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Title IX departs from narrow interpretation
[ Originally posted 07.12.03 ]
From staff and
wire reports
Would Friday's
Title IX amplification have saved East Carolina's powerhouse wrestling team
from arbitrary extinction two decades ago? It's probably a moot point for
what was once one of the Pirates' flagship programs, but it may portend the
salvation of some latter-day men's sports squads.
The net result
of the new federal government pronouncement on how it will address Title IX
disputes in the future was inconsequential in its effect on the literal
rules but potentially profound in the approach indicated for translating
those rules.
Courtroom
advocates for female athletes got just the kind of change they wanted from
the Bush administration in the wording of the regulations � very little.
But at the same
time, the decision sent a clear signal to schools that the government would
begin interpreting the legislation's mandates in a manner designed to lessen
the pressure perceived by athletic departments across the country to address
the requirements at the expense of men's sports.
The Education
Department said it will clarify, but essentially leave alone, the ways
schools can comply with Title IX. The law prohibits sex discrimination among
schools that
receive federal money, and it has boosted women's sports for three decades.
How Title IX is
enforced has prompted years of debate and a lawsuit against the Education
Department. Education Secretary Rod Paige charged a commission to suggest
improvements, but
its months-long review ended in controversy itself.
Ultimately,
education officials opted to reaffirm and better explain their policies.
"We are pleased
the Department of Education has listened to the American people and
maintained this critical civil rights law," said Lisa Maatz, public policy
director for the
American Association of University Women. "We could only be happier if we
never had to go
through this whole process in the first place."
A leading critic
said the fight will go on for enforcement that's fairer to men. Current
rules prompt some schools to cut men's programs to comply with the law, said
Eric Pearson,
chairman of the College Sports Council, an organization of coaches and
athletic groups.
"The Bush
administration has squandered an opportunity for real reform of the Title IX
regulations," Pearson said. His group sued the department of those rules,
and although that
suit was dismissed, an appeal is under way and other challenges are coming,
Pearson said.
Education
Department officials confirmed they will keep the cornerstone of their
enforcement:
a plan that gives schools three ways to satisfy the law.
The first way �
by far the most disputed � says a school's percentage of female athletes
must
be proportionate to female enrollment.
But the new guidance emphasizes the other ways schools can meet the law: by
showing a pattern of expanding opportunities for women or by proving the
sports interests of women have been met.
Many colleges,
based on guidance during the Clinton administration, inaccurately thought
the
government favored only the plan that tied sports to enrollment, officials
said.
"There was a
lack of clarity about what the Department of Education expected," said Brian
Jones, the department's general counsel. The agency's Office of Civil Rights
will launch a
campaign to ensure schools understand the law, and to give examples of how
it works.
"All young women
and men engaged in athletics have reason to cheer today," said Myles Brand,
president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Making a point
of showing that there are three ways to go "emphasizes that cutting men's
sports ... is a disfavored practice," Brand said in a statement. "This is a
victory for men's sports."
Supporters of
the status quo were wary of big change.
"I hope very
much that the real significance of today's announcement will be a stronger
commitment by the administration to see that the doors of opportunity are
opened wider," said
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. "It is not enough to say that we won't go
backward."
The new guidance
clarifies that:
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Title IX does
not call for the elimination of men's sports, and the cutting of men's teams
is "disfavored."
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The civil rights
office will aggressively enforce the law, and will make sure its policies
do not vary from region to region.
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Private
sponsorship of teams will still be allowed.
Copyright 2003
Bonesville.net and The Associated Press. A source article written by the
AP's Ben Feller was used in compiling this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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