Female athletes stand to lose $100 million in scholarships and over 300,000 participation opportunities under new proposals.
Published: January 30, 2003
The actions taken by the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics at their last meeting in Washington, D.C. are outrageous. No less than six proposals being advanced to the Secretary of Education from the Commission could result in discriminatory treatment of female athletes.
The only numerical proposal advanced would change the current equal opportunity standard from athletic participation opportunities based on percentage of males and females in the student body enrollment to a new and lower standard - 50% Male and 50% Female with a 2-3% variance permitted. This standard could result in the following annual losses:
50%M/50%F Standard
Range = 4%
Variance = +/- 2%
Females = 48%
College Athletic Scholarship Loss: $103,000,000
College Participation Loss: 43,000
High School Participation Loss: 163,000
50%M/50%F Standard
Range = 6%
Variance = +/- 3%
Females = 47%
College Athletic Scholarship Loss: $122,000,000
College Participation Loss: 50,000
High School Participation Loss: 305,000
Proposals advanced would reduce the obligations of colleges and universities only by tampering with the way in which athletic participants are counted. These proposals could result in the loss of 2-4 women's teams and million of dollars in scholarship money annually. The Foundation is currently assessing the impact of all non-numerical proposals.
“The most disappointing thing about this commission is that they have not done their homework; (1) they have failed to operate on the basis of an agreed upon set of participation statistics; (2) on numerous occasions they refused to read, discuss or accept the distribution of the 1996 Office of Civil Rights document they were proposing to amend; (3) they failed to ask for or consider any data on the impact of proposals under consideration—like the number of participation opportunities or scholarship dollars that would be lost compared to the current Title IX standard; (4) they refused to accept the opinion of research experts that the use of interest surveys were nothing more then measures of attitudes that reflect gender stereotyping, that reflect exposure to previous experience and peer, parental and media impact,” said Donna Lopiano, Executive Director of the Women's Sports Foundation. “The public deserved a better effort.”