Copyright 2002 The San Diego Union-Tribune The San
Diego Union-Tribune
November 24, 2002, Sunday
SECTION: SPORTS;Pg. C-4
LENGTH:
566 words
HEADLINE: Everyone must work together
to make Title IX work
BYLINE: Nicole Vargas;
STAFF WRITER
BODY: As I sat among
the county's best high school volleyball teams battling for San Diego Section
championships yesterday, I could not begin to comprehend what girls and women's
sports were like before Title IX.
Like many of the
girls who played inside Peterson Gym, I was but a glimmer in my mother's eye
when Title IX was born. I am proud to have seen and participated in the
progress, but after last week's Title IX town hall debate waged in our own back
yard, I wonder if the commission's report is going to solve anything.
It's no secret Title IX is an emotional issue. It's also
no secret that it is difficult to understand and poorly implemented.
Instead of forming a commission to study possible changes
in a law that never has been enforced correctly in the first place, how about
more education for athletic directors and the public?
Of course, that won't happen any time before this commission wraps up
its work.
Quick fixes for complying with Title IX were
discussed at last week's meetings. Things like pulling football out of the
equation or capping the ballooning incomes of football and men's basketball
coaches. Neither appears realistic.
Then there is the
push to prune football budgets. While $134,000 may not be much in the grand
scheme of a football budget, that was the cost of the men's volleyball program
before it was cut at San Diego State.
Yeah, this does
sound a little like an assault on football, but that's where the money is.
Regardless of what the commission recommends, it's clear
not all voices will be heard. Ten of the 15 people on the commission represent
or have ties to NCAA Division I athletic programs and universities. Forget high
schools, community colleges or NCAA Division II and Division III programs.
At least one commissioner, Stanford athletic director and
commission co-chair Ted Leland, thinks the group can take everything it has
heard in town hall meetings and prepare a report by its Jan. 31 deadline.
The report will go to Secretary of Education Rod Paige,
the point man for the Bush administration, who has been clumped with the
president in his staunch support of the protection from gender discrimination
that is provided by Title IX.
That brings us back to
the original question of why the commission was formed if it isn't there to make
changes.
It all comes back to education and enforcement.
If Title IX were gone
tomorrow, women's opportunities in athletics would not take a huge step
backward. We've got lawyers for that. But I would be concerned about future
steps forward, and I'm not just talking sports. Fields like law and medicine are
covered under Title IX.
I want the best of both worlds,
to see football thrive alongside a host of Olympic sports for men and women.
If something should be done, it must be done together. All
universities must band together, under the careful watch of the NCAA and federal
authorities, and make this a unanimous decision to comply.
And do it.
And if the work of this commission
results in no significant change, all the more reason for the Office of Civil
Rights to tackle the job of enforcement.
That will
guarantee the athletic futures of not only the young girls playing volleyball in
Peterson Gym but the ones represented by the men's national championship banner
hanging in that arena as well.
A sampling of opinion
from Union-Tribune staffers.
Document 6 of 67. 