As the Hofstra University Department of Athletics celebrates the 50th anniversary of the passing of Title IX, we will honor, acknowledge, and inform our University community about some of the members of the Pride who helped make a difference at Hofstra and paved the way for today's current student-athletes, coaches, administrators, and teams. Leading up to the June 23 anniversary of the passage of Title IX, Hofstra Athletics will feature many individuals who played a role in enacting change or those whose experiences at Hofstra were enhanced by the efforts of those who came before them.

Title IX is a federal civil rights law in the United States of America that was passed as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program that receives funding from the federal government.

Please consider a gift to celebrate and support the 50th anniversary of Title IX! All proceeds from this campaign will go directly towards our Hofstra Athletics Pride Club account for women's athletics. 

This week we feature Dr. Eve Atkinson, who served as director at women's athletics at Hofstra and enjoyed a long career as an athletics administrator at several other institutions before moving to the academic side of college as a professor.  

A trailblazer for women in the field of college athletics, Dr. Eve Atkinson was Hofstra's first full-time director of women's athletics, a position she held from 1980 to 1984. She would later go on to become the first woman appointed director of athletics of a men and women's NCAA Division I program with NCAA Division I-AA football in the United States when she took over at Lafayette College in 1990.

Atkinson came to Hofstra after serving as head swimming coach at Yale. During her Hofstra tenure, she administered the women's athletics program and oversaw the construction of the $3.2 million Hofstra Swim Center, which was the first Olympic-sized pool on Long Island. Following the completion of the project and despite not having a swim team, Atkinson was behind the bidding process to bring the 1984 NCAA Division II Swimming Championships to Hofstra.

"Director of Athletics Bob Getchell, knowing my background in swimming, put me in charge of the Swim Center construction project," Atkinson explained. "It was the idea of President (James M.) Shuart to build an Olympic-size pool to help get Hofstra's name out and to drive revenue through rentals and membership. He also pushed for the swimming championships to be held here as the event was televised nationally and it was great publicity for the University. Dr. Shuart was really a visionary when it came to ideas that would raise Hofstra's profile."

Among Atkinson's proudest moments during her time at Hofstra is the camaraderie of the Hofstra staff during the hosting of the NCAA Swimming Championships. "It was all hands on deck and everyone on the staff rolled up their sleeves to help out. We gave them a quick tutorial on how to run a swimming championship and they were fabulous."

Atkinson was also a key figure in the hiring of Hall of Fame Volleyball Coach Fran Kalafer in 1981. "A very funny story about Fran's hiring is that her application actually came in after the deadline," Atkinson said. "Some people on the hiring committee said that we shouldn't even consider her, but I argued that she was the most qualified applicant and the best volleyball coach on Long Island. Fran's interview was outstanding and she turned out to be a great hire who did a lot for Hofstra volleyball and Hofstra athletics."

While at Hofstra, Atkinson also dealt with the continued implementation of Title IX as it pertained to the athletics program. "Title IX was slowly being implemented and there were some issues in funding not being equitable for the women's teams," Atkinson explained. "Scholarship allotments were different, the travel arrangements were different in that some men's teams rode in buses and the women's team drove in vans, and job roles were not equal in that women's sports coaches often had multiple jobs while the men's coaches had just one. These issues were not just at Hofstra. They were common throughout college athletics. But we made some dents and Bob, who was my boss, was good to deal with when I came to him with requests for things."

In 1984, Atkinson left Hofstra to join the Temple athletics department in their women's athletics program and became an associate director of athletics when the women and men's departments merged. While at Temple, she instituted a drug and alcohol awareness program for student-athletes that included drug testing which was one of the first on the collegiate level in the United States. Dr. Atkinson wrote an article entitled, "A Drug Awareness Program is Preventive Medicine," which explained the details of Temple's state-of-the-art DETER program and the article was published in Athletic Administration magazine.

She left Temple in 1990 to begin an 11-year stint at Lafayette. During her tenure at Lafayette, Atkinson restructured the athletic department administration and budgeting procedures, developed computer operations, and enhanced marketing, promotional, and development efforts for the department. Atkinson was at the forefront of the construction of the Allan P. Kirby Sports Center, a project that saw a $24 million, 110,000-square foot intramural and recreational sports facility attached to the former Allan P. Kirby Field House, and $2.5 million in renovations and major face-lifts to the existing structure.

With growth in the number of women in positions of authority at NCAA institutions, Atkinson realizes the significance of her hire but was quick to say, "I don't feel I started this. Many others who came before me. Two who come to mind are Ellie Lemaire, who was at Rhode Island for many years, and Ellen Perry, who was a long-time Penn State administrator. They were outstanding role models and taught me a great deal about dealing with Title IX issues. I really look at them as the trailblazers in this industry."

Atkinson, who received the 1996 ECAC Female Administrator of the Year Award and the 1997 ECAC Katherine Ley Award, served as ECAC president and was inducted into the organization's hall of fame in 2015.

In addition to her roles at Hofstra, Temple, and Lafayette, Atkinson was also director of athletics at Cheyney State in Pennsylvania from 2001 to 2004. She then returned to her alma mater, West Chester University, to serve as a professor in the department of kinesiology and later as graduate coordinator of the master of public administration in sports and athletics program. On the coaching front, Atkinson was head coach of women's swimming at Yale University, the University of Massachusetts, and Temple University.

A 12-time All-American in swimming, and a member of the 1972 national championship team at West Chester (then known as West Chester State College), Atkinson also played field hockey and lacrosse. She earned a bachelor's degree and master's degree in health and physical education from West Chester and her doctorate from Temple.

In a pre-Title IX era, Atkinson sought equality in athletics while a student-athlete. "The men's team at West Chester, which was not a championship level team, was funded by the athletics department whereas the women were not," she said. "Our funding came from student government and the year after we won the national championship, we almost did not get the opportunity to defend it due to our travel request being turned down. Luckily, our coaches were able to secure the funding at the last minute and we were able to go. Another issue we fought for was that the men's team had school issued swimsuits, while we had to buy our own. These were the issues that women athletes faced before Title IX and in the years after as things slowly got better."

Even as a professor, Atkinson continued an emphasis on equality by having her graduate students do a case study of Division I Football Bowl Subdivision institutions and their Title IX compliance. Decades after the law was signed into effect, not one school that was studied has been 100-percent in compliance according to the research. "Things have gotten a better since Title IX was passed and things are more equitable in certain areas, but it is incredible that the students never found one school that was at 100 percent nearly 50 years later."

While Atkinson may not feel that she is a trailblazer, there is no denying her place in Hofstra Athletics history and her role in the ushering in Title IX at the University.