Mikela Almeida, a junior on the rowing team, was at a party one weekend night when she felt violated.

The boy she danced with was drunk and made her feel uncomfortable. So she asked one of her male athlete friends to help her out, and he took care of the situation.

“It was a situation I was never put in before, so I commend (my friend),” she said. 

Nearly 50 students gathered at Goldstein Student Center on Monday night to discuss sexual assault on campus with a panel of nine Syracuse University athletes. The discussion became heated when the members of the panel discussed their experiences with how their coaches’ languages related to the way they viewed women. Other topics addressed included negative stereotypes of athletes, friendships among teammates and respecting female athletes.

“Often, there is a view of student-athletes that isn’t always positive,” said Jessica Henry, a junior marketing major who led the discussion. “But we need to show that student-athletes are student leaders.”

Henry started the discussion, titled “SU Athletes against Sexual Violence,” by asking the audience to list stereotypes about student-athletes. Among some of the responses were unfair privileges, such as getting to miss certain classes or assignments and being offered money to play for the university.

But Lucy Schoedel, a member of the women’s hockey team, said not all athletes follow the stereotypes. Negative characteristics in athletes are merely more noticed than average, she said.

The discussion then turned to the language coaches use when addressing athletes. Almeida, the member of the rowing team, said her coaches often told her to “man up” or “play like a man.”

“If I was more aggressive, I was playing like a man, acting like a man,” she said.

Amadou Gueye, a freshman track member on the panel, said he has as much respect for female athletes as he does for male athletes. 

“For people who actually see how hard that women work, we have a high respect for them,” he said.

Just because there may be degrading language on the field does not mean that will occur off the field, Gueye said. Athletes know how to differentiate between the life on and off the field, he said. And his teammates, especially those he respects, help to keep him in check, he said.

When you spend that much time with your teammates, they become your friends and your brothers, said Josh White, a junior football player.

“You don’t spend as much time with your coach as you do with your friends,” he said. “They’ve been through the battle with me. They even shed blood with me.”

But even teammates cannot always stop each other from doing something wrong, said Shamel Lewis, a member of the track team. 

A female member of the audience challenged his statement. She said if teammates respect one another, they will listen to what they have to say. 

Athletes are leaders and many students look up to them, White said. They should be responsible for creating awareness of situations like sexual violence, he said. But he also said non-athletes should take the initiative to educate athletes as well.

Tiffany Viruet, a sophomore social work major, said the panel helped to maintain a riveting discussion with the audience.

“It was a necessary dialogue between role models and normal, everyday students,” she said.

Published on April 26, 2010 at 12:00 pm