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. 

Today, we profile Dr. James M. and Marjorie Strunk Shuart, who contributed to the success of Hofstra Athletics and had a profound impact on Hofstra's Title IX efforts. We also include testimonials from members of the Hofstra community - Dr. Sylvia J. Giallombardo, Cindy Lewis, Bill Edwards, and Eve Atkinson - who worked with them over the years. 

Dr. James M. Shuart, a 1953 graduate, was a standout on the football and men's lacrosse teams, as well as team captain in both sports. Following graduation, he spent two years in the U.S. Army, and returned to the University to earn a master's degree in 1962. He later earned a Ph.D. from New York University in 1966.
 
Dr. Shuart joined the Hofstra administration as an admissions officer in 1959 and subsequently served in various positions until 1971. At that time he was appointed commissioner of social services for Nassau County, a post he held for three years until becoming deputy Nassau County executive. He also served as a member of the Hofstra board of trustees from 1973 through 1975 and returned to the University full-time in 1975 as vice president for administrative services.
 
After becoming Hofstra president in 1976, he served for 25 years, retiring in 2001. Dr. Shuart established a plan that focused on quality in academics and campus resources. Under his direction Hofstra became a prestigious and successful institution of higher learning, recognized by its peers through various prominent academic accreditations. Hofstra grew and expanded in many ways under his leadership: enrollment increased, academic offerings and library holdings more than doubled, athletics grew to Division I status, our internationally respected presidential conferences began, new facilities, buildings, and wings were constructed that more than doubled the University's physical space, the School of Communication was founded and Hofstra became the first private university campus in the nation to be fully accessible to the physically challenged. 

The University's athletic programs also flourished under his leadership. After moving to Division I, Hofstra's programs grew in stature as well as in quantity, with volleyball, women's lacrosse, women's soccer, and women's golf becoming varsity sports during his tenure. Hofstra's facilities were also updated with the construction of the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex and the Hofstra Swim Center, as well as upgrades to what is now known as Bill Edwards Stadium (softball) and James M. Shuart Stadium (renamed in his honor in 2002). Dr. Shuart also oversaw changes in Hofstra's conference affiliation as the program moved from the East Coast Conference to the North Atlantic/America East to the Colonial Athletic Association during his presidency.  

Following his retirement in 2001, Dr. Shuart remained an ardent supporter of Hofstra Athletics. He was an honoree at the 2004 Hofstra Pride Club Dinner and in 2006 was inducted into the Hofstra Athletics Hall of Fame. Dr. Shuart passed away in 2016.

Marjorie Strunk Shuart, a 1960 graduate of Hofstra, was a two-year letterwinner on the women's basketball team in 1951 and 1952 and remains an ardent supporter of Hofstra Athletics to this day. After receiving her degree in elementary education, Shuart taught first grade and in 1979 earned a master's in social work from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York.
 
In 1982, Marjorie Shuart began her career in government, working as a social worker with the Nassau County Department of Mental Health. She served the department in a variety of positions until she was appointed deputy commissioner in 1988. In 1992, she was promoted to commissioner of the department, a post she held until retiring in 1997.
 
In addition to her commissionership, Marjorie Shuart was a member of the Nassau County HIV Commission, the Mental Health Committee of the New York State Conference of Mental Hygiene Directors and the Nassau County Health and Welfare Council.
 
Following her retirement, she served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Nassau County Mental Health Association and on the Board of the Logan Foundation. She was also chair of the Nassau County Early Intervention Community Council.
 
Marjorie Shuart was honored in 1997 by the Nassau County AHRC Foundation with its Humanitarian Award for her outstanding efforts and devotion to helping children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families.
 
The Shuarts were married in 1953, and have two children and five grandchildren.

"Jim Shuart was a man whom I respected immensely. He was someone who was willing to be educated on the needs of women athletes and always listened. His support made it so much easier in the end for the women's athletic program at Hofstra to begin to flourish. Yes, history at Hofstra will show that nudging him as a result of Title IX encouraged him to move forward with the women's program. I believe it was his encouragement that has fostered the growth of the program, but more importantly, he helped the program gain the respect they enjoy today. In his time, it was the "old guard" who ran athletics, but because he was willing to listen to our needs, the program began its rise. Marjorie, always supportive, was there for us."

Dr. Sylvia J. Giallombardo
Hofstra Director of Women's Athletics (1961-79)

"When the Hofstra Swim Center was built, Dr. Shuart was in the forefront as a leader. His goal was to have the first 50-meter Olympic size pool on Long Island. He then encouraged us to bid to host the NCAA Division II Swimming Championships as a way to showcase Hofstra to a national television audience on ESPN. Dr. Shuart was really a visionary when it came to ideas that would raise Hofstra's profile."

Dr. Eve Atkinson
Hofstra University Director of Women's Athletics (1980-84)

"Dr. Shuart was very instrumental at the start of Title IX to help women's sports in various ways - enhancing scholarship opportunities, facility improvements, and other aspects of the program that allowed women's sports to grow including additional funding for coaches and travel. Scholarships were the key as it opened up our ability to recruit experienced players in a sport rather than rely on walk-ons or teaching the sport to new players. Dr. Shuart participated in that whole process and it was a three to seven year process, as it could not be done all at once. Marjorie has always been supportive of women's sports, having been a student-athlete at Hofstra, and understood the value of having a strong program on both the men's and women's side. My personal experience with both is that they were both very inclusive. When we would attend NCAA Conventions and each school would have one vote, there were many times where I would sit next to Dr. Shuart and when a vote came I would look at him and he would tell me to 'vote what you think'. It was very instrumental as a new administrator to have that experience. I feel that Dr. Shuart and Marjorie Shuart were part of the building blocks of Title IX at Hofstra. During his presidency, both the women's and men's programs were enhanced and his leadership put us on the path to be a more competitive athletics program."

Cindy Lewis
Hofstra Executive Associate Director of Athletics

"Even though my tenure at Hofstra started later in my coaching career, the impact and influence that Dr. Shuart had on me was immeasurable. I remember after meeting with Dr. Shuart, I understood the direction he wanted to take Hofstra athletics, and I knew that I was excited to be a part of it. I never wanted to let him down because he was such a dynamic individual. As time went on, seeing Dr. Shuart and Marjorie as fans in the stands at our games really confirmed to me his commitment to athletics and it served as more motivation to me and our student-athletes. When I took the Hofstra job, we had a broken pitching machine, six bats, a bag of softballs, a multi-purpose grass field and 1 ½  scholarships. True to his word, a few years later we were a fully-funded program with one of the best softball stadiums in the Northeast. We were traveling the country to take on the best competition and our program reached new heights. He gave me an opportunity that I will be forever grateful for and the only way I could thank him for what he did for me and our program was to represent Hofstra in the way that he would want it to be represented, and to win as many conference titles as we could. Dr. Shuart was a coach's and a student-athlete's president. He knew our records, he knew our players, he knew our schedules. He cared and appreciated the effort that Hofstra student-athletes put forth on a daily basis."

Bill Edwards
Hofstra Softball Coach (1990-2014)