
“So much of this depends on the timing of the pregnancy,” she said. “Sometimes it may not affect someone’s playing time at all, while other times it can. Maybe it is being handled really well in most situations — perhaps that’s why it has been under the radar until now.”
Moral and ethical factors
The complexity is exacerbated by the moral and ethical dilemma. Should pregnancy be treated like any other medical condition, or should it be treated differently because the student-athlete chose the sexual activity and must deal with the outcome of her decision?
It’s not the first time those questions have been raised.
“We handle pregnancy issues on a case-by-case basis,” said Ohio State University Senior Associate Athletics Director Miechelle Willis. “We don’t have a policy other than making sure the student-athlete is getting their medical needs addressed. We don’t take away aid or require them to be back within a certain time. This should be handled by the institution. Sometimes we try to regulate a little too much. I don’t think this is different from any other aid issue or medical-care issue.”
While many institutions don’t have a written policy covering pregnancy, most rely on communication among athletics administrators, coaches, medical staff and the student-athlete to reach a satisfactory outcome.
“When I asked our sports-medicine folks what our policy was concerning this, there was no hesitation — they said we treat pregnancy as a medical condition,” said North Carolina State University Senior Associate Athletics Director Nora Lynn Finch. “I went to financial aid and to the people in our compliance office to see where the line should be drawn, and they said it should be treated like an injury. We have not had a coach express any preference for another policy. I’d be shocked if a coach wanted to talk to me about a stricter policy than just treating it as a medical condition.”
Not everyone sees it that way. University of Indianapolis Athletics Director Sue Willey said she has discussed the matter with female student-athletes on her campus, and they believe athletics aid should not be renewed in the case of pregnancy until the student-athlete returns healthy enough to play.
“Most of our female athletes feel becoming pregnant is a choice,” Willey said of the student-athlete population at the Methodist-affiliated school. “If you become pregnant and aren’t able to play, then you shouldn’t have your scholarship maintained. As an administrator, I am inclined to support that. If we just open it up and say pregnant student-athletes can keep their scholarships, that counts against equivalencies. You are handcuffing your coach, because you are using part of your equivalencies for a kid who can’t play.”
Five years ago, Tiffin University was featured in an HBO story about a pregnant volleyball student-athlete who was allowed to keep her athletics aid while she tracked statistics for the team. Tiffin Faculty Athletics Representative Bonnie Tiell, who has been active in NCAA gender-equity issues, said students are in a unique position because they aren’t classified as employees. They are not protected by federal labor laws or programs, she said.
Tiell said she supports each institution developing a policy that is applied consistently. For instance, if someone is out a year because of a shoulder injury and the student-athlete’s aid is renewed, then a pregnant student-athlete should be afforded the same opportunity.
“It should be an institutional policy, and there may need to be a special clause in there for pregnancy as far as assistance, counseling and confidentiality,” Tiell said. “It has to be addressed more specifically than a temporary disabling injury or medical condition.”
Before she became Tiffin’s FAR, she was an athletics administrator and coach who dealt with student-athlete pregnancies more intimately. She strongly believes the institution is responsible for some level of support.
“In 15 years, I knew of three pregnancy cases,” Tiell said. “I am certain there were more (that she didn’t know about). Some left, and I never knew they were pregnant. They just left and had a kid. It is the stigma that goes along with being pregnant and unmarried.”
The after effects
The pregnancy issue doesn’t end with the scholarship outcome. Even if a student-athlete keeps her athletics aid, she still faces life challenges after the baby is born, such as who will watch the child while the student-athlete is at practice or competing in a game.
Beth Miller, senior associate athletics director at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, whose institution doesn’t take away athletics aid in such cases, said her department had a case in which the student-athlete’s parents cared for the child while she remained on scholarship. In another case, a North Carolina student-athlete kept the child and worked out a day-care schedule on her own.
“After you have the child, you need to find some way for the child to be cared for so you can continue to compete,” said Miller, who will be joining the CWA this fall. “If not, then it would probably be best for the student-athlete to voluntarily give up the scholarship to take care of the child.”
Monmouth’s McNeil said a student-athlete pregnancy can also teach a life lesson for all members of a team. She cited two cases in which a student-athlete received support from her teammates in terms of caring for the child. In each case, it was like the entire team was raising the infant, McNeil said.
“You have to teach a young mother that you have to have several backups,” McNeil said. “You can’t just miss practice because your baby care is not coming through — so what are the backups? We understand that when you reach the end and don’t have any alternatives, then yes, you can miss practice.”
With so many variables involved in the issue, it should create an interesting debate for CWA members. As with other issues, CWA recommendations will be vetted through the governance structure. If any of the recommendations involve legislative proposals, they will be handled through the normal legislative process.
Professor says Title IX issues at play
Contracts between institutions and female student-athletes stipulating the possible loss of athletics aid as a consequence of pregnancy may be regarded as discrimination under Title IX, according to a legal scholar.That could be the case even though both parties agree to the terms, said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, associate professor of law at Florida Coastal School of Law, and a former student-athlete at Duke University and 1984 Olympic gold medalist.
“You can’t contract away your civil rights,” she said. “If someone would’ve been renewed (for athletics aid) except for this pregnancy, it would be considered a violation of regulations interpreting Title IX.”
That is because any rule or stipulation applied to women must be applied equally to men. In other words, an institution would have to ask men who potentially could become a parent to agree to a similar contract.
Title 34 106.40 says pregnancy should be treated as any other temporary disability. The law states: “A recipient shall treat pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy and recovery there from as a justification for a leave of absence for so long a period of time as is deemed medically necessary by the student’s physician, at the conclusion of which the student shall be reinstated to the status which she held when the leave began.”
According to NCAA Bylaw 15.3.4.1, reduction or cancelation of athletics aid can be done if the student-athlete becomes academically ineligible; voluntarily withdraws from the sport for personal reasons; fraudulently misrepresents information on an application, letter of intent or financial aid agreement; or engages in serious misconduct.
NCAA Bylaw 15.3.4.1.2 says an institution can reduce or cancel athletics aid of a student-athlete who is found to have engaged in misconduct by the university’s regular student disciplinary authority.
Hogshead-Makar, who was a swimmer at Duke, suggests institutions consider all aspects of the law regarding student-athlete pregnancy to make sure policies are compliant.
“We don’t want to have policies that either encourage or discourage,” she said. “We want to have policies that enable and provide women with choices on what is best for them.”
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