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Help provided for gender-equity form questions

Individuals with responsibility for completing an NCAA form relating to gender equity have raised several common questions.

The NCAA research staff distributed the form to the membership June 7. It is designed to gather information for the NCAA gender-equity survey, conducted once every five years, and to assist each institution with meeting the terms of the federal Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act.

Ursula R. Walsh, NCAA director of research, said the form was developed with two principles in mind. First, federal regulations state explicitly that the burden of providing information for the report should be minimized whenever possible. Second, the purpose is to assess an institution's progress toward gender equity; therefore, men's sports and women's sports are reported using the same rules.

Answers to several common questions follow:

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Q: Who is required to complete this survey?

A: Federal law requires all coeducational institutions of higher education that participate in Title IV, Higher Education Act programs to prepare annually and to make available to students, potential students and the public a report on participation rates, financial support, and other information on men's and women's intercollegiate athletics programs.

Q: What year should be used as the reporting year?

A: The regulations require use of the preceding year, in this case 1995-1996.

Q: Who developed the survey form?

A: The NCAA research staff, in consultation with the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics, designed the form to assist the membership in complying with the federal law -- specifically, the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) and other amendments to the Higher Education Act. As it happens, the data collection also will satisfy the NCAA's requirement to collect and publish the information on a regular basis.

Q: When is the report due?

A: The EADA requires that the information be collected annually and made available to the public by October 1, 1996, and by October 15 of subsequent years. Institutions may anticipate inquiries from news media beginning on those dates.

The NCAA's gender-equity report will be available in March. This year, forms should be submitted to the NCAA by October 1.

Q: What will the NCAA do with the information?

A: The NCAA research staff will compile the data and make a report in aggregate results by division. The NCAA will not release information submitted by individual institutions.

Q: Should institutions send the information to the U.S. Department of Education?

A: The statute requires only that the report be available as requested. There is no requirement to send it to the Department of Education.

Q: How should an institution report the salary of a coach who also holds a faculty position?

A: It should report the portion of his or her salary that reasonably can be attributed to the coaching responsibilities.

Q: How does an institution count a coach who is full-time in the department of athletics, but not full-time with one sport (for example, someone who coaches both football and baseball)?

A: The coach should be listed as part-time in both football and baseball. Footnotes may be used to explain that one person is coaching in more than one sport.

Q: How should that coach's salary be reported?

A: The salary should be apportioned between football and baseball according to the time spent with each.

Q: Is income from sports camps, television shows, shoe contracts and the like included in a coach's salary?

A: The regulations interpret the statute as requiring institutions to report all wages and bonuses the institution pays a coach as compensation attributable to coaching. Whether an institution must report as part of institutional salary such payments as those associated with sports camps, television shows and shoe contracts will depend on the role the institution plays in the provision of those payments. If those payments form part of the coach's institutional compensation for coaching, they should be included.

Q: A particular institution does not separate operating expenses for cross country and track and field. May that institution report them together?

A: Yes, the regulations allow institutions to combine operating expenditures attributable to closely related teams such as track and field or swimming and diving.

Q: Should capital expenses be included in operating expenses?

A: The statute includes a specific definition of categories of expenses that must be reported (lodging, meals, transportation, officials, uniforms and equipment). Because the statute explicitly defines the kinds of expenses to be included, the regulations direct that capital expenses and other items not specifically enumerated in the statute, such as guarantees paid to visiting teams, should not be included in the report.

Q: Is the number required under A and D in Worksheet 2 (for Table 5) the total in the revenue-distribution column of the Division I squad list?

A: Yes.

Q: Does Table 1 attempt to measure athletics participation or actual bodies?

A: Table 1 attempts to measure how many student-athletes (a) are listed as team members; (b) practice with the team and receive coaching as of the day of the first scheduled intercollegiate contest; or (c) receive athletically related student aid.

Q: Since the answer to the previous question is actual participation, should indoor and outdoor track and field be listed separately or should those who participate in both (if both are listed) be double-counted?

A: Combine indoor and outdoor track for the purposes of this survey. Count each person once.