SACRAMENTO, California — For women who aspire to become athletics directors or conference commissioners, the National Association of Collegiate Women’s Athletics Association convention showed ways they can take control of their career path.

The NACWAA sessions, under the thematic umbrella of "Making Change Happen," focused on ways to enhance skills necessary for women to assume leadership roles in intercollegiate athletics administration.

Among those skills is fund-raising.

One of the first workshops at the October 7-10 convention focused on a survey of college and university presidents that showed fund-raising, managing budgets, managing people and relationship building as critical factors considered in the search process for ADs.

Indications are that, out of that grouping, women are the least familiar with fund-raising. But Cynthia Spiro, senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at the University of the Pacific (California), said fund-raising can be a strength for women. She cited her own campus’ $20 million capital campaign that included $13 million in athletics allocations for a new a baseball stadium, a new practice gymnasium and increased endowments.

"You have to believe in what you are doing so that you emit that passion to people," Spiro said. She noted that wasn’t difficult for her because she had a 25-year history with the institution dating back to when she was a student-athlete at the university.

"I felt I would be of best service to the university as a fund-raiser," she said. "I knew a lot of people, and I could communicate my love and passion to them."

At the time, though, she believed fund-raising was the missing piece of her portfolio as an athletics administrator.

Spiro said understanding why people give is a key component to fund-raising. She said most people who give philanthropically give from the heart. Spiro believes women can identify with that emotional bond and can make good fund-raisers if they embrace the challenge.

NACWAA Executive Director Jennifer Alley said the panel discussion was in line with presenting convention participants with new ideas and ways to advance their careers.

"We try to focus on professional development and educate the young people here on what the hot topics are and how they can get involved," she said. "We try to show them things they can do for themselves to make change happen not only for them personally but throughout the industry."

Women mentoring women

In another session, Gail Evans, a former executive vice president for CNN News Service, told a packed ballroom that women have an obligation to mentor other women.

"We as women are born onto the same team by virtue of our genetics, and it’s time we start playing there," said Evans, one of the convention’s keynote speakers. "A lot of women get nervous when I say that."

She said that doesn’t mean establishing an "us vs. them" mentality; rather, Evans suggested that women become more active in helping each other excel in their respective professions.

"We have grown up as women with the mantra of, ‘I can do it,’ " Evans said. "We need to change that mantra to, ‘We can do it.’ Real change can occur only if you have three or four people in the room."

Evans also advised the audience about mentoring and networking.

"I believe it is the obligation of every woman to mentor a younger woman," Evans said. "And if you are a woman of color I think it is an obligation to mentor a younger woman of color. We have to teach each other."

Evans said she hears complaints from younger women that older women make it harder for them to advance. They think older women expect them to "pay their dues" to truly learn.

But networking, she said, is about making things easier. "It is about paying it forward," she said. "Really great networkers are about meeting person A and knowing person C, and having an understanding that person A has a need that person C can fill. And you put them together."

Brand on Title IX

NCAA President Myles Brand also provided a keynote address on being diligent about recognizing attacks on Title IX.

Brand told the crowd of about 400 NACWAA members that the law, which he calls the most important piece of civil-rights legislation affecting higher education in the second half of the 20th century, doesn’t need fixing.

"Title IX is critical to our future," Brand said. "It not only affects student-athletes as they participate in sports, but it affects all of higher education. When Title IX was passed, it said women should have opportunity in postbaccalaureate work that involves law school, medical school, business school and other opportunities in addition to intercollegiate athletics."

But special-interests groups continue their efforts to change the law. Brand lauded the grass-roots approach to halt a controversial plan from the Secretary of Education’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics in 2003. The commission wanted to give institutions the right to limit the number of scholarships awarded to female student-athletes without regard to enrollment.

Brand said the latest threats to Title IX come from allowing electronic surveys as a way to comply with the third prong of the Title IX compliance test. The NCAA Executive Committee, though, issued a resolution against the practice, urging institutions instead to conduct a more comprehensive and accurate assessment.

Brand also said it was a mistake to blame Title IX for the financial pressures facing athletics departments. Groups often assume — incorrectly so, Brand said — that cutbacks in men’s sports are the result of athletics departments complying with Title IX when in fact they are the result of fiscal problems.

The financial pressures on athletics will only get worse, Brand said, as costs for higher education itself continue to swell while state support continues to shrink. In the last 15 years, Brand said, the mean family income has risen 9 percent while college tuition has increased by 190 percent.

Brand said athletics departments already leaning heavily on university subsidies to balance their operating budgets will feel the squeeze. But it would be a mistake, he said, to assume Title IX affected the current financial landscape.

"That just isn’t true," Brand said. "It’s about the money, not about the law."