Committee Votes on Title IX Changes

A national commission approved moderate recommendations to change the methods by which colleges and universities can comply with Title IX yesterday, but voted down the most controversial alterations to the enforcement of the landmark gender-equity law.

The proposals will have little direct effect on schools like Harvard that already comply by the current Title IX interpretation, officials say.

Associate Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations John Veneziano said yesterday that the commission’s recommendations would have no effect on Harvard’s offerings of athletic opportunities.

“We offer more intercollegiate athletic programs and intercollegiate athletic opportunities for both men and women, than any other Division I school in he nation,” he said. “That is going to remain constant regardless of Title IX.”

The Commission on Opportunity in Athletics will forward a report containing the recommendations it adopted at this week’s meetings to Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige. It takes an act of Congress to fundamentally change the law, but Paige can alter the way compliance is measured.

At yesterday’s meeting, the commission recommended several changes to the proportionality standard, one of three ways that schools can reach Title IX compliance.

Proportionality requires that the ratio of male to female athletes at colleges and universities be roughly the same as that in the overall student body.

One recommendation approved yesterday would establish a predetermined number of roster spots on each team as the standard for proportionality, rather than the actual number of athletes.

The commission also voted not to count male walk-ons—athletes not recruited—and nontraditional students such as those who are part-time or older as part of a school’s male total. The latter change would mostly affect smaller schools, particularly community colleges.

The commissioners voted to recommend that student-interest surveys be used as a tool to demonstrate Title IX compliance, but voted 8-7 against a proposal that interest surveys on campus be used in lieu of proportionality.

Surveys could be used as an alternate way to seek compliance through prong three—that a school show it is fully and effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of women.

The commission also recommended that the Department of Education look into reshaping the second prong of Title IX compliance—that a school shows an ongoing history of broadening opportunities for women. Commissioners wanted to designate a sunset point at which schools can no longer establish compliance through it.

The committee rejected the more controversial changes in Title IX compliance.

For example, the committee voted down the recommendation that the Office of Civil Rights should not use numeric formulas to determine whether an institution is in compliance with Title IX by an 11-4 margin.

But a proposal to allow schools to comply with proportionality by having a 50-50 split of male and female athletes, regardless of the student body makeup, with a leeway of 2 to 3 percentage points, ended on a 7-7 vote.

Commissioner Lisa Graham Keegan showed up after that plan was considered and left the meeting early without talking to reporters about why she missed the vote.

Most of the recommendations considered yesterday had been proposed by committee members at a December meeting.

University of Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow, who proposed the recommendation that produced the tie, said she was satisfied because, under commission rules, the deadlock means it will still go into the report.

Yow’s proposal was the one that had drawn the most wrath from women’s groups. Her original proposal allowed for a seven percent leeway, which would permit schools to comply by giving women 43 percent of athletic opportunities even though they make up 56 percent of college enrollment nationwide. At present, 42 percent of all athletic opportunities are given to women.

The proposed changes alarmed women’s advocates who prefer the status quo.

“The commission has opened the door for the secretary to do a lot of damage to Title IX,” said Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation. “They changed the way of counting collegiate participation. The number of male athletes will be deflated; the number of female athletes will be inflated.”

Commission co-chairman Ted Leland, athletic director at Stanford University, disagreed. He said his recommendation to count a fixed number of roster spots instead of actual participants would prevent a school from stacking “100 women on the rowing team” to artificially inflate the number of female athletes in order to comply with the proportionality requirement.

Wrestling advocates were disappointed that the committee did not recommend the elimination of proportionality. But they were pleased by the recommendations that the committee did approve.

“It’s very obvious that everyone recognizes that there needs to be change, and this is a great first step,” said Mike Moyer, the executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association.

“It will certainly stem further loss of programs,” said Moyer, whose organization has filed a lawsuit claiming Title IX has led to the elimination of hundreds of men’s sports teams.

Title IX prohibits gender discrimination in public and private schools that receive federal funding, which almost all do. It covers admissions, recruitment, course offerings, counseling, financial aid, student health and student housing, as well as athletics.

The commission only looked at sports, where the law’s effect has been especially profound. The number of girls participating in high school sports rose from 294,000 in 1971 to 2.8 million in 2002. The number of women in college sports increased fivefold during the same time. But about 400 men’s college teams were eliminated during the 1990s, with wrestling taking a particularly hard hit.

—The Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Sean W. Coughlin contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.