Worries over equal treatment of women’s athletics have been sweeping the country.

This of course raises the question, how does NIU rank in its treatment of women’s sports? Does NIU treat women’s sports equally with men’s in terms of publicity, financial support and attendance?

Bobbie Cesarek, NIU’s women’s gymnastics coach, thinks her sport gets pretty good exposure.

“In relation to the non-revenue sports, I think we do very well,” she said. “We are an audience appeal sport.”

When asked how gymnastics compared with men’s sports financially, Cesarek was uncertain how the funding of her sport compares with men’s sports.

“I don’t know the base-line budgets,” she said. “But I think we’re treated pretty fairly.”

Cesarek also said gymnastics has fared well with scholarships, always handing out the maximum number they are given.

NIU Woman’s Softball Coach Dee Abrahamson also felt her sport was given fair treatment by NIU in terms of money..

“I know the department did a study on money spent per athlete and we’re very high on the list,” she said.

She also said the softball team uses a lot of equipment but has no problem in getting new equipment when old equipment wears out.

Abrahamson was unsure of how women’s softball fared in attendance compared with men’s sports.

“We’re not sure right now,” she said. “We don’t get many in bad weather but we get more per game than baseball because we have more tradition than they have.”

Cesarek thought the attendance at gymnastics meets was good.

“We do very well,” she said, “but we’d like to see more.”

She said there is no admissions charge for gymnastics which is a plus for her sport.

Perhaps the essence of woman’s sports at NIU was summed up best by Abrahamson.

“We compare pretty favorably in publicity,” she said.

“In relation to the non-revenue sports I think we do very well. We are an audience appeal sport.”

Bobbie Cesarek, NIU’s women’s gymnastics coach