Panel tackles future of Title IX in athletics

When Phyllis Howlett graduated college in 1954, she had never seen women play a sport against each other. If given the opportunity to play sports, she would have refused. In her eyes it simply wasn't her place. Now, Howlett is the assistant commissioner of the Big Ten Conference and a central figure in the fight for gender equity in the National Collegiate Athletics Association. Her position demonstrates how much times have changed and, many would say, how much more work needs to be done. Howlett served a panelist at last night's "The Meaning of Title IX: Athletics and Civil Rights" discussion. The program was funded by a grant awarded to Education Professor and former Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson and adjunct Education Associate Professor Ursula Wagener from the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Lazerson and Wagener will research how Title IX affects student athletes. National Women's Law Center Co-President Marcia Greenberger, Howlett and Roy Kramer, the Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, made up the panel. Title IX, which was passed in 1972, prohibits sexual discrimination at schools that receive public funds. Since Congress passed the legislation, coaches and teams have sued schools, charging that women's athletic programs do not receive the same attention as men's. Complainants have demanded that schools allot funds proportional to the number of women athletes, provide facilities of the same quality as the men's, and offer more opportunities for women to play sports -- including fielding more teams. Many universities have been reluctant to fully develop women's athletics because of the high revenue men's sports bring, Greenberger said. "There's a sense that no women's team will ever do the same for alumni contributions and school spirit as a men's team," Greenberger told an audience of about 75 students, faculty and staff. "This attitude has kept the tension boiling up or simmering at the surface from 1972 to 1995." Universities facing lawsuits have attempted to justify why they did not fulfill Title IX -- but to no avail. "Some schools say they're steadily improving their programs to account for the disparity, but no one has proven that in court," Greenberger said. "Some say there's not enough money," Greenberger added. "But if they have enough money to support that many males then they should find a way to finance female students." Howlett described her experiences working for the National Collegiate Athletics Association task force that evaluated how universities address gender equity. The task force published guidelines last year that define gender equity and how a school should fulfill Title IX. Howlett said she hopes universities will make more efforts towards gender equity, which until now have only merited a "C-." In court, universities have been sharply criticized for giving football teams disproportionate funds. But according to Kramer, Southeastern Conference schools depend on the revenue generated by football games for 80 percent of their budgets -- putting those universities in a serious bind.