Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/458422
Not just about sports When Roy LaFever started teaching chemistry at CSU Bakersfield in 1996, nearly all of the professors and admin- istrators were men. "Now we have a healthy mix in key staff when it comes to academic and administrative positions. The old boys' club is long gone," says LaFever, a faculty athletics representative and member of the California Faculty Asso- ciation, CSU Bakersfield. STEM courses were once dominated by males at his school, but now females are taking advantage of opportu- nities that can lead to high-paying careers. "The world is changing. More female students are tak- ing chemistry classes and majoring in the sciences." Undergrad Amanda Nesbit, a chemistry major who A lawsuit in Alhambra provided girls with the same amenities as the boys and encouraged girls to go out for sports, says Eileen Kaiser. plays water polo, doesn't think she's breaking the barriers or doing anything that unusual. "I've always liked chemistry because it's how the world works, and it seemed logical for me to become a scientist," says Nesbit. "Maybe girls hav- en't always been given as much attention as boys, but I think we should. Title IX has helped women and given them the confidence to go out there and reach their goals." For LaFever, it's not enough that Title IX is law in the United States. "I would like for the world to adopt Title IX," he says. "It would be won- derful — and the right thing to do." Implementation presents challenges One of the cases that Kristen helped litigate — and won — involved Alhambra High School. In 2003, the city of Alhambra and the Alhambra Unified School District spent $900,000 to build two state-of-the-art baseball diamonds exclu- sively for the boys' baseball team and a third multiuse field that was supposed to be used for both baseball and softball, but was not available to girls. While the boys' baseball program had exclusive access to brand-new fields, the girls' softball teams played on small nonregulation fields with holes in 39 V O L U M E 1 9 I S S U E 6