CHICAGO -- This year's NCAA Title IX Seminar coincided with the 50th anniversary of another major civil-rights milestone -- the Brown vs. Board of Education decision that called for the desegregation of public schools.

And just as Brown vs. Board of Education has changed public education in this country, so, too, has Title IX changed the face of intercollegiate athletics in the more than 30 years since it was passed.

However, data presented at the seminar showed that gender equity in intercollegiate athletics, much like desegregation of our public schools, still has far to go before the goals of Title IX are fully reached.

The 2004 seminar, held May 17-18, was designed to provide attendees the tools they need to go back to their campuses and offer solutions to the problems that impede the full implementation of gender equity in intercollegiate athletics.

"I'm not suggesting that we ignore problems or pretend they don't exist, but if you focus on a problem, it is more difficult to create a vision for the future. Having a focus is critical, being focused is essential," said Bernard Franklin, one of the seminar's keynote speakers and NCAA senior vice-president for governance and membership. "If we are to fully implement Title IX objectives, we must be solution-providers, rather than problem-solvers.

"In an era where higher education is experiencing tremendous financial challenges, there are even more pressures in terms of implementing the goals of Title IX. These pressures threaten both men and women's athletics programs as institutions are called upon to reduce expenses. All of these issues present us with a challenge of implementing Title IX."

Work to be done

But while the challenges are many, various speakers pledged support for finding solutions.

"I think Title IX is frankly the most important higher education act in the second half of the 20th century," NCAA President Myles Brand told attendees. "Why would we ever think of denying to women the advantages of playing sports that we've given to men all these years? I never knew what people were thinking when they suggested otherwise."

Brand acknowledged that college campuses across the country are experiencing financial difficulties, and as a result some are considering cuts to athletics programs, but he said that is not a reasonable excuse for failure to implement gender equity.

"That's a challenge," Brand said, "a challenge we must respond to, because after all, gender equity is not just the progress of women, it's an issue for all of us. We have to all work together to make sure that there is gender equity. We'll make sure that we get this done."

Brand said that the issue of gender equality received a boost last year when the federal Title IX Commission reaffirmed its commitment to the law.

Kenneth Marcus, authority of the assistant secretary of education for civil rights, was on hand to talk about the current administration's support of Title IX and what his office is doing to ensure that the law is being enforced across the country.

He pointed to a letter sent last July by his predecessor Gerald Reynolds, which he said not only affirms the Bush administration's support for the law, but also supports the three-prong test for Title IX compliance and discourages the reduction of men's sports to achieve compliance.

Marcus noted that the Office for Civil Rights receives about 5,000 complaints a year, though those complaints have to do with many aspects of civil-rights abuses, not only Title IX violations. There is an emphasis, he said, to fully investigate complaints and document problems, while also increasing the number of enforcement activities within the department.

He talked about the gap that exists between the percentage of females enrolled in college, compared to males, and the number of female student-athletes. Females, he said, have surpassed males in college enrollment, yet still lag behind in the percentage that take part in intercollegiate athletics.

That gap is closing, he said, but it still exists.

"I think it's a sign of maturity of the people when we start thinking about more issues now than we were thinking of perhaps 50 years ago," Marcus said. "But at the same time that we haven't entirely solved the problems of 50 years ago we realize there are many, many ways in which people do not have accessibility, and many, many ways in which people do not have equality of educational opportunities."

The facts of Title IX

The more than 150 seminar attendees also had an opportunity to learn more about the basics of Title IX and the statistics that show how far intercollegiate athletics has come in more than 30 years, and how far it still has to go.

The conference, the 13th held since 1995, began with presentations by Betsy Alden and Robert Bunnell from Alden and Associates on an orientation to Title IX, followed by an advanced Title IX session presented by Janet Judge of Verrill & Dana LLP. Alden and Judge have spoken at previous seminars and were requested back by popular demand. Their talks focused on the three-prong approach to Title IX compliance; areas upon which administrators need to focus to ensure gender equity, such as coaching, facilities and scheduling; real-world applications of Title IX to athletics programs; and recent case law regarding Title IX.

Athena Yiamouyiannis from the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport presented a 27-year study on women in intercollegiate sports. While the number of female student-athletes and number of women's teams offered per school are at their highest or near-highest levels, there are still areas where improvements can be made.

Those areas include the number of women coaches for both women's and men's teams, the number of female sports information directors and the number of women in administrative positions in athletics departments.

The study found, for example, that 44.1 percent of women's teams are coached by women. That percentage has steadily decreased since Title IX was implemented in 1972. However, only 2 percent of men's teams are coached by women, and that figure generally has remained the same since the 1970s.

The study also found that there are more female college presidents of Division I-A schools than there are female athletics directors of Division I-A schools. Also, in 2004, women hold 34.6 percent of the administrative positions, which is down from 40 percent in 2002.

Also on hand to present findings was Christine Grant, former director of women's athletics at the University of Iowa. Citing NCAA statistics, Grant showed that the Division I schools with the largest budgets generally are the ones cutting men's sports, a decision often blamed on Title IX. She also presented findings showing that the majority of athletics budgets are being spent on football and men's basketball, leaving the majority of sports with a minority of the available dollars.

Denise DeHass from the NCAA's research staff discussed results from the recently released gender-equity report, and Jocelyn Samuels from the National Women's Law Center discussed compliance with Title IX through the three prongs. Also presenting at the seminar was NCAA researcher Maria De Julio, who discussed changes in reporting on the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) forms.

'Build on foundations'

New to this year's seminar were breakout sessions by division, where attendees had a chance to discuss issues specific to their division and talk about solutions to take back to campus. Some of these sessions also included panel and round-table discussions on topics ranging from roster management and developing a gender-equity plan, to interest surveys and legal aspects of Title IX.

Conference attendees said they liked this addition to the seminar.

"There are topics that Division I needs to deal with that don't apply to Division III, and even Division II to Division III, because at Division III we don't have scholarship issues," said Kim Nelson-Brown, associate athletics director, senior woman administrator and head volleyball coach at Illinois Wesleyan University. "So it was nice to just deal with Division III issues. I learned some things that I can take back to the university and hopefully see some change."

And as they left the seminar and prepared to return to campus with their charge to be problem-solvers, conference attendees were left with these parting words from NCAA Senior Vice-President Judy Sweet:

"As we focused on our role as solution-providers, in all three divisions, many common themes emerged and it was clear that whether it be the challenges of educating, financing, being inclusive or implementing change, the solutions revolve around attitude, commitment, strategies and action," she said. "As we move forward it is important to build on the foundations and contacts developed here. I think the true solution is to stop viewing Title IX as a problem and embrace Title IX as an opportunity."

Solving problems

The theme of this year's Title IX seminar was "Be a Solution Provider." To help attendees achieve that goal on their campuses, each was provided with the tools necessary to solve problems, including the following Seven-Step Problem Solving Process:

Highlight the problem area

Select and define a specific problem

Collect and analyze data

Generate alternative solutions

Decide on action steps

Implement

Measure and communicate results.