 Visionary athletic governance: lessons from student-athletes and the AIAWDiane L. Williams Chapter 3 in Reimagining the Gendering of Sport, 2025, pp 35-49 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: The so-called “twin pandemics” of Covid-19 and racial violence in the United States brought major challenges to intercollegiate sport and the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) commercial approach to governance. Student-athletes across the country organized for racial justice and gender equity, demanding to be heard and supported fully by their institutions, their fans, and the governing organization. In light of this moment, the failing of the NCAA's model is exposed—the value of intercollegiate athletics and athletes cannot only be judged through a commercial frame. History offers alternative models to explore this. Between 1972 and 1982, the women-led Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) led with a student-centered, educationally based model. Exploring issues of gender and sport parity, racial justice, and student engagement in the AIAW allows for creative thinking and vision for intercollegiate sports—beyond the NCAA norms—and reimagines sport and gender in the interest of the inherent value of all who play. Keywords: Student-athletes; Student activism; Athletic governance; Racial justice; Gender equity; Intercollegiate athletics (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22230_3 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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