University of
Iowa's pink visitors' locker room causes uproar

After decades of relative anonymity, the flamboyant pink visitors' locker room at the University of Iowa's Kinnick Stadium is making some on the campus, located in Iowa City, see red. A raucous debate about the color scheme--which covers the showers, carpeting, and lockers--intensified this week as critics declared the decor demeaning to gays and women. They are demanding that it be removed. The visitors' locker room was first painted pink in the 1980s at the behest of legendary Iowa coach Hayden Fry. He believed the color had the effect of making visiting football teams more passive. Many students and faculty members became aware of the paint job only recently, during the National Collegiate Athletic Association's certification study of the school's athletics this year. The NCAA is investigating gender equity at the University of Iowa, among other matters. "I want the locker room gone," law school professor Jill Gaulding told the certification committee. "One solution to reducing stereotypes, especially negative ones, is to not have them around." Visiting law school professor Erin Buzuvis was also a vocal critic of the locker room's color, saying pink is associated with young girls and that its use in a football locker room is sexist and homophobic. "It is equivalent to painting the word 'sissy' or 'girlie man' all across the walls," she said. When she voiced those opinions on her Web site, Buzuvis claims, she received death threats.

University president David Skorton condemned those threats. "I am asking the Office of the General Counsel, the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, and the Department of Public Safety to review these threats and to take appropriate actions based on their findings," he said in a statement. Steve Parrott, university spokesman, said he believed it was reverence toward Fry rather than blatant homophobia or sexism that caused such vitriolic reaction to Buzuvis's opinion. "This is something reasonable people can disagree on, but let's keep it civil and fair," he said. Parrott said a final decision would be made on the locker room once the committee finishes their compliance study early next year. (Neal Broverman, Advocate.com)