>    Gender Equity Update
>#001#
>June 24, 1997
>Contact: Joe Carr at 581-3571
>
>UMAINE SHOWS PROGRESS ON GENDER EQUITY;
>WOMEN'S ICE HOCKEY ELEVATED TO VARSITY STATUS
>
>ORONO  -- The University of Maine has completed a two-year status
>report on its comprehensive 1995 plan for enhancing gender equity in
>athletics.  The report shows significant progress in many areas and
>includes delineation of the expansion of participation and scholarship
>opportunities that will be created by the new varsity women's ice
>hockey program, which has been approved by President Frederick E.
>Hutchinson and in which students will begin play this fall.
>
>"Athletic gender equity continues to be an institutional priority,"
>Hutchinson says.  "It is the law and it is the right thing to do.  I am
>gratified to note the progress that has been made in this important
>area, especially in the last two years."
>
>President Hutchinson requested the status report several months ago,
>asking the gender equity plan's principal author, Suzanne Estler, and
>UMaine Director of Athletics and Recreation Suzanne Tyler to complete
>the report by June 30, when Estler will leave her current position as
>UMaine's director of Equal Opportunity. The status report is not related
>to the complaint against 25 universities around the country, including
>UMaine, filed two weeks ago by the National Women's Law Center.
>
>The report indicates that the percentage of women participating in
>varsity athletics at UMaine has risen from 38.9% in the 1994-95,
>when the original gender equity plan was developed, to a projected 43.3%
>in 1997-98. This increase in participation for female athletes is occurring
>despite the unanticipated suspension of the women's tennis team due to
>insufficient participation.
>
>UMaine's full-time, four-year undergraduate student population is
>approximately 46% female, just 2.7% higher than the percentage of
>women anticipated to participate in varsity sports in 1997-98.  The
>percentage of scholarship money provided to women has also risen sharply,
>from 26.3% of the total in 1994-95 to a projected 39.2% in 1997-98.
>
>"Participation and scholarship opportunities are two primary indicators of
>an institution's progress toward equity," says Estler. "These data show a
>University clearly headed in the right direction."
>
>The new report also notes tangible progress in several of the areas proposed
>in the 1995 plan, including:
>
>-- The institution's hiring of a Director of Athletics and Recreation who was
>a head coach of national championship teams in two different women's sports
>and who has demonstrated throughout her career an understanding of the
>experience of women student-athletes, their coaches and their programmatic
>needs;
>
>-- The institution's hiring of an Assistant Director of Athletics for
>Compliance who serves as senior women's administrator and who has
>extensive experience with women's athletics, including service as chair
>of her former league's women's basketball committee;
>
>-- The upgrade of assistant coaches to full-time status in field hockey,
>soccer and softball;
>
>--  The addition of a certified athletic trainer to the staff, primarily to
>work
>with women's teams;
>
>-- The addition of a part-time strength and fitness coach to the staff,
>primarily
>to work with women's teams;
>
>-- The addition of a professional staff person in Sports Information to
>focus on developing and enhancing media coverage of women's athletics;
>
>-- The addition of a coordinator of marketing and promotions, part of an
>effort to enhance efforts to increase private funding for women's athletics;
>
>-- The addition of clerical support for women's basketball and other
>women's athletic teams;
>
>-- The consolidation of offices for coaches of women's teams other than
>basketball into a common area, with clerical support enhancing communication
>and operations;
>
>-- The recently announced upgrade of athletics facilities, which will
>include an artificial surface for the field hockey team and improved
>recreational sports opportunities for all students.
>
>The cost of many of these changes was funded through reallocation within
>the Department of Athletics budget, increased revenue, additional corporate
>contributions and institutional support.
>
>President Hutchinson's formal approval of varsity status for the women's
>ice hockey program will create at least 20 new opportunities for female
>student-athletes, effective in the 1997-98 academic year.  The program
>will begin to offer scholarships in 1998-99, with $56,000 budgeted for
>that season, $130,000 budgeted for 1999-2000 and $193,000 for 2000-2001.
>It will have an initial $186,000 program operating budget and two full-time
>coaches.
>
>Hutchinson noted that, like gender equity efforts in general, funding for
>the women's ice hockey program comes from a combination of new and
>existing revenue sources. This is part of an effort to create a system
>that is fair to all students and to avoid the outright elimination of any
>men's programs.
>
>"We have made every effort to enhance our programs without the need to
>eliminate opportunities for male or female students," Tyler explained. "We
>are working to satisfy the intent of the gender equity law while protecting
>at reasonable levels the diverse opportunities we offer for participation,"
>
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