There are 10,422 undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania. 51 percent of those undergraduates are female and 49 percent are male. Based on those numbers, one would expect that the ratio of male-to-female athletes would be nearly 1:1 as well.
From looking at the most recent roster spots for each sport, there are 829 varsity athletes at Penn. Yet, 504 of those athletes are male, meaning that 61 percent of Penn athletes are male.
Is this unbalanced? Yes.
Illegal? No.
Penn abides by Title IX regulations perfectly by offering 17 male varsity sports and 16 female varsity sports.
In addition, women are not deprived of athletic opportunities overall. There are nine female club teams and 16 that are coed.
While Penn is certainly within the law by offering a nearly identical number of sports to men and women, the school has violated the spirit of the law by having a tremendously unequal number of roster spots for each gender.
Title IX is the most famous part of the Educational Amendments of 1972. It states, "No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid."
How Title IX specifically relates to athletics has been developed through later legislation. There are three main criteria to make an athletic program compliant.
1. Financial proportionality.
The amount of aid must be proportional to the number of athletes from each gender. This is a non-issue for athletic-scholarship-free Penn.
2. Miscellaneous areas.
The institution must provide equal services for each gender in categories such as housing, medical and training staff, travel and equipment and supplies.
3. Accommodation and participation.
This has three parts as well. A school must have a history and continuing practice of program expansion for the underrepresented sex, a full and effective accommodation of the interests and abilities of the under-represented sex, and substantially proportionate athletic opportunities for males and females relative to the student population.
With 17 male sports and 16 female sports, Penn has done everything to be proportional, or so it would claim. No matter how you look at it, 33 sports is a lot. Premier programs like Texas and USC have 16 and 19, respectively.
While Penn has provided numerous opportunities for women, the opportunities should be the same in number that the men enjoy. Pointing simply to the even number of sports is deceptive. The standard should be an equal number of athletes.
Of course, sports like football and sprint football are largely responsible for the inequality, and there are no women's sports that provide as many spots.
I would never advocate cutting men's programs - I still lament our missing ice-hockey team. To remedy the problem, Penn simply should make more sports available to women.
Wouldn't it be great if Penn sported a women's water polo team and a competitive bowling squad? Both are NCAA sports.
Though it abides by the law, the University should look at itself in the mirror and ask if it is really fulfilling its athletic mission.
Matt Meltzer is a senior political science major from Glen Rock, N.J. His e-mail address is meltzerm@sas.upenn.edu.
