Athletics considering adding women's sports
Athletics Director Dave Heeke said it is "likely" Central Michigan will add more women's varsity sports in the future.
Heeke said as part of the Athletics Department 2012 gender equity plan, the department will continue to evaluate “how new sports impact (CMU’s) gender equity numbers.”
“As our enrollment continues to fluctuate and it becomes more significantly women (at CMU), we have to continually adjust to that,” Heeke said. “Over the last couple years, there’s been a spike in enrollment of women. We have to evaluate those numbers again, so there’s a strong likelihood we would have to be looking at adding additional sports.”
Women made up 59 percent of the university's 3,486 first-time college freshmen in 2015.
The total number of women enrolled at CMU was 10,739 undergraduate and graduate students in 2014, which made up 54 percent of the total 19,858 student population.
Female students have made up a majority of the student body as far back as 1980, when 9,430 female students and 7,482 male students attended the university.
Heeke said the department meets with CMU’s Gender Equity Committee regularly to remain in compliance with Title IX, which requires gender equity between men and women in education programs with federal funding.
The department has not decided which sports will be added, Heeke said.
The Board of Trustees agreed to add women’s golf and lacrosse in 2012, which gave the Athletic Department 10 women’s sports and six men’s.
"We have a list of all those sports that are out there that are sponsored by Division I, that are emerging sports by the NCAA," Heeke said. "Then we have to evaluate how that fits here. Could we bring on that sport? Would we need to construct new facilities? There are an abundance of things you look at."
The only women's sports sponsored by the Mid-American Conference that CMU does not participate in are swimming & diving as well as tennis. Other NCAA-sponsored women's sports CMU does not participate in include beach volleyball, bowling, fencing, ice hockey, rifle, rowing, skiing and water polo.
