A Kickoff for Change

Following a tumultuous year in the Athletics Department, initiated by shocking revelations about the culture of the men’s soccer team last fall, Harvard has implemented five mandatory training programs on topics ranging from gender and sexual harassment to unconscious bias. We commend the Athletics Department for taking substantive steps to reform team cultures and increase transparency. However, we hope that these reforms are only the starting point in what will be a sustained effort.

The Athletics Department should take additional steps to ensure that student voices are heard and that student athletes feel at home while competing for Harvard. Moreover, administrators must also be conscious of the various ways these trainings can be formatted so as to ensure that athletes take them seriously. In particular, facilitators of the trainings should try to balance the respective benefits of creating dialogue within teams and between teams and the larger student body.

Compelling all teams to undergo training on diversity and sexual harassment begins a conversation, but preventing “locker room talk” will require a broader cultural shift than five sessions a year. True change comes when students actively work to improve their teams, and we urge student athletes to be peer leaders in calling out inappropriate language and behavior when they witness it.

In line with this approach, we also encourage the Athletics Department to be responsive to student concerns and feedback. Student athletes should be able to rely on the department when voicing concerns about toxic team cultures or even their own coaches. It is essential that the department be not only reactive to headline-catching scandals, but also proactive, actively seeking out feedback on how it can continue to improve in the near future.

As the Athletics Department continues to hire new coaches and administrators, it should evaluate candidates not only in terms of their track record in athletic management, but also on the basis of their commitment to issues of diversity and harassment. New coaches should have specific proposals for how to protect their athletes and foster healthy team cultures that enable team members to balance athletics with the rest of their lives at Harvard.

With cases such as the men’s soccer team, it is clear that toxic cultures of masculinity have made other athletes feel unsafe. Therefore, we also encourage the Athletic Department to be mindful of the gender gap in coaching. In response, the department ought to make recruiting more female coaches to campus a priority.

We hope that these new trainings are an indication that more steps will be taken to improve the department. While winning on the field is perhaps more exciting than institutional reforms, a truly successful athletics program is one that takes care of all its players.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.