• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

In a world where equality has made tremendous strides over the last 30 years, the world of sports remains tainted by controversy.

The Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, under the direction of President George W. Bush, met on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss several proposed changes to the 30-year-old Title IX law.

Many women’s rights groups feared major overhauls of the landmark ruling providing equal opportunity for males and females in college athletics. Although the Commission decided on several changes, the vote was sharply divided among those present on the most significant changes.

As it stands, Title IX requires that the ratio of male to female athletes be roughly the same as the ratio of the school’s student body.

Devised by Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow, the new proposal calls for a change in the ratio rules to make the ratio of male to female athletes 50-50, regardless of the student body makeup.

The proposal resulted in a 7-7 deadlock, which is enough to get it included in the official report.

Although it takes an act of Congress to officially change the law, Education Secretary Rod Paige will be forwarded a copy of proceedings and consider the proposed changes.

UCLA is directly affected by the Title IX laws because any university that receives federal funding falls under the scope of this federal law. Aimed to eliminate gender discrimination in athletics at universities that receive funding, coaches at UCLA have many different views on the issue.

“I think it’s sad that you have to have laws to determine justice (in athletics) and to ensure that there is no prejudice,” gymnastics head coach Valorie Kondos-Field said. “I know that (prejudice) first hand because men’s gymnastics was dropped from UCLA athletics, and I think it is really sad. It is one of the few sports that the smaller, shorter male can participate in. The sport of (men‘s) gymnastics is going to be a dinosaur soon.”

Sports like football have been considered the biggest hindrance in equity, because of the large number of scholarships available compared to any female sport at UCLA. However, the football program brings in millions of dollars in revenue each year, far more than any other sport.

Thus far, the law has caused monumental change in the world of women’s athletics. The number of girls participating in high school sports rose from 294,000 to 2.8 million from 1971 to 2002, an increase of over 900%.

The number of women in collegiate sports increased fivefold during the same time frame. Critics of the new proposals fear that tampering with the proportionality rule would only discourage women from participating in athletics, because many universities would be able to cut women’s sports for more profitable men’s sports.

In the world of men’s sports, the law has nearly as big of an impact. The National Wrestling Coaches Association has filed a lawsuit because over 430 wrestling programs have been cut in the last thirty years in colleges throughout the country.

“Whenever we have open sports tryouts, more men than women always try out for the teams. In society, more male students than women are interested in sports,” Kent State University Athletic Director Laing Kennedy said in a statement.

But UCLA’s Kondos-Field sees it differently.

“I think that too many times the almighty dollar dictates our decision making,” Kondos-Field said. “I think that one area we are going in this country that is very bad is we keep taking athletics away from our youth.”

The commission made several other suggestions to encourage gender equity in college athletics, including a predetermined number of roster spots that would count toward Title IX compliance. According to Stanford athletic director Ted Leland, this would prevent schools from putting one hundred girls on the crew team and claiming that the crew team and the football team were equally proportioned.

Another recommended change was to not count walk-ons or non-traditional students in the total makeup of a university, making it simpler for smaller schools and community colleges to comply.

One member of the commission is U.S. soccer national team member Julie Foudy, who advocates stricter enforcement of the existing laws.

UCLA associate athletic director Betsy Stephenson has said that she is uncertain if Title IX has had the desired outcome thirty years later. Bruin squads that have been cut include the aforementioned men’s gymnastics and men’s swimming teams.

Although the women’s gymnastics team has been largely successful over the past several years in winning three NCAA championships, the relatively small number of girls is almost a detriment to the University’s Title IX compliance. The team has only 16 members, twelve of whom are on scholarship. Not that the team couldn’t have more participants.

“There are teams that do have 18-22 (members) to help with gender equity issues, but the coaching to student athlete ration...it’s not effective,” Kondos Field said.

While football offers 85 student athletes the chance to participate while on scholarship, the most scholarships offered for a women’s sport is 20 by the rowing team. This leaves a difference of 65 scholarships to be made up for women’s athletics if the proportions were to be 50-50.

“I think it’s a sin to take away any opportunity from our youth,” Kondos Field said. “Male or female, revenue producing or non-revenue producing.”

Comments

Post a comment