The NCAA News - News and Features

April 13, 1998

Committee plans May 11 hearing on financial aid limits and Title IX

A hearing is scheduled May 11 in Chicago to solicit views on a Division I committee's recommendations for addressing difficulties that NCAA financial aid limitations may pose for institutions seeking compliance with Title IX.

The Division I Committee on Financial Aid agreed during an April 3-4 meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, that it will make recommendations for addressing the scholarship-equity issue that arose recently when the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR) expressed concern that institutions offering a full complement of scholarships in women's sports may still violate Title IX financial aid requirements.

The committee will hold the three-hour hearing beginning at 2 p.m. at a Chicago site to be determined. It will solicit reactions to recommendations that it is preparing to share with the Division I membership, and that will be reported in the April 20 issue of The NCAA News.

Representatives of OCR, athletics administrators' organizations, NCAA governing sports committees, coaches' association and other interested parties interested in financial aid issues related to Title IX are being encouraged to attend the hearing.

The hearing is scheduled on the day before this year's NCAA Title IX seminar, set for May 12-13 in Chicago. Seminar participants who wish to offer testimony during the hearing are being asked to move up their scheduled arrival in Chicago for that purpose.

The financial aid committee has reported concerns that the financial aid limitations of NCAA Bylaw 15.5 make it difficult for member institutions to comply with Title IX requirements.

The concerns stem in part from the NCAA's distinction between head count and equivalency sports, and how scholarships in those sports are allocated among men and women.

Equivalency sports -- in which a single scholarship can be divided among multiple recipients -- include many sports that institutions recently have added in order to offer more opportunities for women.