COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado -- The October 22-23 town hall meeting of the Secretary's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics was a chance for the commission to focus on the impact of Title IX on Olympic sports and national governing bodies throughout the country.

This was the third of four planned town hall meetings for the commission.

The overriding theme of the Colorado Springs gathering was the concept of proportionality -- prong one of Title IX's "three-part test" -- and how it is measured and achieved. Most of the invited panelists were from schools that have lost Olympic sports due to what panelists said were efforts to achieve compliance. Most panelists called for some type of reform to Title IX.

Panelist Bob Chichester, athletics director at the University of California, Irvine, claimed that the Office for Civil Rights' enforcement of Title IX is flawed. "OCR has failed to take into account the financial and economic realities of intercollegiate athletics," Chichester said.

Josephine Potuto, faculty athletics representative at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, said that focusing on actual participation when male athletes will walk on and women will not is unfair to males. "They're paying tuition," she said, "and sometimes, that cost of tuition is more than the cost of their participation on the team."

Marty Mankamyer, the president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, lamented the loss of both men's and women's Olympic-sport teams.

"If the current trend of program elimination continues, we will suffer the consequences of the absence of American athletes on the medals podium at future Olympic Games," Mankamyer said. "I don't want the law to go away; I want you to explore if we've evolved to the point where we need to look at a different way of enforcing it."

Panelist Bob Colarossi of USA Gymnastics said schools should let participants know beforehand when they plan on dropping sports. "There should be legislation that schools must provide advance notice of the elimination of a sport. Many coaches learn when they pick up the morning newspaper," he said.

A bill to do just that -- the Olympic Sports Revitalization Act, which would require institutions to notify student-athletes before discontinuing a sport -- was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation last year.

Peggy Bradley-Doppes, athletics director at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, spoke of her days as an administrator at the University of Michigan, which successfully achieved Title IX compliance. "We need to make sure that the education on Title IX is very clear and deliberate," she said. "Title IX is not the problem; enforcement is the solution. There is much fat that can be trimmed from many athletics departments."

Public comments

Before plenty of empty seats, the public comment session opened during the second half of the first day. About 40 speakers, most of them using the full five minutes of allotted time at the microphone, gave accounts -- both positive and negative -- of their experiences related to Title IX.

Athletes whose teams had been dropped or added, coaches, parents, and athletics administrators on both sides of the issue seized the chance to speak. Some of those comments appear in the accompanying box.

Commission debate

On the second day of the meeting, commission members conducted a large-group discussion about what they have heard and concluded thus far.

Commission members engaged in serious and sometimes heated public debate over the issues of Olympic-sport elimination, the "arms race" and the importance of defining and ensuring equal opportunity.

Commission member Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University, gauged the pulse of the discussion when he said, "About the only thing everyone's agreed on is that Title IX will not be abandoned."

Cary Groth, director of athletics at the University of Northern Illinois, voiced her concern about the proportionality prong of the three-part test. "(If we removed proportionality), I think that too many would take the easy way out," she said. "Since 1972, the change has been unbelievable. We need to have some incentive for participation, but I don't know if participation should be tied to enrollment."

"One of the most painful facts for Division I-A is that unless there's unilateral disarmament, we're not going to abandon our revenue coaches," said Debbie Yow, athletics director at the University of Maryland, College Park. "It's not logical to think that intercollegiate programs are going to decide to not be in the game. We're going to pay market value."

Cynthia Cooper, co-chair and former WNBA player, noted the importance of Title IX to minority women. "I am from the inner city," she said. "I identify with the athletes from the inner city. I can tell you there was no way I could attend college, especially a private school like Southern California, without Title IX and its enforcement. After 30 years, there are so many schools that are not in compliance and they're not being held accountable for it."

Tom Griffith, general counsel at Brigham Young University, challenged the premise that Title IX and U.S. Olympic performance are necessarily related. "Title IX is linked to education," he said. "The primary goal is athletics in the context of higher education. I don't think the pur pose of Title IX is to prepare Olympic athletes. It's a healthy byproduct, but it's not our mission."

Participant concerns

As the commission nears its last town hall meeting, scheduled for November 20-21 in San Diego, commission members expressed frustrations with several aspects of the process. They were concerned about not having one agreed-upon set of numbers about college programs that have been added or dropped, walk-ons and participation. They also bemoaned a lack of experts from which they could hear unbiased, factual information.

Bob Bowlsby, athletics director at the University of Iowa, said, "There's a lot of spin doctoring going on when (statistics) are given in a presentation to the panel."

Former Olympian Donna de Varona was even more critical. "I am frustrated the submission of names and the response of the Department of Education staff," she said. "We asked for more experts. There have been names submitted by me and (commission member Julie Foudy), and none of them have been contacted. It appears to me that people are being weeded out and I don't know why. I don't want to feel like this is driven by the staff."

The commission also expressed a desire to hear from the OCR to ascertain its positions on the interpretation and enforcement of Title IX.

"We have to be acutely aware that the people we invite to San Diego have to be the right people," said Commission co-Chair Ted Leland of Stanford University.

Panel members

The Department of Education officials chose the following individuals to testify before the commission in Colorado Springs. The focus of this meeting was the effects of Title IX on Olympic sports and the national governing bodies.

Panel One: U.S. Olympic and National Governing Bodies

Marty Mankamyer, president of the U.S.
Olympic Committee

Gary Abbott, director of special projects
for USA Wrestling

Carol Zoletski, former president and
executive director of USA Swimming

Bob Colarossi, president of USA
Gymnastics

Panel Two: Directors of athletics

Rick Taylor, director of athletics at
Northwestern University

Colonel Bill Walker, director of athletics
at the U.S. Air Force Academy

Peggy Bradley-Doppes, director of athletics
at the University of North Carolina,
Wilmington

Rondo Felberg, former director of athletics
and vice-president of Brigham Young
University, current director of
Olympic Aid USA

Panel Three: Legal Representation

Brian Snow, general counsel at Colorado
State University

George Shur, general counsel at Northern
Illinois University

Bob Chichester, director of athletics at the

University of California, Irvine

Josephine Potuto, professor of law and
faculty athletics representative at the

University of Nebraska, Lincoln

What they're saying about Title IX

Following are selected comments from the speakers at the third meeting of the Secretary's Commission for Opportunity in Athletics:

"My fear is that fear will prevent you from doing what is right because of backlash from certain groups. It is wrong to instill fear that we'll go back to the 1970s. I am a middle-aged, white male and an enemy in some groups' eyes, but I tell you I would not let that happen to our daughters."

Mitch Hall, sports enthusiast and coach

"If the presidents of football-playing institutions would step up and stop the excessive spending, not only would female athletes benefit, but so would all of the so-called minor men's sports."

Barb Schroeder, director of athletics at Regis University (Colorado)

"Why is it so impossible to believe that women might not want to participate in sports as much as men? I am grateful for the opportunities, but not at the expense of men's sports."

Sara Levin, sports executive

"I've been in sports as long as I can remember. As I grew and became more involved in sports, it became an outlet. If you ask me or any of my friends what we do before a big test, we play soccer, kickbox or do tae kwon do or volleyball. In our lives, sports are a stress reliever; that's why Title IX is so important to us."

Shaoria Taylor, 14-year-old Girls Inc. participant

"Our sport is slowly transitioning from a healthy balance of participants to a predominantly female sport. It's a great tragedy that there's the loss of incentive and personal development opportunities for young boys."

Dennis Pursley, USA Swimming

"Historically, because of the status and exceptional treatment of football players and other traditionally successful sports at some schools, male athletes are willing to walk on to a team because of those benefits. Society's long-term support of athletics for boys and men has resulted in males being drawn into participating in sport for the prestige of being a team member."

Joan Powell, high-school volleyball coach

"Wrestling coaches are not against Title IX."

Jack Maughan, president of the National Wrestling Coaches Association

"The women of my generation and after take for granted that our opportunities in athletics are guaranteed, which is no different than the minorities of my generation who take a drink from a fountain and forget that we were once relegated to the ones labeled 'For Coloreds Only.' "

Rhonda Blanford-Green, Colorado High School Activities Association

"You're robbing from Peter to pay Paula."

Tommy Dodd, citizen