By MARISA VAN BRUNT

David Hanna, right, with Washington and Lee Head Coach Frank Miriello, coaches a football game at Wilson Field. (Washington and Lee Sports)

Top positions in college sports fail to reflect the diversity of their sports’ participants nationwide, according to a 2008 survey by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

The survey, released Feb. 19, found that more than 90 percent of athletics directors throughout the NCAA were white, and that the number of women athletics directors and conference commissioners held steady or declined in most categories.

At Washington and Lee University, women hold the two top posts in the athletic department. Jan Hathorn is the school’s athletics director, and Shana Levine is associate director of athletics.  But only two of 41 coaches are African-American.

The conference W&L belongs to, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, says it has seen some success in efforts to improve diversity.  Brad Bankston, commissioner of the Salem-based organization, said having a diverse culture in which to work and play is vital to any institution of higher learning.

Earlier this month, the league held a diversity seminar for students and sports administrators at the Hotel Roanoke.

The ODAC Board of Directors, made up of representatives from the 12 member schools, includes four women.  All board members are white. Bankston is the ODAC’s second commissioner since 1976. Both he and his predecessor are white males.

Washington and Lee sports information director Brian Laubscher said the university has always made it a point to look for and hire qualified female coaches to coach women’s sports.

“Washington and Lee believes that it is very important to interview and hire quality candidates from a diverse population,” Laubscher said. “Obviously, having a qualified candidate is the chief concern when hiring a member of the athletic department, but we are always pleased to learn of qualified applicants that come from various backgrounds.”

Hathorn, the former field hockey coach, was offered the job two years ago because she presented the best vision for the department, according to Laubscher. 

"The appointment of Jan Hathorn was the appropriate move because she was and is the best person to move the department forward,” Laubscher said.  “She has a vision for the department and she has done a good job of pulling everyone together to work toward that vision.”

Laubscher said W&L could promote more diversity, but he said diversity was a societal rather than an institutional problem. He noted that sometimes the best candidate for a position is not necessarily of the same sex, race or ethnicity as the players, citing Neil Cunningham, the women’s head soccer coach, as an example.  

"I think that the university has demonstrated a commitment to hiring qualified minority candidates,” he said. “But it's obvious when you look around the department that we could use more ethnic diversity.”

W&L has 41 coaches, including assistants, for 21 men’s and women’s sports teams. Nine coaches are women; two are minorities, the head basketball coach and an assistant football coach.  Figures for Virginia Military Institute and Southern Virginia University could not be confirmed.

W&L senior Katie Flippen, who plays lacrosse, says that women’s sports at W&L received great publicity and support from the school even before Hathorn’s promotion.

"I have not seen any immense changes since having a female athletic director,” Flippen said. “But I would attribute that to the excellent job that W&L has done in previous years to create equal opportunities in sports for men and women.”

Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.

Lead Supervisors:
Prof. Brian Richardson
Prof. Indira Somani

Editing supervisor:
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Technical supervisor: Michael Todd