Title IX withstands assault

Title IX, the landmark gender-equality law that opened the door to a generation of female athletes, survived a potentially weakening attack yesterday when a federal committee turned down several proposals to alter the 1972 legislation.

A Bush-administration advisory board reached a 7-7 stalemate on a plan to change the proportionality provision of Title IX, which stipulates that a school's male-female athlete ratio must "substantially" mirror the male-female ratio of students enrolled.

Though the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics voted on additional modifications, the tie represented a rejection of the most intensely debated proposition.

Critics charge that the provision has constructed a quota system that has led to the demise of low-profile men's programs in schools across the nation. The numbers appear to support this conclusion: The New York Times reported that colleges cut about 400 men's teams in the 1990's, with wrestling and gymnastics programs most frequently on the chopping block.

Title IX defenders, including UW Athletic Director Barbara Hedges, dismiss the notion that the law discriminates against men.

She noted that the proportionality rule is only one of the three ways in which a school can satisfy anti-discrimination responsibilities.

"A university can also show that the needs and interests of its student body are being met, and that it is demonstrating a commitment to adding women's programs," she said.

She called the elimination of men's teams an "unintended consequence" that schools could avoid.

"When men's programs are shut down, it is because institutions individually make those decisions," she said.

 She said the athletic program has never suffered from the constraints of Title IX during her 12-year tenure. Men's varsity wresting and gymnastics programs had been discontinued before her 1991 arrival.

"Most years, we have been within 3 percent or 4 percent of undergraduate female enrollment," said Hedges, who vows to continue the trend, regardless of any alterations in the law. "It has not been a hardship to follow the rules -- we work hard to balance the needs of our men's and women's teams."

Nevertheless, Title IX challengers have continued to petition for change. Bush formed the Commission on Opportunity and Athletics in response to an anti-discrimination suit filed by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. The 15-member commission, which wrapped up a two-day meeting yesterday, is assigned the task of providing Education Secretary Rod Paige with recommendations for adjustments.

Yesterday's tie concerned a proposal to amend the proportionality rule, mandating a 50-50 split of male and female athletes with a leeway of 2 to 3 percentage points -- regardless of student-body makeup.

A proposition to completely remove the proportionality requirement failed 11-4.

Other proposals included the creation of a standardized survey to gauge female-student interest in sports, an idea that UW women's golf coach MaryLou Mulflur thought was "ludicrous."

In the meantime, men's division-I programs get $6.4 million more in spending than the same division-I programs for women.

One aspect of Title IX appears to be indisputable -- where it presented opportunities to women, they accepted. The number of female high-school-sports participants rose from 294,000 to 2.8 million from 1971 to 2002, while the number of collegiate-women athletes increased by a factor of five, according to CNN.

UW women's soccer coach Lesle Gallimore can back up the statistics with personal experience.

"In my 18 years of coaching, I have seen countless women benefit," she said.