By

I have to admit that after quickly glancing at the cover of The Louisville Cardinal this past week, I was immediately discouraged and felt an obligation to say something. When I started writing this letter, I had to ask myself, after discussing the situation with my professor, should we consider this as a bad reflection on The Louisville Cardinal, the university, or society as a whole? As to that I am still undecided. However, I do believe we should see it as a mistake and hopefully take a lesson away from it.

At this point, you may be wondering what I could possibly have taken badly about the front page of a paper featuring a story on the crisis in Japan and an account of our men’s first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament to Morehead State University. It’s not so much what I saw that bothered me, as what was not there that should have been. The University of Louisville women’s basketball team should have been featured on the front page. This team is an important contributor to the atmosphere and well being of our university and I’ve noticed that coverage for women’s sports in the media (even in The Louisville Cardinal) generally takes the backseat to the men’s sports.

As a fan of the University of Louisville as a whole, equality, and giving credit where credit is due, I think the women’s basketball team deserves an apology and some credit. Why is it that a team that gets beaten in the first round deserves better coverage than a team that has made it to the third round and is still fighting at each stage on the national level? Is it because they are women? Is it because people say women’s sports are less entertaining or profitable?

Regardless of what the answer is as to why this is the case, I must say that this is not the message I would like my university to convey. Those women work every bit as hard (if not harder given the adversity they have to overcome in situations like this) and I believe our university is the type of institution that would reward excellence and give credit where credit is due, regardless of what some members of society may ignorantly feel is correct.

 

Bryan Charles Moore is a senior justice administration major.