"The whole IX yards: W.H. reverses sports policy"

[Clio the Leo]

The whole IX yards: W.H. reverses sports policy
By KENDRA MARR | 04/20/10 3:24 PM

The Obama administration on Tuesday rescinded a controversial Title IX policy that used surveys to measure the athletic interests of female students.

The change, announced in a “Dear Colleague” letter from the Office of Civil Rights, says universities cannot use survey results alone to determine women’s interests or abilities in sports.

“We have a long way to go, still, and we want to take away every barrier that exists,” Vice President Biden said at the announcement at George Washington University.

For decades, colleges have taken a test to determine whether they were complying with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex at institutions receiving federal aid.

One of three requirements must be met: that the number of female athletes is proportional to the number of female students; that a school demonstrate expanding opportunities for women’s athletics; or that it show that the women’s athletic program accommodates students’ interest.

In 2005, the Bush administration altered the third element, allowing colleges to rely just on the results of surveys. The NCAA objected, and gender equality advocates labeled it a loophole.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0410/the_whole_ix_yards_e04f1fd4-38ba-4c54-aeaf-4b114dbd0670.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. Well done! Go Team D! nt

[NJmaverick]

2. K&R

[Mr. Blonde]

3. So what all do they have to do now?

It certainly doesn't seem like adding programs is on the agenda for many schools.

[Oregone]

4. Slash wrestling and/or baseball is the normal result

[SwampG8r]

5. my former high school somehow

stopped auto shop and wrestling
we never could figure out how auto shop got cut it was open to anyone who wanted to take the class
sadly the usual result of strict title ix enforcement is to cut male sports so the numbers work
this is one reason why i prefer local rule of schools without federal oversight
we now in most states have school district administrator,county school administrators,state school administrators and federal administrators
seems wasteful

and frankly they made me smarter with less so i know it can be done

[Mr. Blonde]

7. I know and those sports are already

endangered with the serious budget problems most schools are having. UC Davis recently dropped men's wrestling, swimming and indoor track along with women's rowing citing primarily budget and title ix compliance second.

[Oregone]

8. Its sorta like an unfunded mandate

They are mandating equal access and opportunity without providing funds to make it happen. At the end of the day, the easy approach is eliminating male access to reach equality, and the smaller sports are the first to go.

UO just killed wrestling too (not sure of the details behind it). Seems stupid right after Webster's success

[Mr. Blonde]

11. My understanding of that one is

a big booster said he wasn't donating again until Oregon had a baseball team to compete with Oregon State's back to back champion team. To do that they needed to make Title IX room. Wrestling was the easy one to let go of.

[joeglow3]

9. Sadly, you see some odd decisions because interest is NOT there

I worked for the athletic department at Nebraska when I was in college. You saw a number of men's sports cut, but they also had to fight to find women's sports to generate interest. That is why they have women's bowling and rifle. Basically, it comes down to football has 100 players, so you need to find 6-8 different women's sports to get 100 athletes.

[Jennicut]

6. The Politico article showed a pic of the UConn Huskies, who won the NCAA championship

for basketball. I must say that CT does an excellent job with sports for female students. I went to Central CT State University and got to play rugby of all things!

[CBR]

10. Participating in sports was such an integral part

of my childhood. Playing soccer in college really assisted me in focusing on academics, managing time etc... I cannot imagine not having access to participate as I did.