The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA), which met in St. Louis October 15-16, devoted a good part of its agenda to discussion of the Secretary's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics.

The committee invited Ted Leland, athletics director at Stanford University and co-chair of the commission, to appear before the CWA to discuss the work of the commission, which will report to the U.S. Secretary of Education in January after four town hall meetings. (For more on the commission's most recent meeting, click here.)

Coming out of that discussion, the committee developed this statement on Title IX:

"The CWA strongly supports equal access and opportunity for men and women in intercollegiate athletics. Title IX was enacted in 1972 to provide equal opportunity for the underrepresented gender. The committee strongly supports Title IX as written."

In addition, the committee suggested five actions to strengthen Title IX:

Also appearing before the CWA was Athena Yiamouyiannis, executive director of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport. She addressed the concept of interest assessments and led the committee in a discussion of prong three of Title IX's three-part test, accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented gender. The committee agreed that more education and information about prong three is needed, both for the NCAA membership and for the public at large.

The CWA also endorsed the document, "Title IX Athletics Policies Issues and Data for Education Decision Makers," (PDF*) produced by the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE). The committee recommended that the document be provided to each of the three Management Councils during their October meetings.

In another action, the committee recommended that the Management Councils sponsor legislation to amend Bylaw 21.1.10.1 to require that one of the six Division I members of the CWA be a member of the Division I Management Council.

The CWA noted that as an Association-wide committee, it reports to the three Management Councils. Divisions II and III are required by legislation to have a member of their Councils on CWA, but there is no such requirement for Division I. The committee noted that the CWA has had Division I Management Council members serve on it in the past, but their service on both the CWA and the Management Council was not required.

The CWA further noted that it has a direct link to the Executive Committee Subcommittee on Gender and Diversity Issues, and it may report on some issues directly to that body, potentially leaving the Division I Management Council out of the loop on some issues.

Other highlights

Committee on Women's Athletics
October 15-16/ St. Louis