The Super 32
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Title IX
TITLE IX'S 25TH It has been 25 years since the Federal Government mandated equal opportunity in athletics through enactment of Title IX. The media continues to celebrate advances in women's participation and to offer criticism for continued inequities and failures in Title IX of not closing the gap between men and women on the playing fields. Christine Grant, U. of Iowa athletic director, was recently quoted to say "the results are pathetic." An NCAA study released in May has been covered from the context of men's sports outspending women's sports with passing reference to concern over the direction of some schools where "men's playing opportunities actually shrunk, as many schools cut so-called minor sports such as golf and wrestling so they could pay for women's programs without cutting into the football budget." No doubt that the vast sums being spent on football contributes the the problems being faced by "non-revenue" male sports. Even Princeton has fallen into the trap, spending millions of dollars for a new football stadium and yet not being able or willing to afford a wrestling practice room to replace the one which was converted to a weight room for the football team in 1993. Since the Office of Civil Rights began its proactive efforts to even thescore in gender participation in 1992, women's participation has increased by 5000 but at the expence of a DECREASE in male participation by over 17,000. NCAA executive director Cedric Dempsey admits that Title IX is an exercise in social engineering, saying that "we are trying to change a culture." Columnist George Will hit a slam dunk when he wrote recently in the Post that Title IX "has become an affirmative action program, employed not merely to open opportunities but to engineer statistical outcomes. As a result, in many instances it is having the perverse effect of destroying opportunitiesfor men without expanding them for women." Title IX is legislation aimed at preventing sex discrimination. It has evolved into regulations and case law requiring gender quotas which deny opportunities for thousands of athletes solely on the basis of gender.
H. Clay McEldowney '69
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