WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Hawaii Congresswoman Patsy Mink began pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a doctor some 40 years ago, she found the doors closed -- because she was a woman.

Mink overcame that early barrier to enjoy a successful career in politics, but the message she carries with her about opportunities for women reverberated loudly within the walls of the NCAA's annual Title IX Seminar, where more than 200 athletics administrators listened to Mink and others focus on both the past and future of Title IX.

The May 9-10 seminar, which commemorated the 30th anniversary of Title IX and also looked to the future for the challenges and opportunities it may bring, featured general-session presentations by Mink, Women's Sports Foundation Executive Director Donna Lopiano, and Marcia Greenberger, founder and co-president of the National Women's Law Center.

Mink, D-Hawaii, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 to 1976 and again from 1990 to her current term, addressed seminar participants to give them a background on the legislation's origins. Mink said she was among the co-authors of Title IX in 1972, and that she was drawn into politics by something very simple -- the lack of opportunity.

Mink graduated with a bachelor's degree in zoology and chemistry from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, but when she applied to medical schools, she found the doors closed.

"It was something that I had worked my entire life to achieve," she said. "You can imagine the shock I experienced when a dozen or more medical schools across the country told me after I got my bachelor's degree that I was not acceptable, my undergraduate grades not withstanding, because I was female. I was stunned."

Mink eventually went to law school, where she was one of only two women in a class of 180 students.

"If you cut off education, you cut off life," Mink said. "So when I finally had the chance to come to Congress, I decided that I was going to spend the time I was given by my constituents to try to open the doors of opportunity for girls and women in education."

A committee on which Mink served in 1965 reviewed textbooks and found that boys were depicted doing all kinds of things, while girls were shown washing the dishes. Even in a pamphlet distributed by the Department of Education on vocations, it was clear that boys could aspire to be pilots, astronauts, engineers, and doctors, while girls could hope to be good cooks, Mink said.

The 12 women in Congress at the time were ready for change, and Mink said that was the genesis of Title IX.

She noted that while advances in all of education for women have been incredible, Title IX is still best known for opening the door to athletics for girls and women.

"The most visible evidence of what has been accomplished under Title IX, of course, is in your hands," she told athletics administrators at the seminar. "It's in the women you encourage in sports and in competition and all those who have gone ahead into the Olympics and have brought home such great honor and recognition to Americans by the feats they have accomplished in all varieties of sport."

Mink also noted that it is imperative to educate the next generation of women in the history and necessity of Title IX.

"Title IX isn't a legacy, but rather something they will have to continue to fight for in the future," she said.

Greenberger: Defense of Title IX is a continuing struggle

Marcia Greenberger, founder and co-president of the National Women's Law Center, told Title IX Seminar attendees that the struggle for equity in women's athletics is ongoing.

Greenberger, who established the law center nearly 30 years ago, has been active in major litigation, legislative initiatives and administrative enforcement of Title IX since its passage in 1972.

"What a critical time this is," she said of Title IX's 30th anniversary. "Think about the role Title IX has played in our society.

"I remember clearly the old interest tests (in elementary school). There were blue forms for boys and pink for girls. The boys' form ended with the question: 'Would you like to be president?' while the girls' form ended with; 'Would you like to be the first lady?' The legacy of those old forms is still with us."

Greenberger said she was of the generation of women and men who grew up well before Title IX was in place. She also noted that many decision makers are her age.

"If you look at the people running institutions and making decisions about where resources should go, they grew up with those same expectations, limitations and understandings that I did," she said. "So it shouldn't come as any surprise that the fight has been so hard."

Greenberger said that the enforcement and defense of Title IX always has been a struggle -- in court, in Congress and at institutions.

"These things don't happen without a fight," she said. "But every court of appeals that has heard these attacks -- so far -- has upheld those Title IX regulations and policies and said they are not quotas, they are valid policies. The underlying reason these attacks have not worked so far is that it's hard for any mom or dad who has a daughter playing sports to deny how important that opportunity is.

"Athletics means lessons in teamwork, it means learning lessons in winning and losing. It means learning that young women can been cheered on. Those are such fundamental lessons and important principles we stand behind."

Greenberger added that the more practical reasons to support participation included access to scholarships and also jobs after college.

"But changing is always hard," she said. "There is a deep emotional feeling among many that (athletics is) a male preserve. What we hear today is that women aren't really as interested in sports -- that they have a different nature than men, that the progress we've made is enough. that the disparity is fair and that women are playing at levels that are enough and (they) don't need more.

"What is it that makes it so hard for people to accept that young girls and boys can get equal benefits from sports and deserve equal support?"

Greenberger said that many of the decisions about equity are in the hands of institutional administrators, from sport sponsorship to scholarships to who is on charter buses and who is not.

"Colleges and universities cannot get away from their responsibilities because they are the ones making those decisions," she said. "The women's program doesn't have to be a mirror image of the men's. There was a conscious effort for Title IX to be flexible."

Greenberger also said that Title IX was extraordinary in its lenience. As an example, she said that institutions that are steadily improving opportunities for the disadvantaged sex are assumed, under the legislation, to be in compliance.

"There are schools today, 30 years later, that are being found in compliance because they are working on it," she said. "And this is a standard that people are attacking because it's too rigid?"

Greenberger said that institutions' choices, not Title IX, were to blame for the dropping of men's sports.

"What are institutions going to do?" she asked. "Look for the excesses in football and men's basketball? Are they going to take the new paneling away (in the coach's office)? Are they going to do without hotel rooms (for the football team) before home games?

"No, colleges are cutting back on men's so-called low-profile sports. So these men's teams are feeling the squeeze. And they point to the women and blame Title IX for the fix they're in, rather than at the schools that are targeting that money at men's basketball and football."

Greenberger called for the NCAA to take a role in protecting Title IX.

"If the NCAA doesn't stand up now at this critical time and protect Title IX, what does that say about the governing body in intercollegiate athletics?" she said.

"It is the NCAA's obligation for the sake of sports and for the sake of equality," she said. "It is a moral obligation for the NCAA, but it also is a practical obligation for the NCAA to find a way these resources can be distributed."

-- Kay Hawes

Lopiano: Everybody benefits by growing women's athletics

This year's seminar featured sessions on Title IX basics, lessons learned from Title IX investigations, issues surrounding the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) forms, and emerging sports.

New sessions included "Keeping up with the Joneses," "Unspoken words: The power of information," and "Increasing your fan base and generating funds for women's athletics."

Popular sessions retained from previous years included "How to develop a gender-equity plan," and "Roster management: Alternatives to cutting teams."

This also was the first year for a panel discussion titled, "Sexual Orientation: What athletics administrators need to know."

Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, presented a general session titled "The History of Title IX."

Lopiano noted that by opening doors in education, Title IX opened many doors to women in society.

"There were quotas on the number of women who were let into classes," she said. "Before 1972, women were relegated to very few professions. And you were labeled something negative if you wanted to do something different.

"Title IX was such a social change. It said girls and women have an ability to be anything they want. That's the simple message of Title IX -- being able to be what you want to be, being able to pursue your dreams."

Lopiano also discussed the continually rising participation of women and girls in all types of sports and fitness activities. It's a trend that corporate America has noticed, she said.

"Corporations are investing their money in women's sports because they've been disappointed at what's going on in men's sports," she said, referring to high ticket prices and the misbehavior of prominent male athletes.

Lopiano also noted that growing women's sports would be advantageous to everyone.

"It can't be a zero-sum game where if the women get the opportunity then the men lose," she said. "If you grow the marketplace, you grow the economy. There has to be an embracing of the women's product and a commitment to growing it. You can't have all the economic clout being put behind men's sports."

Lopiano noted that athletics departments, the media and conferences all could do their part, particularly by promoting women's sports.

"ESPN made a commitment to promoting women's sports. They've invested in it and then promoted it," she said. "Promotion, placement in prime time, consistency of time and place -- that's what makes ratings, not interest."

Lopiano concluded with her thoughts on the future of Title IX and efforts to halt the "arms race" in athletics, which she termed an "economic necessity."

"Change happens -- one person, one act at a time," she said. " And society is a better place for our children when they grow up respecting each other and treating each other equally."

Grant: Five trends contribute to worsening financial situation

A popular Title IX Seminar panel this year was "Keeping up with the Joneses," which addressed the financial realities of expanding women's sports while expenses for men's high-profile sports continue to rise.

Panelists were Marnie Shaul, director of education issues for the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO); Christine Grant, associate professor at the University of Iowa and the former longtime director of women's athletics there; and John Harris, a sports columnist for the Toledo Blade newspaper. Janet Justus, attorney with the law firm Verrill & Dana, moderated the panel.

Shaul, who oversees educational issue studies the GAO undertakes on behalf of Congress, was part of the team that produced the GAO study last year titled, "Four-year colleges' experiences adding and discontinuing teams."

Shaul noted that universities and colleges in Division I were more likely to blame the dropping of men's teams on gender equity than were institutions in Divisions II and III, which typically cited student interest as a factor. She also noted that 693 institutions in the study added at least one team without discontinuing any.

Institutions avoided discontinuing teams in a variety of ways, she said, noting that the following factors were important:

President or board support;

Athletics director support;

New funding sources;

Fan and community support; and

Cost containment.

Grant, who has analyzed the biennial NCAA Revenues and Expenses Report for years, noted that increases in spending for high-profile men's sports continue to outpace spending for women's sports.

"For every brand-new dollar going into the women's programs, there have been three dollars going into the men's programs," she said. "There is a myth in this country that those of us in Division I have more money than we know what to do with. In reality, only 48 institutions bring in more than they spend. And, for those schools that have a deficit, the average deficit is $3.3 million. That factor is working against gender equity."

Grant identified "five disturbing trends" in athletics that she thinks are contributing to athletics departments' financial woes. They are:

An escalating salary trend, with top coaches in some men's sports commanding a million-dollar salary.

An increase in expenses in men's basketball and football. Grant pointed out that the largest football budget among NCAA member institutions was $16 million; the largest men's basketball budget at $6 million.

An increase in expenditures for athletics facilities.

An increase in hiring of non-coaching personnel in athletics departments.

An increase in the number of institutions having to absorb significant reductions in state support.

"All of these factors have importance and are likely to have an impact on women in sports unless, as the Knight Commission suggests, CEOs bring athletics expenditures back down to reasonable levels," Grant said. "Can they do it? I don't know. Will they do it? I don't know."