Injustice or insecurity?

Title IX leaves mixed feelings

Faces, names, hopes. People.

After sifting through all the laws, all the documents, all the technicalities, that's what gender equity in athletics really comes down to -- people.

Brian Lishawa and Ashley Andersen are two people for whom gender equity policy has meant very different things.

Lishawa is the vice president of the Michigan men's club soccer team and will begin his senior year in the fall. His graduation guarantees he will never benefit from a varsity men's soccer program at Michigan -- primarily because the addition of men's soccer to the varsity program would increase the disparity between men and women athletes.

"It's definitely frustrating," Lishawa said. "It's a popular sport, and there's no ideological reason not to (make it varsity). I know I won't be here if it ever is made varsity, but I just want to see it varsity for my love of the sport."

Andersen, however, comes from the opposite perspective. She was a member of the Michigan women's varsity crew team -- a program that just concluded its first year of varsity status at Michigan, thanks primarily to the influence of Title IX of the Federal Educational Amendments, passed in 1972 -- marking its 25th anniversary yesterday.

"Before, if you said you were on the crew team, people said, 'The what?'" Andersen said. "Crew, in general, is getting more recognition because more crew teams across the country are going varsity -- men's and women's."

But men's crew is not becoming a varsity sport at Michigan, or at most Division I schools across the nation. Partly because of Title IX, men's varsity soccer and crew may not become a reality at Michigan.

Title IX states that no "person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

The original Title IX of 1972 didn't regulate college athletics as part of its mandate. But the Policy Interpretation added in 1979 by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights institutes a three-pronged test to determine whether federally funded educational institutions live up to government standards of gender equity.

A school can meet Title IX requirements by meeting any one of the three conditions. But this doesn't always apply in the case of the last two, which are arguably more subjective than the first.

The first and most important part of the test requires an institution to demonstrate that the ratio of male to female athletes is approximately equal to the ratio of male to female students.

The second requirement states that the school must be able to "show a history and continuing practice" of trying to respond to "the developing interests and abilities" of the underrepresented sex.

The final stipulation asks the school to demonstrate "that the interests and abilities of the members of that sex have been fully and effectively accommodated."

In order to meet the proportionality test, Michigan has moved two women's teams from club to varsity status in the last three years: womenÕs crew, as well as women's soccer, which got its start as a varsity program in the fall of 1994.

Aside from these additions, however, there are some who have been left behind; teams like men's club soccer and men's club crew have not been granted varsity status. According to Senior Associate Athletic Director Keith Molin, they probably will not be given varsity status any time soon.

"If (men's) soccer and men's crew were to be elevated now to varsity status, then you would have to add additional womenÕs sports to keep equity numbers even," Molin said. "The making of women's soccer and crew varsity sports created opportunities for women student-athletes which did not previously exist, and moved our numbers into balance without taking away opportunities that were already there."

The truth is that Michigan has outdone other programs in the race for gender equity simply by not removing men's varsity sports already in place. Many Division I programs, including Michigan State and Syracuse, have balanced the numbers of their men and women athletes by cutting "minor" men's sports like lacrosse and wrestling.

Michigan's restraint from cutting men's sports is all the more impressive, considering that Michigan has also outdone many other Division I schools in the achievement of gender equity itself.

USA TODAY reported that, during the 1995-96 school year, 40 percent of Michigan's student-athletes were women, compared to 49 percent of the student body. But the national average of women athletes in Division I schools is only 34 percent, according to The New York Times -- a clear violation of the rule.

Michigan men's soccer coach Steve Burns said his argument for varsity status centers around the popularity of soccer, not necessarily the gender-equity issue. According to the Soccer Industry Council of America, Michigan is the eighth-highest state in overall soccer participation, and soccer is Michigan's fastest growing men's high school sport.

"I'm fully in favor of women getting their due," Burns said. "If youÕre only going to have 11 sports, if youÕre a state-funded institution, you should look at what your constituency plays at the high school level -- you have to read those trends in sports in our society."

On the other hand, Michigan men's club crew coach Gregg Hartsuff feels government rules that may hamper men's athletics Ñ while helping promote the rights of women's athletics Ñ are unfair to teams like men's club crew.

"For me, with women's crew, there's been a good side and a bad side," Hartsuff said. "The good side is that rowing has gotten more support. (However,) I believe there are more men out there interested in competing in intervarsity athletics than there are women."

Another argument by those who disagree with Title IX's determination of gender equality revolves around the effect football has on the men to women athlete ratio. The Michigan football team enlists upwards of 100 players -- enough for four men's soccer teams.

Cecil Pryor, a former Michigan football player and alumnus who sits on the committee of the Board in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics -- in charge of reviewing the case of menÕs soccer -- said he doesn't think football should count in meeting the standards of prong one of Title IX.

"I don't think football should be included in the numbers," Pryor said. "Not because I'm a former football player, but because football is the bread and butter that pays for everything."

Proponents of Title IX emphasize gender equity on a larger scale -- that equality is less about the interest of individual sports than about providing female athletes with as much opportunity on the varsity scale as men have always possessed.

Michigan women's crew coach Mark Rothstein said that, although he wants crew to advance as a sport, the interests of women should be considered first.

"I donÕt think it's unfair," Rothstein said. "Obviously, I would love to see men's crew become a varsity sport. But across America, there's still a lot more opportunities for high school boys than high school girls to participate at the college level."

Exactly why is attaining varsity status so important to club teams such as men's soccer and crew?

The most important reason is also the most obvious -- money. Men's club soccer received 13 percent of its $21,000 budget for 1996 from the University's Recreational Sports Department. The rest came from fundraising, alumni support and player dues.

Michigan women's soccer coach Debbie Belkin said that moving to the varsity level has meant a great deal to the women's team.

"I wasn't here when it was club, but I know it was a huge jump in terms of funding and support," Belkin said. "It's a whole new world. We get treated very well, and it's a nice situation."

Opinions on gender equity are as far-ranging as the personalities of those involved. Arguments on the topic are often heated, which isn't surprising, considering the sensitivity of the issue.

"One of the things we feel most acutely that we lost is our relationship with the menÕs team," Andersen said. "It's hard for us to know that, even though we're still friends, they still feel some bitterness."

Everyone seems to have a valid point to make -- everyone has a legitimate version of what they consider to be the truth. With an issue as loaded as gender equity, only one thing seems perfectly clear: When passions are on the line, when a Brian Lishawa or an Ashley Andersen loves a sport for the sole sake of playing it, there really can be no clear answers.

MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily

A brief history of Title IX:
YEAR	EVENT
1972	Title IX passes
1979	"Three-pronged test" for college athletics added
1997	In April, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear further arguments on Cohen v. Brown University, upholding the three-pronged test

Graphics by SHARAT RAJU/Daily
Soccer photo by MARGARET MYERS/Daily

09-03-97