The NCAA News - News & Features

AD: Seeking gender equity is 'the right thing to do'

BY WALLACE I. RENFRO
Staff Writer

BOSTON -- Robert E. Frederick believes that achieving gender equity is important because "it's the right thing to do, not just to satisfy the law," and he is pleased to see that attitudes are changing.

Frederick, athletics director at the University of Kansas, made his comments as a panelist at an NCAA-sponsored Title IX seminar in Boston April 29-30. It was the second of two seminars conducted by the NCAA this spring; the first was in San Francisco April 11-12.

Frederick said that when he went to Kansas as athletics director in 1987, he knew that the program was good but not equitable.

"I knew the right thing to do, but we weren't doing it because of resource problems," he said. "We used that as an excuse."

He made his pitch to the chancellor and board of directors in 1990 after a complaint was filed that the department was not providing comparable office space for assistant sports information directors and not providing locker rooms for women.

"We told the board that we were going to achieve equity because it was the right thing to do," Frederick said. "I mentioned that at the Title IX seminar in Baltimore last year, and I'm pleased that more people are saying the same thing. We never, ever said to our coaches, to our athletes or to anybody, 'It's the law and we've got to do it.' We said, 'It's the right thing to do.' "

Frederick told the group of 250 participants that attitude and creating the right environment are important components. He also emphasized "three C's" of achieving equity: "communication, communication, communication."

He noted that the Kansas athletics department has monthly meetings, scheduled a year in advance and never running more than an hour. Each meeting features a presentation by each head coach with an update on each sport.

"That's been the most productive thing we've ever done in any of our meetings," he said. "That keeps everyone up to date on what is happening in our entire program."

Frederick closes each meeting by discussing three items. He talks about following the rules of the NCAA and the conference, and then reminds the coaches that athletics is a part of the academic mission of the school.

"And three, and this is really the most important to this process of developing an action plan for gender equity, I tell them not to forget to treat everyone in this department with dignity and respect," he said.

The discussion of treating people with dignity and respect is repeated at quarterly all-staff meetings.

Frederick also makes use of a staff advisory committee.

"The thing that was most important, however, was the student-athlete advisory committee," he said. "They are getting great support from the staff, but the athletes have really picked up the ball and run with it."

He noted that the student-athletes worked to create an environment that has resulted in support throughout the department for all sports. Among other things, the athletes have organized attendance by sports teams at other teams' events.

As an example, he cited the midnight practice that opens the men's basketball season, which typically draws about 16,000 fans. The student-athlete advisory committee arranged for every other Kansas team to be there and those teams were introduced to the fans.

"So we really started to get this good feeling about being in the athletics department," Frederick said.

The athletics department also developed a mentoring program for student-athletes that involves athletics administrators, as well as an adopt-a-sport program for members of the athletics board.

Frederick said the Kansas athletics program will be equitable by the year 2000. He noted that it has already achieved proportionality, but is continuing to work on other components such as overall budget, recruiting and financial aid.

In response to a question from the audience about "what disparity in base salaries between coaches for the same sports for men and women does (Kansas) construe as equitable," Frederick said that the base salaries are the same.

Other components of the two-day seminar were:

* A panel that focused on elements of the athletics opportunities component of the three-part test of Title IX compliance.

* Another panel that highlighted ways in which to analyze compliance in the other program areas of Title IX.

* A roundtable discussion of 10 topics associated with Title IX compliance.

* A question-and-answer session with Beth Downs, civil rights investigator in the Office for Civil Rights, Region 1, that featured five hypothetical situations.