The NCAA News - News and Features

May 12, 1997

Cooperation, long-range planning help schools comply with Title IX

BY SALLY HUGGINS
STAFF WRITER

Creative financing, a spirit of cooperation and long-range planning are the watch words for universities and colleges as they enter the next 25 years under Title IX law.

In the interest of student-athletes of both genders, litigation now should take a back seat to gender equity, said members of a panel during a recent NCAA Title IX seminar in Atlanta.

"We should focus on making things happen rather than fighting change," said Bridget Niland, chair of the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. "It's really a choice. We can be proactive or reactive. "

Niland, a former cross country student-athlete, urged schools to move away from an adversarial position with female students and toward applying that effort to compliance and creative financing.

Litigation that has surrounded the implementation of Title IX has had a negative effect on student-athletes, both male and female, Niland said -- and consequently on their intercollegiate athletics experience. She noted that Amy Cohen -- the student-athlete for whom the Brown University discrimination case was named -- said after the U.S. Supreme Court denial of Brown's appeal that she was just glad to have it all behind her.

"That's kind of sad," Niland said.

Scapegoating creates animosity

Title IX often is used as a scapegoat by those frustrated by change in intercollegiate athletics, she said, but that that philosophy is not effective.

"It creates animosity between the men and women student-athletes," Niland said. "Women are not making the decisions and cutting the sports."

Daniel A. DiBiasio, president of Wilmington College (Ohio), said such dissension among student-athletes must be avoided.

"We can't afford to pit student-athletes against each other," he said.

DiBiasio characterized the past 25 years of life under Title IX as involving three stages -- an attitude of discord in the beginning; then, gradually acceptance with movement in a positive direction; then, action that created substantial and measurable gains for women in athletics.

The next 25 years should involve commitment, cost and collaboration, DiBiasio said.

"There must be a true commitment to compliance," DiBiasio said. "It has to start at the top. It has to start with the president. The president must publicly announce support of the efforts."

Commitment should consist of an expressed desire to meet the regulatory obligations of Title IX, as well as the moral and ethical obligations, he said. And a commitment must be made to educate the campus community, university board members and the public about the benefits of women's athletics.

In seeking gender equity, every effort should be made to preserve men's sports while expanding women's sports, DiBiasio said.

"We have to preserve participation opportunities for men and women to the extent feasible and possible," he said. "Cut men's sports as a last resort, and before you cut a men's sport, think of five other things to try first. We should not disadvantage men and advantage women."

Parents are causing change

Donna A. Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, said a force for change is parents who grew up in the 1970s and now have daughters participating in athletics. Those parents coached their daughters and now want to see them take advantage of athletics scholarships.

"The pressure for equal treatment is going to increase, not decrease," Lopiano said.

And just as those parents are pushing for opportunities for their daughters, they also are providing a ready-made audience for women's sports.

As consumers become more interested in women's sports, corporate America is an important source of revenue and another instigator of change, Lopiano said.

"It's in the best interest of the American economy, of corporate America, to keep fueling the opportunities for women to play sports," Lopiano said. "Corporate America has discovered an untapped market in the $42 billion industry."

Movement toward gender equity in intercollegiate athletics has followed the three basic stages of any change, she said. First came anger -- because schools were forced to comply with Title IX. Anger was followed by a backlash -- in this case against men's sports, she said.

"There has been indiscriminate slashing of men's sports that is unconscionable, and that has to be stopped," Lopiano said.

The final stage of change involves accepting the positive aspects of gender equity.

"That is doing the right thing for the right reasons," she said. "Then we will really realize what Title IX has promised our daughters."

To achieve gender equity, schools will have to look at cost-containment strategies as well as ways to increase revenue, DiBiasio said. In some situations, reshaping support services so that support staff can be shared will allow funds to be reallocated, he said.

Collaboration among various entities -- conferences, state government, the private sector and professional sports -- can help to finance the costs of making athletics opportunities available to more female students, he said.

"It will not be easy, but not too many worthwhile things are easy. And this is worthwhile," DiBiasio said.

Strategic plan important

Participants in the recent Title IX seminar said that a strategic plan is particularly helpful in meeting the requirements of gender equity. Creation of a broad-based committee or task force is most important in developing a long-range plan.

Three athletics directors participating in the seminar each provided insight into how a strategic plan can get a university on track toward gender equity.

Judith L. Ray of the University of New Hampshire said she had to deal with declining funding as well as meeting gender-equity requirements when she began developing a strategic plan for the athletics department.

A task force composed of faculty, athletics administrators and staff, and students was created to review the entire athletics program, Ray said. New Hampshire looked at athletics opportunities available for male and female students and at recruiting budgets, coaching salaries and a survey of student interest.

"If you are the only person working on your long-range plan, it will not succeed," said another AD, Elizabeth A. Alden of San Francisco State University. "The staff must accept it."

In New Hampshire's case, after the task force examined the program, the men's and women's athletics departments were combined and some sports were dropped, Ray said.

Throughout that process, communication was important, she said.

"Whenever you cut passions, and sports are a passion, it goes right to the heart. It was very difficult," she said. "Information, information. You can't inform enough. You have to give reasons. Women have been the underrepresented sex, and I think that's hard for men to understand sometimes."

Steve Wallo of Lewis and Clark College said his school was able to avoid dropping any men's sports, but it increased the accountability of the men's programs.

He said there are two things to remember when working on a long-range plan and toward gender equity: Title IX is the law, and there is a moral obligation to give women students an equal opportunity.

"You have to do what is right," he said.

Adapt to change

Once a long-range plan is created, a system must be established for auditing results of actions taken and the plan must be adjusted as situations change.

"The plan is an active document," Alden said. San Francisco State reviews it during the athletics department's annual retreat to measure progress and to revise objectives.

A huge cultural change has occurred in American society as American women have become much more active, Lopiano said. Universities and colleges need to keep abreast of the changes.

She noted that in 1970, one out of every 27 high-school girls participated in athletics. In 1997, one out of three girls participate.

"Title IX is the single most influential force in creating the active American woman," she said. "It's no accident that some of the most successful women in business have played or had an opportunity to play."