Reflection

At the beginning of my research process I discovered hat there is not always helpful information where you think you may find it and then a ton of helpful information where you would never expect it! I learned this when I discovered that the archives had no physical sources with “Title IX.” This meant that I had to be patient looking for my information, and also creative in terms of where to find it.

As my research process continued, I was surprised at how many articles from the Trinitonian were opinion pieces. Often, the articles were written by students who clearly wrote articles in a biased manner. There were not many articles written from a neutral perspective. In retrospect, it is not actually that surprising, given that is how most Trinitonian articles are written still today, yet I had hoped to find more information from neutral sources that I have been able to.

When I was close to finishing my research process, I discovered that I was not as incompetent in my archival searches as I had originally thought. When I went in to see Professor Graf in the library, she also said that she could not find anything in the archives about Title IX. This surprised us both, but definitely made me feel less stupid, since I originally thought I just could not find the information even though it was there. It made me wonder why there was nothing in there because it was an extremely popular topic in the Trinitonian. This made it apparent that often times the historical research process is hindered by the organization of sources, which is something that I had never thought I would encounter.

This project proved to be much more interesting and fulfilling than I expected it to be. I learned not only about all the different resources we have at Trinity, but also a great deal about our past athletic administrations and current athletic administration. As a female athlete, knowing how passionate our Athletic and Assistant Athletic Directors are about Title IX made me feel proud to be an athlete here. This school has provided me with incredible athletic opportunities, and I am sure much of that is due to Title IX.