The Gender-Equity Q&A is intended to help athletics administrators understand institutional gender-equity and Title IX-related issues. Answers for the Q&A are provided by Christine Grant, associate professor at the University of Iowa, and Janet Judge, attorney with Verrill & Dana LLP.

Just before the start of the summer, in response to a number of inquiries from members, we promised a recap of the individual treatment areas covered by Title IX. If you recall, Title IX measures athletics compliance in three separate areas (participation, financial aid and treatment) with individual tests for each. When assessing compliance in this area, it is important to remember that although each area should be reviewed individually, it is the treatment of the men's and women's programs overall that is dispositive for compliance purposes.

Accordingly, a disparity in one area that favors one sex may be offset by a similar disparity in another area that favors the opposite sex. For the next several issues of the Gender-Equity Q&A, we will address ways to review each treatment (also known as "the laundry list"). Of course, each program will have its own unique characteristics and any review will have to be tailored to the circumstances of the program in question.

Q How is equity evaluated in the area of locker rooms and practice and competitive facilities?

A When evaluating whether men's and women's programs are provided comparable locker rooms and practice and competitive facilities, the following factors should be assessed:

• Quality of the facilities

• Availability of the facilities

• Exclusivity of the facilities

Additionally, for practice and competitive facilities, one would assess maintenance and preparation of the facilities.

As is usual in Title IX reviews, the assessment focuses on the men's facilities overall compared to the women's facilities overall. It is therefore possible to have a disparity in a facility for one gender providing that is offset by an advantage to that gender in a different sport facility or offset by a comparable disparity in a facility for the other gender.

Locker rooms

Quality. In the area of locker rooms, the quality can be gauged by noting the number of student-athletes assigned to a given locker room in relation to the size of the area. The number of lockers as well as the size and type of locker used will be useful in determining the quality of the facility. The number of showers, sinks, toilets, hair dryers and mirrors also should be adequate for the number of student-athletes using the facility. The types of furniture in locker rooms also should be comparable.

Problems arise where institutions create spacious and well-furnished locker rooms for football and men's basketball and no similarly appointed locker rooms for women's teams. There is concern as well when superior locker rooms are provided to a disproportionately higher percentage of male student-athletes (for example, to football and men's basketball teams in Division I, which include about 130 student-athletes) and to women's basketball and volleyball teams (about 30 student-athletes).

Access to luxury items in locker rooms also creates compliance problems when those are not distributed equitably between men's and women's teams. At some institutions, such items may include televisions, VCRs, stereos, saunas, hot tubs and lounge areas, even if those items come from outside sources.

Availability. The availability of locker rooms relates to whether there is equitable sharing of locker rooms used by teams on a year-round basis and locker rooms that may be shared by teams (for example, used in the fall semester by one team and by another team in the spring semester). Certainly the sharing of locker rooms is acceptable if both genders are fairly treated. Another factor to consider is how convenient the locker rooms are to the practice and competitive facilities and to training rooms. It is unacceptable if teams of one gender have more inconvenient locker rooms than the other gender.

Exclusivity. Exclusivity is closely related to availability in that an assessment is made of the number of men's teams with exclusive use of their locker rooms compared to the number of women's teams. It is not only the concern that some women's teams may be sharing locker rooms with other university women's teams, but sometimes women's teams are expected to move out of their locker rooms to accommodate a men's visiting team or even officials. That is acceptable only if men's teams are similarly inconvenienced because of visiting teams.

Practice and competitive facilities

Quality. Ideally, comparable men's and women's teams should have access to the same facility for practice and competitive events, thus ensuring equitable treatment of student-athletes (for example, basketball teams, golf teams, swimming teams, soccer teams, tennis teams, etc.). In noncomparable sports, the evaluation of facilities is more complex, but basically there should be comparable quality of facilities for the practice and performance of the sports. For example, the playing surfaces of football fields and field hockey pitches may be very different, but they should be of the same relative quality.

Quality also necessitates evaluating whether there is equitable accommodation of spectators and media and their needs (for example, seating capacity for spectators, restrooms, concession stands, press boxes, public address systems, electronic scoreboards, lighting, etc.). Problems can arise when several men's sport facilities cater well to spectators and the media but the women's facilities lack such amenities.

Availability. This area is directly related to a previous Gender-Equity Q&A (October 10 issue of The NCAA News) about the scheduling of games and practice times in which specific questions pointed to whether there are discriminatory practices:

• Are practice opportunities equivalent in number and duration?

• Are competitive events scheduled at comparable times?

• Are teams given equitable practice times?

If equitable scheduling has occurred, one other area that bears investigation is the convenience of facilities for student-athletes. Practicing and/or competing off campus may create an unfair inconvenience to members of one gender (for example, having an on-campus baseball stadium and an off-campus softball stadium). However, in a few instances, this may be unavoidable and is therefore acceptable (for example, rowing teams traveling off campus to a lake or river).

Exclusivity. The common problem in this area is similar to that noted in the locker room section (for example, when some men's teams enjoy the benefits of having facilities exclusively for their use while women's teams do not).

Maintenance of facilities. In some sports, it is common to have professional grounds people and support personnel maintain the facilities, while in other sports, coaches, athletes, work-study students or hourly wage workers are assigned to tend to the needs of other facilities. Providing the teams of both genders are treated in comparable fashion, that arrangement is acceptable. However, having the facilities of comparable teams assigned the same maintenance workers to care for the facilities is an easy way to ensure equity of treatment. For noncomparable teams, there should be equivalent maintenance for men's and women's sports.

A common area of concern occurs when coaches and student-athletes of men's sports do not have to assist in the maintenance of their facilities while coaches and student-athletes of women's sports are expected to do so.

Preparation of facilities. In the preparation of practice and competitive facilities, having the same support personnel for comparable teams alleviates problems in this area.

Whether it is lining the field or cutting the grass for outdoor sports or setting up nets and scorers' tables for indoor sports, both men's and women's noncomparable sports should experience similar responsibilities in this area. As in the maintenance of facilities, a common concern is related to inequitable support systems for women's sports.

For additional gender-equity resources, including newly created video segments featuring Christine Grant and Janet Judge, visit www.ncaa.org/gender_equity.