New Report: It Wasn't Just Harvard's Soccer Team

CAMBRIDGE, MA — After last week's decision to end the men's soccer team's year early over revelations of sexually explicit "scouting reports," the dust had barely settled in Harvard Yard before the student paper unearthed another series of rankings Sunday, this time from the men's cross country team.

According to The Harvard Crimson, Harvard University's men’s cross country team "produced yearly spreadsheets about members of the women’s team, sometimes writing 'sexually explicit' comments about them." Those spreadsheets, obtained by the Crimson, were produced before an annual dance with the women's cross country team, and reportedly speculated about who would go together to the dance, and in some cases commented on women's appearance or sexual aptitude.

The current men's cross country captain assured the Crimson in an interview that "team culture has shifted" since a particularly shameful 2014 report, and that the team's 2016 spreadsheet "does not contain any lewd comments."

>>> Read the full story in The Harvard Crimson here <<<

While the cross country team's "spreadsheet" revelations don't appear to be as vulgar as the soccer team's so-called "scouting reports," they suggest a more pervasive culture across the Harvard Athletics Department, rather than a single team's transgression.

The "spreadsheet" news follows reports last week about the men's soccer team's "report," which ranked incoming members of the 2012 women's soccer team. It reportedly included pictures of the new freshmen recruits, as well as a numerical ranking and recommended sexual position, described in graphic detail.

Harvard Athletics Director Bob Scalise told student athletes last Thursday the men's soccer team would be cancelled, writing that the "practice appears to be more widespread across the team and has continued beyond 2012, including in 2016."

Scalise wrote in an email to all student athletes that the athletics department plans to partner with the university's Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response to "further educate the members of our men’s soccer team, and all of our student-athletes, about the seriousness of these behaviors and the general standard of respect and conduct that is expected."

The reports come during heightened cultural conversation about so-called "locker room talk" and female objectification.

Members of the women's soccer team previously responded in a Crimson op-ed, writing in part:

"More than anything, we are frustrated that this is a reality that all women have faced in the past and will continue to face throughout their lives. We feel hopeless because men who are supposed to be our brothers degrade us like this. We are appalled that female athletes who are told to feel empowered and proud of their abilities are so regularly reduced to a physical appearance."

Read more from Patch here.

Photo by Ryan Knapp, Flickr/Creative Commons