Thursday, October 18, 2007

FGCU volleyball coach put on leave

I had thought--given their reluctance to talk about the issues--that administrators at Florida Gulf Coast University wanted all the attention regarding gender discrimination and female coaches to just go away. But if that's the case, they are not doing anything to help themselves. The situation in the Athletics Department keep getting stranger and stranger. Golf coach Holly Vaughn left this week in the middle of her season saying she was "growing tired of the situation." And on Monday the 15th, the administration put head volleyball coach Jaye Flood--the only remaining female head coach--on paid administrative leave--because of unnamed "student welfare issues" that seem to stem from a particular practice session in early October. (See the memo Flood received here.)
But Flood is not going to wait around to see what an investigation finds. She is asking to be reinstated and has hired a D.C. lawyer with extensive experience in gender discrimination cases. She is also getting help from Florida Coastal law professor and Title IX expert Nancy Hogshead-Makar.
Though we don't know the specifics, it seems likely that this latest move by AD Carl McAloose and the FGCU administration is motivated by Flood's participation in the original Title IX complaint and her refusal to back down in support of gender equity and her student-athletes.

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