Title IX

Title IX has been instrumental in providing athletic opportunities for women, and has been huge factor in maintaining gender equality in schools. However, an unfortunate byproduct of Title IX has been some school’s policy of cutting men’s teams instead of adding women’s teams. Schools have three options in which they can be in compliance with Title IX regulations. Many choose to use the “proportionality test” which calls for schools to provide participation opportunities for male and female students in numbers that are substantially proportionate to undergraduate enrollment. To meet this requirement many schools cut men’s teams rather than add female teams as it is expensive to add and then maintain new athletic programs. However, this has resulted in far fewer opportunities for men and accusations that Title IX has created the same situation for men that it attempted to correct for women.

Some argue that predominantly male sports like football should be excluded from the proportionality test. Football would almost never be cut because it is in many instances the face of the university and a selling point for applicants. However, the average football team boasts upwards of 70 participants and skews the proportion of male athletes. To meet requirements of proportionality many schools have added numerous women’s programs in swimming, soccer, or lacrosse, but cut many men’s teams. This means the average male student that wants to play a sport other than football is out of luck. By excluding football from the proportionality test the variety of sports opportunities would be more equal for men and women. This is not an acceptable solution to many critics though who say that schools don’t have to cut men’s programs and should find a way to meet compliance using one of the other tests rather than the proportionality test. They also argue that excluding football from proportionality would cause further financial drain on schools as they must now maintain more programs for both men and women. There are no easy solutions to the problems of Title IX. Even though it is a much needed and useful piece of legislation, it has also been used to create discrimination in other areas. It seems as though true equality will always be difficult to achieve.

Link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6167142

This is a story about ESPN columnist Howard Bryant who has been arrested and accused of domestic violence and assaulting a police officer. This article is interesting in that is a strange reversal of fortune for a media personality. They are usually in the position of reporting the story rather than being the story.