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EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in Chief  Timothy Kudo

Managing Editor

 Michael Falcone

Viewpoint Editor

 Cuauhtemoc Ortega

Staff Representatives

 Maegan Carberry

 Edward Chiao

 Kelly Rayburn

Editorial Board Assistants

 Maegan Carberry

 Edward Chiao

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From 1974 to 1982, the Women’s Athletic Department was housed in a green trailer outside the Women’s Gym. In the ’60s, girls played basketball in skirts with six players on the court – three forwards and three defenders – the latter not even allowed to cross midcourt. Title IX has helped women’s sports come a long way, and women’s athletics need Title IX to protect them from the indignation a culture predisposed to men’s programs would otherwise force on them.

Regardless of what the historically gender-biased American culture would have you believe, women have every bit as much right to be based in the J.D. Morgan Center as they are now, or to play full-court basketball, as the men do. But without Title IX, such basic inequalities would have continued indefinitely, and in some places might even be reinstated today. The insulting conditions and regulations that women’s sports had to face never would have been pushed on mens’ programs in the first place.

As a result of Title IX, women’s participation in athletics has increased four-fold since it’s inception in 1972. But a lawsuit filed by the National Wrestling Coaches Association which could end up in the Supreme Court threatens the relative equality Title IX has brought to the athletic field.

The NWCA, backed by three colleges, claims Title IX has inadvertently hurt small men’s programs while trying to increase women’s opportunities in sports. The claim results from the various men’s programs which have been cut around the country, particularly wrestling, gymnastics, swimming and volleyball, in order to bring schools in compliance with budgetary quotas required under Title IX.

While the current system is far from perfect, it is the best available option given the limited funds athletic departments have to deal with. Cutting Title IX would undoubtedly result in an unfair allocation of funds directed toward men’s programs. Some critics have proposed exempting football from quota considerations to save these other men’s sports, but under Title IX, this would mean cutting numerous women’s sports to equalize the women’s side of the currently balanced ratio.

In an ideal world, no sports would need to be cut. There would be adequate funding to preserve all of the men’s sports while adding women’s sports to provide everyone with an equal opportunity to participate. But the reality is that athletic departments are facing a zero-sum game. Budgets aren’t expanding, and the newly added women’s sports don’t bring in money to the school like men’s football and basketball. This simply means cuts have to be made from smaller men’s programs.

Until women’s sports are followed with the same fervor as men’s, creating profit possibilities and increasing the athletic department’s budget, men’s sports will have to face cutbacks to accommodate for the gender equity Title IX demands. There is hope for this profit potential as evidenced by the successes of the Women’s National Basketball League, the Women’s World Cup, and tennis stars like the Williams sisters. But we’re not there yet.

Athletes, regardless of their gender, deserve the opportunity to take the court. Men’s sports with a relatively small fan base are paying the price under Title IX right now, but they’re affording the long term gender equity this society so desperately needs.