Commission rejects proposal

Joseph White

Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A Bush administration advisory commission on today rejected several proposals for overhauling a landmark gender-equity law that substantially increased the number of female athletes.

In the morning's key vote, the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics deadlocked 7-7 on a plan to alter the Title IX requirement that the ratio of male and female athletes at colleges and universities be roughly the same as the overall student body.

Commissioner Lisa Graham Keegan showed up after the plan was considered. It was not immediately clear which way she would have voted.

The commission had more recommendations to consider today, but the tie vote was a major setback for those seeking changes to a law that critics say has punished male athletes to promote female sports participation.

The commission is wrapping up a two-day meeting today and will forward a report to Education Secretary Rod Paige, who will consider whether to recommend changing the law.

Title IX prohibits gender discrimination in programs that receive federal funding. Its effect has been profound: The number of girls participating in high school sports rose from 294,000 to 2.8 million from 1971 to 2002. The number of women in college sports increased fivefold during the same time frame.

In 1979, Title IX was clarified by the introduction of the three-prong test, with schools having the option to meet any of the prongs to comply with the law:

The first prong gets the most attention, and it's the only one that can be met using pure statistics with little or no subjective interpretation. Even so, there is still a substantial gap between the percentage of U.S. female college students (56 percent) and the percentage of female college athletes (42 percent).

The tie vote came on University of Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow's amended plan calling for schools to be allowed a 50-50 split of male and female athletes, regardless of the student body makeup, with a leeway of 2 to 3 percentage points. Her earlier proposal called for a leeway of 5 to 7 percentage points.

"If we had an apple and were hungry and we wanted to be fair, we would split it 50-50," Yow said.

Commissioner Julie Foudy, a member of the U.S. women's national soccer team, was among those who voted against the plan. She said she doesn't believe the commission's mandate is to change proportionality. Foudy favors stronger enforcement of the existing law.

The commission voted down several other proposals, the most sweeping of which would have eliminated the "proportionality" requirement. It failed 11-4.

Critics say proportionality has forced schools to cut male sports to meet the ratio requirement. Roughly 400 men's college teams were eliminated in the 1990s, with wrestling taking such a blow that the National Wrestling Coaches Association has filed suit, claiming that the first prong has evolved into a quota system.

On Wednesday, the commissioners approved several less controversial recommendations. And there was no problem reaching a consensus on at least one topic: The Education Department must do a better job explaining Title IX's complex guidelines to colleges and high schools.

The commissioners were also emphatic that the Education Department start implementing sanctions against violators. The department has never punished a school for not complying.

The commissioners also urged schools to stop overspending on sports such as football and men's basketball.