As the trial of two former Vanderbilt football players charged with rape is underway, a long-dormant discussion surrounding universities’ football recruitment has begun again.
In the Vanderbilt trial, defense lawyers have suggested the woman who has accused these football players of rape was involved in Vanderbilt’s recruitment process for those players. This victim-blaming suggestion has prompted a broader conversation about what, exactly, women’s roles are in the recruitment process. Some schools have been known to use “hostesses” to help recruit prospective football players. While the requirements of a hostess are ambiguous, they can consist of greeting players, taking them around the school and even exposing them to the school’s nightlife.
The potential for sexualization of hostesses in the recruitment process is problematic. Presenting prospective student athletes with women in an objectifying context only enhances an imbalanced power dynamic between athletes and female students at many schools. The implication is that if prospective student athletes come to that particular institution, they will be greeted by women in the manner hostesses greet them. This suggestion fuels a culture of male dominance. And this culture is not only sexist: it can manifest itself in violent ways, too.
Studies have indicated student athletes have been found to commit higher rates of campus sexual assaults, and though the cause of this trend is unclear, an inherently sexist practice like providing hostesses to potential recruits could perpetuate this problem. Perhaps the most scandalous situation involving a hostess occurred at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2001, when a woman reported she was raped by two recruits. As the case unfolded, documents said the recruits were given “third-party consent” to have sex with a woman, presumably from the school’s athletic department — an incentive for the recruits to attend that institution.
The use of hostesses in the recruitment process has not dissipated in the years since the Colorado incident. Though the NCAA eliminated gender-specific hostess group names — not the existence of hostesses themselves — and banned alcohol, sex, drugs and gambling in recruitment in 2004, issues involving hostesses still arise. In 2013, former Oklahoma state players acknowledged that recruits and school hostesses regularly had sex. Though there has been no suggestion that these encounters were nonconsensual, such practices can lead to an expectation that hostesses are there precisely to engage in sexual activity.
These practices send the wrong message not only about a school’s commitment to gender equality, but also about the very purpose of attending a higher institution of learning. Recruits should be seeking out institutions that will best match their athletic and academic needs, and universities should be encouraging this type of attitude in their recruitment processes. Since universities may be loath to regulate their hostess programs so long as other schools don’t (for fear of losing a competitive edge), the NCAA should better enforce its regulations on the use of hostesses in college recruitment. Doing so would demonstrate initiative on the NCAA’s part, and improve a practice that can lead to exploitation.
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