On Nov. 22, the Charlatan published an editorial which criticized Carleton’s athletics department for putting a heavier emphasis on advertising the men’s varsity games than the women’s games. The men’s team played in front of a massive crowd at TD Place that weekend, while the women’s team played at the Ice House the week before.
After it was published, two Instagram accounts for women’s rugby and hockey, which were run by student athletes, shared screenshots from the Carleton Athletics Instagram account, highlighting the disparity between the number of posts promoting men’s versus women’s games.
The students running the accounts were then told by Carleton’s Athletics Department to log out, that the accounts were unsanctioned and did not comply with the school’s social media policy.
The university then announced the Department of Equity and Inclusive Communities will be holding a meeting with varsity athletes to address the complaints about gender inequality. The fact that these “unsanctioned” accounts were allowed to exist as long as they were promoting games, and not criticizing the university, shows that this has nothing to do with the school’s social media policy.
This was a red herring to distract from the fact that the students running the accounts were right. Carleton Athletics does give promotion for men’s games preferential treatment, and students should not be reprimanded for speaking out about it. Hopefully, the meeting with Equity provided a fair forum for athletes, male and female, to have their voices heard without fear of retribution from the university.
File photo.
