The Student Government Association (SGA) held a press conference yesterday in conjunction with former athlete Jordan Veney and freshman sprinter Stephanie Mattar to discuss their recent allegations of racial discrimination from UMass women’s track and field coach Julie LaFreniere.
The press conference was part of Veney’s ongoing battle with the University over scholarship money. In November, LaFreniere cut Veney from the women’s track team and Veney, an African-American, believes that racial discrimination was involved in LaFreniere’s handling of the situation.
Veney appealed LaFreniere’s decision to Athletic Director John McCutcheon, who sided with LaFreniere. Veney then sent a letter to the University asking for the reinstatement of her $20,000 scholarship. The University received the letter on April 27 and has yet to respond. Veney said that she will wait until the end of this week before suing the University on the grounds of racism and discrimination.
Yesterday’s press conference, held in the Cape Cod Lounge in the Student Union building, featured Veney, Mattar, former sprinter Elisabeth Budd, and men’s track team member Manuel Harris-Lopes sharing their concerns about alleged discrimination within the track program.
“The SGA is hosting this forum because we have been aware of racial discrimination within the athletic program for some time, particularly with the women’s track and field team,” said moderator Malcolm Chu. “After considering the issue at hand, it has become clear that the athletes here today have a thoroughly legitimate concern.”
Veney followed with her statements, which described the series of events that led up to her removal from the team in November, events that she felt represented a pattern of discrimination from LaFreniere.
“This [press conference] is step number two in my overall case revolving around the University and the track program,” Veney said. “Step number two is this press conference, which is to get the word around that what’s going on should not have gone on, and to support the people who it has happened to who cannot speak, are speaking now or just don’t know what they want to do.”
Mattar spoke after Veney, and cited several instances that, according to Mattar, illustrate LaFreniere’s discrimination.
“I feel that I have been discriminated against and set to a different standard than the white athletes on the team,” Mattar said.
Mattar’s scholarship was recently reduced to $10,000 from $20,000 and LaFreniere, according to Mattar, said that the reduction was the result of a lack of contribution to the team.
“As far as the statistics are concerned, I am the best middle distance runner on the team,” Mattar said.
When Mattar asked LaFreniere why her scholarship had been cut in half, LaFreniere replied that she had no statistical evidence to back up her statement, according to Mattar.
Budd ran for the women’s track team from 2002 to 2006 as a sprinter and was UMass’ top sprinter in the 500-meter race and the 400-meter race during her junior season.
Budd, however, didn’t receive any scholarship money until her junior year, despite posting the Minutewomen’s best time in the 400-meter race in her freshman year, and placing consistently in the top 10 competitors in A-10 Championship events during her freshman and sophomore seasons.
Budd also claimed that friction existed between her and LaFreniere from the start.
“When I was a freshman, Julie [LaFreniere] told me that I would never amount to anything, and that I would be allowed to participate just because I ran in high school. This is far from the first incident that I know of.”
Members of the women’s track and field team were present in matching black UMass polo shirts. After the press conference, several members of the women’s team refuted Veney and Mattar’s allegations.
“I would never call my coach a racist,” said Troyanah Evans, an African-American sprinter and jumper on the women’s team. Evans did say that communication between the different pieces of the athletic department needed improvement, and could have led to Veney and Mattar’s present situation.
“There should be communication between coaches, trainers and the athletic department, and there’s not enough of that,” Evans added. “I wouldn’t say that Julie is a racist.”
“For someone to be racist . . . that’s a really loaded word,” said Dionise Miranda, an African-American sophomore sprinter. “For Julie [LaFreniere] to be racist I feel like she would have had to discriminate against all of us [African-Americans] and taken away all of our scholarships.”
Jennifer Curtin, a middle distance runner, believes that the revoking of scholarships isn’t anything specific to African-Americans on the women’s track team, though she wouldn’t disclose the names of any white athletes who had their scholarships either reduced or taken away.
“There have been white girls that have been kicked off of the team and their scholarships removed,” Curtin, a Caucasian, said after the press conference yesterday. “If you have a bad attitude then that is one of the deciding factors.”
Rob Greenfield can be reached at [email protected].
