I read with interest Valerie Bonnette's comment piece in the February 3 edition of The NCAA News ("An emotional agenda threatens Title IX"), where she implies a conspiracy involving Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert, Office for Civil Rights Deputy Assistant Secretary Louis Goldstein and OCR Assistant Secretary Gerald Reynolds in the creation of the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. I am certain no such conspiracy exists.

Louis Goldstein was a successful trial lawyer in Chicago for almost 30 years before working in his present position with the government. For most of those years, I worked with Mr. Goldstein first as his associate and then as his business partner. He has devoted a lifetime to promoting equal opportunities for women and men.

I speak from experience. At the time we became business partners, it was extremely rare for a woman to be named partner in a trial law firm. Throughout his practice, Louis Goldstein has represented students, women and men at universities across the country. He has mentored many women in their careers.

To assume that Louis Goldstein, after devoting a lifetime of working for equality for all people, would suddenly be involved in a conspiracy to deprive women athletes of their rights shows an absolute lack of knowledge of what Mr. Goldstein is all about. It runs contrary to a basic tenet that Mr. Goldstein spent a lifetime promoting: equality for the sexes. This is evidenced by his actions in his business, in his career and in his life, where every case relating to advancing women's causes was handled by Mr. Goldstein on a pro bono basis.

I am saddened that Valerie Bonnette has made assertions against Speaker Hastert, Louis Goldstein and Gerald Reynolds without speaking to them. I am especially dismayed about the innuendo in her article that the motives of these gentlemen are other than to formulate the best policy for both women and men under Title IX. Mr. Goldstein proudly continues to work for our system to expand opportunities to ensure fairness for all college athletes.

Cindy G. Fluxgold
Chicago