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OCR: Equal access to courtesy cars is required

If courtesy cars are available to coaches of men's teams for recruiting purposes, then similar cars would need to be made available to coaches of women's team as well, said Beth Downs, civil rights investigator in the Office for Civil Rights.

Courtesy cars fall under the recruitment aspect of the legislation, Downs said, because that is the purpose for which they are most often used.

"The institution has a similar responsibility in the women's program to provide such a benefit if these cars are used for purposes of recruiting student-athletes," Downs said.

"I think it definitely has an effect on the amount of recruiting a school can do, and I would say the school is obligated, regardless of the funding and the source of the funding, to provide the benefit in the women's program."

A seminar participant asked if the source of the automobile is an issue with Title IX compliance. Downs said that if an athletics booster provides the cars to the men's coaches and equivalent university cars are equally available to the women's coaches, then likely there is not a disparity in benefits.

"If the coach is receiving the car as a coach and the coach uses it for recruiting, I don't think the source (of the donation) matters. I think it is the benefit we would look at," Downs said.

Another hypothetical situation involved a school charging admission to men's basketball games and not charging for women's games. Is that a violation of Title IX?

Probably not, Downs said. "There is no requirement that you charge for men's and women's programs," she said. "I think charging for tickets -- whatever small amount you'd like -- is one way of raising additional revenue if you think you could charge for a women's team, but there is no requirement that just because you charge 20 bucks for the men's team you charge 20 bucks for the women's team."

Another issue involved the location of locker rooms and playing fields. In a hypothetical situation, an institution has eight outdoor fields with locker-room facilities available for males at one field location. No locker-room facilities for females are available at any of the fields. Is the institution obligated to provide locker-room facilities for females in at least one of the field locations?

The institution should provide a similar benefit to a women's team, Downs said, but that could be done easily by alternating use of the field with an adjacent locker room.

"Obviously, there is a great benefit to having the field house right next to where you play," Downs said. "Without spending any money, I think the school could alternate the use so that at least one other women's program gets the benefit of that locker room being adjacent to the field."

Many questions during the seminar session related to fund-raising, especially when it is influenced by the success of different teams.

In one hypothetical case, the football program is the recipient of monetary gifts from prominent alumni but no other teams receives similar gifts. Is it a violation of Title IX to provide a different level of goods and services to the football team as a result of outside donations?

A disparity would exist, Downs said.

"Regardless of the source of the funding, the institution's obligation is to provide the same benefit to an equivalent number of varsity athletes. We would have to look at the benefits this money buys," she said.

If the football team flies to its away games and stays in better hotels than other teams, then a disparity would exist.

"One thing about football, it's been around a long time and donations from alumni are fairly well formed," Downs said. "I think institutions need to focus a lot more on women's programs since they haven't been around as long and support fund-raising activities to support both programs overall."

Another hypothetical situation involved a men's basketball team that has a contract with a major sporting apparel company. The company provides three pairs of basketball shoes, two sweat suits, two set of uniforms and one travel bag for each player on the men's team. The women's basketball team has no such contract. Does the institution need to provide similar apparel and equipment for the women's team?

Downs said OCR would look at whether a women's program -- women's basketball or possibly another program -- is having its needs met on an equivalent basis, regardless of the source of the benefit. The institution would not be obligated to get an equivalent contract for the women's team, she said.

"The institution is required to meet the needs of the women's program on an equivalent basis," Downs said, but the women's needs might be for something different.

Downs noted that at some schools, a men's coach has developed a contract that includes additional benefits for the women's team in the counterpart sport.

"We weigh the different benefits," she said. "I don't think it has to be exactly the same thing -- that if it's shoes in one, it has to be shoes in the other. It may be something else the team needs or wants more and the other team doesn't get that.

"It's an overall assessment of benefits in each program in all teams."

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Presidents of Big Sky Conference member schools recently made that league the first NCAA-member conference to agree to pay women's basketball officials at the same rate as men's basketball officials -- $400 a game.

The $150 pay hike came one year after the conference agreed to increase the number of officials working women's basketball games from two to three, the same as for men's games.

Conference officials said the moves are part of a continued push by the conference toward gender equity.

Marshall Drummond, president of Eastern Washington University and chair of the Big Sky presidents council, said the message is that men's and women's basketball are equal and equally important.

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A federal judge has dismissed a Title IX lawsuit against Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University filed by a female athlete who charged that the institution mishandled her allegation that she had been raped by two football players.

The student-athlete asserted that Virginia Tech violated Title IX when it gave the two male athletes preferential treatment in the judicial proceedings so that they could continue to play football at the university.

Judge Jackson Kiser concluded that the plaintiff's allegations did not support "the necessary gender bias to state a claim under Title IX." Kiser found that the university's treatment of the football players had been based on their status as athletes and defendants, not on the fact that they are male and their accuser is female.

-- Compiled by Sally Huggins

Title IX Ticker is a monthly feature in The NCAA News. News and information regarding Title IX and gender-equity issues can be sent to The NCAA News, Attn: Title IX Ticker, 6201 College Boulevard, Overland Park, Kansas 66211-2422.