Gov't Takes Controversial Stance on College Sports

July 11, 2005 — -- The U.S. Department of Education is standing firm on new Title IX guidelines, which critics say will hurt women's sports.

Opponents say a recent agency clarification of the 1972 law that bans gender discrimination in education was put together in secrecy because it would never receive public approval. The new guidance is important because it sets the standards by which schools determine whether they are complying with the law.

"What they've done is unilaterally and under cover of darkness implement changes they could not have adopted in the light of day," said Jocelyn Samuels, vice president for education and employment at the National Women's Law Center.

But the department's Office of Civil Rights, which enforces Title IX, says that is simply incorrect, and it does not plan to modify the clarification to appease opponents.

"Some would have you believe this is a retooling of Title IX," said Jim Manning, assistant secretary of civil rights. "It is not. It is simply a tool that schools can choose to use or not."

At issue is a new policy that allows schools to use an e-mail survey to gauge the athletic interest of the student body, and to use the results to justify budget decisions for male and female athletic programs. To read more about the debate, Click Here.

The OCR's March clarification was quietly posted on its Web site on the afternoon of Friday, March 17.

While the OCR does not know of any school that has used its model survey yet, Monmouth University, a Division I-A school in Long Branch, N.J., conducted its own survey last year. Both advocates and the opponents point to the results as justification for their own position.

Clarification opponents note that less than 10 percent of Monmouth's student body responded to the survey and the results did not accurately represent the interests of current female athletes, let alone any that might matriculate in the future.