The women of
App State
Gerrit Van Genderen
Self-confidence leads to success for Wallace by Gerrit Van Genderen Managing Editor
1
Reflecting on her career journey up to this point, Cindy Wallace believes she has broken every mold of a planned path – something she does not regret. Wallace is currently serving her 11th year as the vice chancellor of student development at Appalachian State University. Her first 20 years at Appalachian were spent in Academic Affairs working with federal grants for low-income, first-generation students, as well as the learning assistance program and enrollment services. “I’d love to say that my life has been incredibly serendipitous and wonderful opportunities have opened for different reasons,” Wallace said. March is Women’s History Month, and Wallace said it serves as a reminder of where the American people have made progress and where they have also been regressive to certain extents. “That big question for all of us – gender and race – have we made progress? Do we need a month or a commemorative time to say, ‘We need to talk about this and we need to think about this?’” she said. “One of my great awakenings as a college student was how and why did it take this long for me to read about these remarkable people in the history of the United States?” Wallace thought she would enroll in law school after completing her undergraduate degree at Baylor University, despite being involved with writing and student life work additionally. But by the time she graduated, she was deeply committed to higher education and went to graduate school at UNC-Chapel Hill, thinking she would become an academic. “I think my heart went more into the world of learning and education as opposed to one discipline,” Wallace said. “I ended up moving to Knoxville to work [at the University of Tennessee with] admissions and then academic advising and started teaching first-year seminar and it has been my heart ever since.” As an undergraduate, Wallace was very captivated by the advent of the women’s movement in the ’70s and understanding of the need for more equality and the equal rights, as well as women’s leadership. “I felt that was fascinating, and that was really a place of looking historically where women are and how that influenced my past as a woman in the ’70s and the ’80s as I started my career,” Wallace said. The lack of equality for women was a relevant issue for Wallace early in her career of higher education, specifically concerning her salary and merit-based pay, she said. “I have never been terribly conscious of salary, always thinking that I would prove myself and I would be paid what I was worth, and that was a bit naive of me, to say the least,” Wallace said. The notion was brought up to Wallace that, because she was married – her husband being a lawyer with the university at the time – it was more important to a male colleague that he received the bigger raise out of a larger need. Wallace said she discussed the matter with her superior and voiced her disagreement, which resulted in a reevaluation of the pay raise. “I think it was very important that I did [have that discussion] because
it wasn’t just me that was at stake there, it was the way all of my female colleagues were worked and how they were rewarded,” Wallace said. Around the same time of Wallace’s discussion, Harvey Durham, former Appalachian provost of 24 years, decided it was important to launch equity studies at Appalachian and look at faculty and staff to see if they truly were providing fair salaries. Wallace said this was a huge step despite still having income inequalities in today’s society based on gender, race and other social constructs. Wallace credited phenomenal mentors and colleagues like Durham in motivating her to work hard and seize opportunities in a career where she found herself “in roles where everyone else at the table was a male.” “I had a huge comfort level in the work that I was doing and that I was well-informed about who I was representing,” Wallace said. “A lot of it was from doing your homework and working incredibly hard and feeling confident that you could prove your mettle.” One of Wallace’s biggest accomplishments as vice chancellor of student development has been the start up of the ACCESS Program – Appalachian Commitment to a College Education for Student Success – which is a subdivision of the Learning Assistance Program and works to ensure students from low-income families in North Carolina can attend Appalachian debt-free, according to www.lap.appstate.edu. Wallace, who said she grew up in a very traditional family in the deep south that was horribly segregated, said her upbringing in that situation has been part of her story as a woman and wanting everyone to have the same opportunities she has had. “I look at the world and I say, ‘What about this isn’t fair and what should we do to make it more just for everybody?’” Wallace said. “To me, if you work in education, I think that needs to be part of our message everyday – it needs to be what we do. Wallace learned from Maya Angelou, who has visited Appalachian three times, of the importance of paying it forward for those you may never meet. “Someone else has paid and paved your way to where you’re at, and you might not even know who they are,” she said. A major change Wallace believes is coming with today’s young adults entering the job force is a flatness of leadership across the board. She said this change will be key in helping all voices be heard – including women’s. “The experience I’ve had with women working as a team in contrast of men working as a team – I do think there are some fundamental differences in the way we all approach situations,” Wallace said. “Some of it may be gender-specific, and some of it may be far more complicated.” Wallace said she hopes this change will give all people in the workplace the confidence to have and practice leadership and show different angles to solving the nation’s issues. “That richness in every field, [can] lead to a creativity that is limited when you don’t bring everyone to the table,” she said. At its core, Wallace said these changes can only start to be made with self-awareness and each individual understanding where he or she needs to be a better person, before pointing the finger at someone else. “Knowing and appreciating one another is so important,” Wallace said. “Being able to say, ‘It’s great to be different,’ can help us so much.”
ANGEL ELDERKIN
Angel’s Ascent: The road to Boone by Chris Warner Sports Reporter
Angel Elderkin’s lifelong journey from her hometown in East Providence, Rhode Island, to becoming the head women’s basketball coach at Appalachian State University has been one marked with both trials and triumphs. Elderkin, a former star student-athlete in Maine and now firstyear head coach at App State, said her lifetime commitment to the sport of basketball didn’t even begin on the court. “When I was younger, it was the playground, it was walking, it was riding your bike, it was this open thing,” Elderkin said. “We used to play basketball against the street signs. We didn’t even have a hoop.” Elderkin grew up with an older brother who was actively involved in sports as well, and the majority of the sports she played were with him and his friends. “There weren’t a lot of opportunities for females at that time, so it was always like ‘Hey, go play with your brother,’” Elderkin said. “Now, it seems like there’s less of the playground but there’s more of the organizational stuff for girls today, which is great.” But the absence of opportunities didn’t stop Elderkin from becoming a decorated Division III college athlete at the University of Southern Maine. From 1995 to 1999, Elderkin helped lead the Huskies to a 104-15 record and three Little East Conference Championships, even finishing as the national runner-up in the 1998 NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Tournament. She was also an accomplished collegiate softball player for the Huskies, lettering three times during her career. Elderkin said in her time at Southern Maine, her team’s success, most notably in basketball, did not get overshadowed by the other sports teams in the area, which happened to many collegiate women’s programs during that time. Elderkin said it was during her time as a student-athlete that she realized that throughout her entire life in organized sports, her coaches had been males. “There weren’t a lot of females to empower other females,” Elderkin said, “so when I stepped out and had my first coaching job under Karen Kemp at [East Tennessee State University], it was so impactful.” Elderkin said her time coaching under Kemp from 1999 to 2001 made her realize how good it was to be coached by a female, and cemented her decision to pursue being a coach herself. Elderkin’s career has since crossed the paths of some of the greatest coaches in NCAA women’s basketball history. From 2005 to 2007, Elderkin was the video coordinator under Hall of Famer and former University of Tennessee coach Pat Summitt. From 2007 to 2011, Elderkin was assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under Hall of Famer and University of Virginia coach Debbie Ryan. And with many other coaching stops along the way, most recently as an assistant coach at LSU for the 2013-2014 season, Elderkin has always been in respected company. Elderkin is now using her opportunity as a head coach to make an impact in the lives of her female student-athletes, both on and off the court. “I think part of empowering women is making them confident, making them strong, making them believe in themselves,” Elderkin said, “so the more I can make them feel good about themselves every day, I feel like, ‘check mark,’ I’ve done my job.” Elderkin said that through a variety of techniques, she seeks to ensure that her athletes’ “tanks are full” with positivity and belief when they leave practice. Senior forward Maryah Sydnor said Elderkin’s affect on the team this season was unquestionable. “Everything she does just breeds confidence in us,” Sydnor said. “She has all the faith in the world in anything that we do and anything that we say we’re going to do, or talk to her about, she’s all for it and all on our side. So it just brings the best out of us.” Senior guard Katie Mallow shared a similar sentiment. “I think off the court especially, she doesn’t take any crap from anyone,” Mallow said. “She has respect for everyone, and she makes us have respect for everyone, but she also puts that confidence in us to not let anyone think they’re better than us.” The Mountaineer women’s team finished Elderkin’s first season with a record of 14-16 (9-11 Sun Belt), losing in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Conference Women’s Championship Tournament to Arkansas State University. And although it is only the beginning of Elderkin’s tenure at App State, she is making a mark, continuing to give the gift she was given by Kemp when her career began.
2
Justin Perry | Appalachian State Athletics
CHANCELLOR SHERI N. EVERTS Making History:
Everts creates new legacy by Laney Ruckstuhl News Editor
As a prominent woman in leadership with a long resume and list of achievements, Appalachian State University’s chancellor, Sheri N. Everts, has a lot to be proud of. Everts, who has been working her way up the ranks of higher education since 1994, has held a number of leadership positions, including being named Appalachian’s first ever female chancellor last year. Before that, she was Illinois State University’s first female provost. She has also received many prestigious awards and honors, including being named one of Illinois’ Most Powerful and Influential Women by the National Diversity Council of Illinois in 2010, and receiving the Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Women Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2008. But while Everts takes pride in these accomplishments, she considers something else to be her biggest success so far: raising her children. “I’ve raised two kind, intelligent, talented young adults,” she said. “I’m very proud of them. They’re great people.” Everts’ children are her 28-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and her 30-year-old son, Justin. She also has two stepsons since marrying her husband, Jay Noren, who are ages 36 and 41. “I think time management is one of the most difficult issues for any particularly busy person to handle,” Everts said. “How do you juggle a lot of balls in the air? How do you keep a lot of plates spinning? How do you focus on what it is you need to focus on at that particular time?” While in the middle of her career and the formative years of raising her children, Everts said staying focused on whatever she was doing at that particular time kept her grounded. “If I was reading a book to my children at night – which I did every night – then that’s when I tried to be present in that moment,” she said. “If I was running a meeting on the new search for a provost, then I tried to be present in that moment and not worrying about the homework assignment that my son needed to finish for science.” In November 2014, Everts gave a lecture on leadership and diversity as a part of a Women’s Studies Distinguished Lecture Series, during which she said she has felt objectified and perceived as unequal to her male counterparts at times throughout her career. But Everts said she does not like to focus on these moments, but instead what she’s learned from them. “Each and every challenge has provided me with a learning opportunity,” she said, “whether it’s how could I handle that better in the future, how could I be part of the solution and how could I respectfully disagree with someone who may have a different opinion.” Everts said she encourages young women pursuing roles in leadership to believe in themselves. “That’s absolutely key,” she said. “Everyone has challenges, but can you find a way to learn from those and to be better as you move forward?” But for those who may not yet believe in themselves, Everts said mentors play a key role in formulating confidence and success. One of her personal role models is Nancy Belk, who was the chancellor at Illinois State University during Everts’ time there, and was also the first female chancellor at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in 1994. “[She was] someone who told me that I had characteristics that were exactly what were needed in a chancellor,” Everts said. “That was really helpful to me. I know now a little better what her schedule must have been like.” Everts also believes in the power of informal mentors, such as faculty mentors, who may not even know they’re mentoring you. She recalls an English professor who taught her as an undergraduate who she “wanted to be.” “I remember how warm and welcoming she was, how much she wanted me to succeed,” Everts said. “And it wasn’t just me, it was everyone in her class.” Everts said she thinks diversity in the workplace – and on campus – is important because it reflects society, though is by no means limited to diversity of gender. She is currently heading the Chancellor’s Student Advisory Committee for Diversity Recruitment, started to address Appalachian’s lack of racial diversity and how to improve upon this. “We live in a diverse world and I think it also enriches our learning opportunities when we sit next to a person who is different from us in some way, shape or form and we learn from and with each other,” she said. “I’ve learned so much from people who are different than I am and if I don’t spend time with them, how will I do that?” File Photo
3
TITLE IX Title IX keeps the ball rolling for women’s collegiate sports
by Nicole Caporaso
Senior News Reporter
Appalachian State University has storied periods of athletic history, with many teams having varying degrees of success throughout the years dating back to the early 1900s. A large difference between the history of women’s athletics and men’s athletics at the university is that women’s sports teams did not begin until the 1960s, with the first official team being the women’s field hockey team in 1968, said Debbie Richardson, senior associate athletics director. “There were women playing on teams, basketball teams probably, in the 1930s and 1940s,” Richardson said. “They only played three or four games and they definitely didn’t have scholarships. That didn’t happen until sometime in the 1970s that women were even allowed to have scholarships.” In 1972, Title IX was passed, prohibiting any discrimination based on sex in all federally funded educational programs and activities, which includes, but is not limited to, athletics. “Title IX is a lot broader than people think it is,” said Bindu Jayne, associate vice chancellor for diversity. “Title IX really is focused on gender equity as it relates to every aspect of education. I think a lot of the misconceptions are the assumptions that it only relates to sports.” Before the implementation of Title IX, women participation in intercollegiate athletics hovered around fewer than 32,000 participants, but has increased to over 193,000 today, according to the National Women’s Law Center. It is required by Title IX that Appalachian and other universities financially aided by the federal government treat male and female athletes equally by demonstrating fulfillment of one of three possible prongs that show the university’s effort to create evenly matched opportunity. Jayne said universities typically abide by prong one or three of Title IX, which requires the percentages of male and female athletes to be about proportionate to the percentages of male and female students attending the school, or requires the university to have an athletics program that effectively accommodates the underrepresented sex, respectively. Though she has not received notice of any formal Title IX complaints from students regarding the athletics department, Jayne said she has had a few informal inquiries regarding athletic concerns. Richardson said she also is unaware of any Title IX athletics complaints regarding the university. According to “Debunking the Myths about Title IX and Athletics” by the National Women’s Law Center, despite Title IX’s success, women’s programs trail behind men’s, with women receiving 28 percent of the total money spent on athletics and 42 percent of the total athletic scholarship dollars. “While more than half of the students at NCAA schools are women, they receive only 44 percent of the athletic participation opportunities,” according to the publication. “At the typical Division I-FBS school, for every dollar spent on women’s sports, about two and a half dollars are spent on men’s sports.” Mike Flynn, assistant athletics director, said there is a total of 447 student athletes for the 2014-2015 year, with 277 males and 170 females according to the current rosters, though these numbers do not reflect the final numbers for the year. When it comes to what sport is played and the sex of the athletes, Richardson said the athletes at Appalachian are taken care of equally. “They all get what [they’re] allowed to have and what’s needed for their sport,” Richardson said. “Golfers may need to have their own golf clubs, for softball and baseball they might have to buy their own gloves, but for the most part everyone’s got everything they need, whether they’re a walk-on or a scholarship [athlete].” Regarding Title IX, Richardson said there is at least one project the
university needs to take up fixing, but Appalachian has been making every effort it can to treat all athletes the same. “We have some women’s locker rooms that don’t have walls in them, their lockers are their walls right now,” Richardson said. “Field hockey didn’t have their preferred surface for a field, but that was finished this fall and they now have their own field, and it’s the surface the NCAA prefers them to play on.” Additionally, Richardson said not all Appalachian sports teams, both women’s and men’s, are fully funded to the maximum amount the NCAA allows. While athletes, no matter their sex, are treated by the university equally, there is one inequality Richardson noticed. “I would say it’s very frustrating to me to see as many people come to watch men’s games and not come...to watch women,” Richardson said. “We have a new marketing director who is doing a really good job of marketing all of our sports, not just football and men’s and women’s basketball.” Mackenzie LaSure, junior journalism major and member of the women’s tennis team, said her experience as a college athlete at Appalachian has been rewarding and that gender equity is prevalent regarding the university’s athletics. “I think that has to do with the fact that students realize that no matter what your gender, you are seen as an Appalachian athlete representing the school,” LaSure said. “You are held to higher standards than most because of that as well, no matter which team. Yes, some sports teams may be seen as more important by certain people based on an entertainment level, but for the most part, all athletes are seen as one.” While LaSure said the university has always treated her fairly and equally as an athlete, society sometimes has a different way of treating women who participate in athletics. “To me, many view women in sports as sacrificial and participating in sports as a female means burdens put on your life where men in sports is more of a lifestyle,” LaSure said. “It isn’t necessarily frowned upon to be a woman athlete, but not being a male athlete is often thought of strange and can be frowned upon.” Hailey Kerr, senior psychology major and member of the women’s volleyball team, said that when it comes to athletics, she believes gender stereotyping is becoming less frequent among the younger generations, but she does experience a rare circumstance of pushback outside of the university setting. “When I go home and lift at my old fitness gym, I have to lift before 5 a.m. to avoid the men who approach me trying to correct my form, workout program, or how much weight I’m lifting because I am not running on a treadmill with all the other girls,” Kerr said. “As a female athlete, it’s expected that I don’t know how to lift correctly, should not lift as much weight as I do and should not attempt olympic lifts outside of back squats.” Kerr refers to these instances as ignorance, but said the Appalachian athletic community has always been respectful of one another’s efforts and pursuits. “Overall, any challenges I face as a female athlete are centered around the idea that I do not have any ownership over the sports domain and am a guest relying on men’s good will,” Kerr said. “Where in fact, I am an intelligent, ambitious, tough athlete who happens to be female, a perspective encouraged and persistent in my time at App State.” While Appalachian student athletes have a combined GPA of 3.0, Richardson said, it is the female athletes that “tend to outshine the men’s teams academically.” According to a Fall 2014 Team GPA report from Richardson, women’s volleyball had the highest GPA of all athletics teams, with a 3.54 semester GPA for Fall 2014. The top four teams with the highest GPA for that semester, were all women’s teams, following volleyball with women’s soccer, women’s golf and field hockey. Of the top ten Appalachian athletics teams with the highest semester GPA for Fall 2014, nine out of the ten were women’s teams.
Check out TheAppalachianOnline.com to read an in-depth feature on the Women’s Center. 4