Copyright 2001 The Tribune Co. Publishes The Tampa Tribune Tampa Tribune (Florida)
March 22, 2001, Thursday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NATION/WORLD, Pg. 12
LENGTH: 510 words
HEADLINE:
Title IX rules and proportionality;
BODY: The National Collegiate Athletic Association
basketball tournament that began last weekend is what most supporters of
Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 envisioned, or at least
hoped for, when it was enacted.
An equal number
of men's and women's basketball teams began the tournament, and even the schools
that failed to be selected have programs for both sexes.
BUT TITLE IX has its detractors - not because they don't believe in
equality, but because many men's programs have been eliminated in order to
comply with equity mandates. Complying with Title IX should not, however,
have to hurt men to help women.
Any problems the
legislation is causing can be fixed by reinterpreting the law according to its
original intent and doing away with "proportional numbers" in efforts to
comply.
That was the case presented by Michael W. Lynch
in the April issue of Reason magazine. Lynch, the magazine's Washington
editor, believes the problem is bureaucratic regulations and enforcement
policies, not the statute itself.
Some
background: Congress decided in 1972 that schools must allocate equal resources
to men's and women's athletics, and it has produced huge changes. The year
before, 294,015 American girls participated in high school sports,
compared with 3.7 million boys. During the 1999-2000 school year, 2.7
million girls played high school sports, compared with 3.8 million boys.
But it is at the collegiate level that litigation has
brought Title IX's intent into question. Schools are deemed not to be in
compliance if they fail to offer sports to women in proportion to their
numbers on campus.
Lynch cites the case of Providence
College, where women accounted for 59 percent of the school's students yet
represented only 43 percent of student athletes. "Providence simply had too many
male athletes," writes Lynch, "and the easiest course of action was to cut
some men's programs to bring its numbers into line."
The law's intent was to provide equal opportunity for women to take
part in sports, not to determine participation on the basis of numbers.
And as long as only men participate in varsity football - which can have
as many as 85 players on scholarship at Division I schools - there are
going to be disparities in the numbers of male and female athletes - even
when there are more sports offered to women.
But
if the numbers don't add up the way some would like, Title IX nevertheless has
been a success. It has given women opportunities in sports that hardly
existed 29 years ago. Still, it may be time to re-examine what the law's
goals should be, since disparities do not automatically indicate
discrimination.
A national champion wrestler whose
school eliminated his sport called Title IX compliance, as it is currently
practiced, "statistical discrimination." For it to be fair, opportunity, not
proportionality, has to be stressed.
A little
common sense needs to be injected into Title IX enforcement,
not just a concern about numbers.
Document 64 of 67. 