Student Princes: More on Gender and Sports Team Names

Siggy, the student prince mascot

Following my post on the suffix -men and sports team names, I offer another conundrum: the Heidelberg University Student Princes.

This would seem to be a masculine name.  So, I wondered, are the women’s teams the student princesses.  No, as far as I can see they are student princes, too.

For example consider this line from a press release regarding a women’s soccer all-conference pick:

“Senior Krista Blake (Geneva) earned an All-Ohio Athletic Conference honorable mention selection in her final season as a Student Prince.”

I am not sure how the concept of female princes works exactly, but I did find the history of the name.  It is clearly a masculine centered history even featuring a castle.  The only possible logical reason behind the name would be the university’s tie to Heidelberg in Germany, but that still does not account for female princes.  Perhaps the name is taken today to be a reference to the phrase “what a prince” as a generic compliment.

According to the “History and Tradition” section of the school website:

The Student Prince of Heidelberg

As the story is told, the name was coined in 1926 by Edwin R. Butcher, Heidelberg’s alumni director and publicity agent. Butcher, it is said, was walking through downtown Tiffin when he noticed a theatre billboard promoting “The Student Prince of Heidelberg.”

Sigmund Romberg’s popular operetta, “The Student Prince” tells the story of a young German prince whose private tutor, a graduate of the University of Heidelberg, went to the king to request permission to place the isolated prince in the university where he could mingle with other students. The king agreed. At first, the sheltered prince hated university life with its common fraternity boys and dormitory life, even though he had private quarters. But with the encouragement of his tutor, the prince soon came to enjoy the academic experience. He even joined a fraternity and fell in love with a girl from Heidelberg.

Student Prince evokes images of that majestic castle overlooking the city of Heidelberg and the Neckar River and of the academic excellence, prestige and romantic charm of Germany’s oldest university. Heidelberg has long had close ties with its German counterpart, offering the highly acclaimed American Junior Year at Heidelberg University for more than 50 years.

In the next issue of the Heidelberg Bulletin Butcher tagged the football team the Student Princes, and the Student Princes they remained. Sports writers quickly picked up Butcher’s cue, and The Student Princes began to stick, eventually replacing The Cardinals as the official Heidelberg nickname.

NYT Article on Minorities in Prep Schools: Not News but Still Disturbing

Just read “Admitted but Left Out” Jenny Anderson’s New York Times piece on the prep school experiences of minority students in New York City. The student experiences on which she reports are not news in that the struggles of students of color and students of limited means at selective independent schools have been extensively documented.  Nonetheless, the continuation of those struggles and their being described in the same way they are in books written about experiences in the 70s and 80s is disturbing and saddening.

This comment particularly struck me:

“The schools point to efforts to hire diversity directors, create forums for discussion about race and privilege, and design mentoring programs to help students find connections. But several new film projects at some of these schools cast a bright light on the sometimes fraught intersection of race and class, and how the two play out in some New York City independent schools.”

It leaves me to wonder how much the diversity management canon, such as it is, involving faculty of color, diversity directors, and affinity groups can really change the culture of a school to the point where a diverse population feels totally comfortable.

After reading the article I went to the site for a film it mentioned Prep School Negro, and I saw that that film is been screened at prep schools all across the country.  I wonder what benefit screening that film will have at the various schools.  It may provide students with a sense that they are not alone.  It may give other members of the school community a sense of how far they have to go.  But will it really make a difference in day to day life?

Prep School Negro trailer:

Data Visualization: Median Incomes

The US Census posted this great map where one can pick an income level and see how many counties in the US have a median income above that mark.  I have been playing with it to show what I can learn about the intersection of geography and class.  It is also interesting to look at the list of counties in order by median income.

In green are the counties with incomes at or above $38,000. In white are those below.

 

Supreme Court Arguments on Affirmative Action

I think the Supreme Court will likely gut or eliminate affirmative action based on the way this recent case is going.  The case challenges the University of Texas’s use of race as a factor to be considered in admission.  The policy follows prior Supreme Court guidelines for an acceptable affirmative action policy: it does not set a quota, it does not have a rigid point system, it considers every student individually.  The only reason the court is hearing the case, I imagine is to revisit precedent since based on precedent this policy is constitutional.

Looking over Nina Totenberg’s reporting on NPR, I think the crux of the matter is how vague and as a result unpredictable and unsettling the current state of affairs is.  The current rule is that a school can aim for a “critical mass” of diverse students and no one knows what that is.  It can’t be defined or else it would be a quota, but since it can’t be defined it gives affirmative action this feeling of perpetual vagueness.

I support affirmative action policies for a variety of reasons not the least of which being that all kinds of students (legacies, athletes, artists) get preferential treatment for what they bring to the community,  so why shouldn’t students of diverse backgrounds.  However, in most of those other cases there are more set numbers.  A football team can give X number of scholarships.  A college orchestra needs Y number of violinists.  The numbers involved may be less transparent with legacies, but I bet there is a numerical imit.

I actually do not think there would be anything wrong with saying a school can use affirmative action to maintain a balance in its population similar to the percentages in the high school graduates of that state.  Of course the complaint would be about “less” qualified students being taken over “more” qualified students, but then again what do we mean by qualified?

Since my idea would never be approved in the real world, I wonder what would happen then if a school took the radical step of admitting their entire class based on taking the top 10% from each high school in the state.  This would guarantee diversity if the high schools stayed segregated. It would be race blind and utterly fair in a statistical sense.   But imagine the side effects…

Well, with the Supreme Court likely to ban affirmative action, perhaps some state will implement this radical policy and everyone can watch to see what happens.

Since critical mass implies a specific number, the Justice Scalia wondered if instead one should use a less concrete term. He then suggested a cloud.

Appropriate Biblical Passage for this Political Season

From the book of James Chapter 2 a passage that fits nicely with this political season:

 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. ³ If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” ⁴ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

 

Science: It’s a Girl Thing!

Note the lipstick replaces the “i” in Science

 

Courtesy of the European Commission comes this video to inspire girls’ interest in science.  Unfortunately, it surrounds images of science with stereotypical images such as lipstick and high heels to show the two can coexist.  No description, though really does it justice.  It is a great example of trying to do the right thing but accidentally confirming the idea one is trying to subvert.  I understand the desire to make science seem more appealing, but this video trivializes both science and women.

See also this analysis by Gwen Sharp at The Society Pages.

Black College Hires White Football Coach: White Coaches at HBCUs?

 

Jay Hobson, new Alcorn State football coach

Alcorn State, one of Americas HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) hired Jay Hopson, a white man, to be the head football coach.  On the one hand it would seem logical that a school dedicated to providing opportunities for blacks would hire a black coach thus giving him an opportunity he might not otherwise get as over time not many black coaches have been hired to fill head coaching positions in NCAA football.  Also, there is the issue of providing a role model for black youth and black males in particular.

On the other hand, if the idea is to fight discrimination, it would be counter intuitive to discriminate in hiring.  Additionally, if the point of sports is, in the end, to win, and Hopson brings the best chance for Alcorn State to win, he should be hired.  I do not believe there are too many athletic programs that are happy with a losing record even if they are presenting a positive political message through coach and athlete selection.  (I know that may be a false dichotomy.)

I think that this hiring is getting a lot of hype due to the centrality of football particularly in Southern culture.  As a New York Times article points out there are many white coaches at HBCUs in non-revenue sports (swimming and lacrosse at Howard), and as I blogged about earlier, there are many HBCU teams dominated by white athletes.  I know I am a white guy looking at this from the outside, but this hire seems reasonable.  I am not arguing that we are in a color blind universe or anything like that, but holding to strict, doctrinaire principles regarding who gets what jobs seems unreasonable today.

Howard University Women’s Lacrosse, on the left is coach Sarah Schermerhorn

Do You Find this Label Immediately Offensive?

Vodka bearing this label has been banned in Idaho for being offensive to Mormons.  In an NPR interview the distiller said  that this would not be offensive in any other region.  What do you think, especially readers not from Idaho or Utah?  Did you find the label immediately offensive?

Undocumented Entrepreneurs

I just read this piece, “I’m a Successful Entrepreneur but Might Get Deported” on CNN.  The article talks of undocumented immigrants who came to America as children when their parents entered the country illegally.  The children grew up, got educations (sometimes hindered by lack of access due to undocumented status) and have started businesses.

I have two contradictory reactions to this piece.  On the one hand I am saddened that these individuals find themselves in this situation.  Their stories of hard work and fear, determination balanced with ever lurking deportations, tug at my heartstrings.  These individuals did not choose to be in this situation, making me even more sympethetic.

On the other hand, these individuals are choosing to remain in this situation.  They could go back to their country of birth even though language and cultural issues would make that difficult.  Also, it is possible that their entrepreneurial activities are filling niches in the economy that other individuals here legally could fill.  Thus, they could be taking money away from others who according the law have a greater right to reside here. I am not, however, sure of that fact.  It is just a supposition.

In the end borrowing from Christian teaching regarding the poor and the oppressed as well as the idea of looking to a higher power beyond the laws of the state,  I tend to take the side of the undocumented entrepreneurs, but I certainly sympathize with the argument on the other side.

1940 Census Undercounted Blacks: How News is Spun

My gosh, the census lost Althea Gibson!

I was reading an article by CBS news on the fact the newly released 1940 census undercounted blacks.  The hook talked of famous tennis player Althea Gibson’s whole family being missing from the count and then the article went on to announce that over a million blacks were not counted.  I was horrified and thought that this is clear evidence of historical racism, white privilege, and all sorts of other awful things.  And I am still guessing those all probably played a role.  However, then I read a paragraph much further down:

According to census reports, the black undercount was estimated at 8.4 percent in 1940, meaning that a population counted at 12.9 million was actually more like 14.1 million. The undercount for the nonblack population was 5 percent, or about 6.3 million people. The total undercount for all races was 7.5 million.

So, they also failed to count 6.3 million non-black people.  Yes the percentage undercount for blacks was higher 8.4 to 5 percent, but this clearly was not a nefarious plot.  The Census Bureau just seems to have missed a lot of people back then.

Indeed this story can be read as an instance of blacks not counting in history as one commentator said.  However, it is also an example of how to spin statistics in a news story to get a particular reaction, and, I’ll admit, I did fall for the spin.