With his nomination of Gerald A. Reynolds to become Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights, President Bush has taken a step that may please those who would like to see a softening of the government's enforcement of Title IX legislation.

Reynolds, an outspoken opponent of affirmative action, has raised the hopes of those who wish to see the proportionality element of Title IX eliminated or at least de-emphasized.

Reynolds, 38, has served since 1998 as senior regulatory counsel at Kansas City Power and Light. Before that, he was president and legal counsel for the Center for New Black Leadership, which he continues to serve as a board member. The center is said to oppose affirmative action and advocate school-choice programs, among other policies.

Reynolds also served as a legal analyst for the Center for Equal Opportunity -- a Washington, D.C.-based research organization that has issued a series of reports criticizing affirmative action in college admissions -- from 1995 to 1997. He is a graduate of York College (New York) and received his law degree from Boston University.

As is typical of such nominations, the White House released little on Reynolds' background. However, in his work for the Center for New Black Leadership, Reynolds wrote a number of columns stating his belief that affirmative action is wrong and does not help minority students.

An article in the Washington Post reported more extensively on Reynolds' background, noting that he had "called Jesse Jackson 'a charlatan' and had helped dig out admissions data from public colleges and universities to prove the unfairness of using race as a factor in admissions."

If confirmed by the Senate, Reynolds would head the Office for Civil Rights, which is well-known in the intercollegiate athletics community for its monitoring of institutional compliance with Title IX. His office also would oversee the formulation of administration policy on affirmative-action programs and investigate complaints of racial and gender bias.

Reynolds' position is not one that would automatically require confirmation hearings. However, if enough parties express interest in hearings, they may be held. Many groups already have indicated that they are displeased with Reynolds' selection, particularly as his views on affirmative action have become known.

"We'd be deeply disappointed to have an opponent of affirmative action as head of the Office for Civil Rights," said Hugh Price, president of the National Urban League, in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Valerie M. Bonnette, a former staff member of the Office for Civil Rights and now president of Good Sports, Inc., a Title IX and gender-equity consulting service, also expressed concern at Reynolds' nomination.

"If Reynolds is as much of an opponent of affirmative action as it sounds, his appointment would be unfortunate," she said. "OCR's Title VI regulation (prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin), Section 504 regulation (handicap) and Title IX regulation (prohibiting sex discrimination) all have provisions permitting affirmative action. I would hate to think that an Assistant Secretary would pick and choose which sections of the regulations to follow and which sections not to follow."

The Senate committee that will oversee the confirmation of the assistant secretary position is the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. With the change of leadership in the Senate because of Sen. Jim M. Jeffords of Vermont switching his party affiliation from Republican to Independent, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, is now the committee chair.

"We will thoroughly review Gerald Reynolds' nomination with a close eye to his positions on the vitally important issues that will appear before the Office of Civil Rights," Kennedy told The NCAA News. "Much progress has been made in educational equality, and we want to ensure that Reynolds will continue this progress instead of moving backward."

The next step

According to Washington Post columnist Al Kamen, Jeffords' party switch has caused a confirmation logjam that may take a while to clear.

It also is unclear whether any groups will call for hearings, whether on the affirmative-action issue or the gender-equity front. The NAACP declined to comment for this article, and the National Urban League has not yet decided whether to fight the nomination.

The National Women's Law Center was unavailable for comment, and The Women's Sports Foundation is taking a wait-and-see approach.

"(We're) confident that the new Assistant Secretary will take a careful look at the significant support of the voting public for a strong Title IX, and the fact that we are still a long way away from achieving equality in school and college sport," said Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation.

The NCAA's Committee on Women's Athletics also is following the Reynolds nomination.

"I would hope that any nominee for this position would be closely scrutinized regarding their views on gender equity in athletics," said Cheryl Levick, chair of the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics and athletics director at Santa Clara University. "Also, I would hope that whoever ultimately holds that position would be interested in providing equal opportunity for men and women in sports and would not be interested in going backwards, erasing the progress we've achieved in terms of opportunities for women and girls."

Should Reynolds take office, he may find that changing OCR is easier said than done.

"If Reynolds is appointed, my only hope is this: I think that each Assistant Secretary, whether Republican or Democrat -- and there have been about eight or nine Assistant Secretaries in the last 20 years -- finds that a hard-line political agenda is difficult to follow when burdened with the case-specific facts from OCR's investigations and the clear application of the well-reasoned policies of the regulations. Reynolds may find it difficult to put his political agenda through in the time he would have in office."