Here is today's Boston Globe Title IX complaint article found in the Metro
section of today's globe online http://boston.com/globe/
 
Sports scholarship bias alleged=20
 
Women shortchanged by colleges, group says in filing
complaints
 
By Charity Vogel, Globe Staff, Globe Correspondent, 06/03/97=20
 
WASHINGTON - They've come a long way, but, according to a
women's legal group monitoring how athletic scholarships are allocated,
not far enough.=20
 
On the 25th anniversary of Title IX, the National Women's Law Center
yesterday filed complaints of sex discrimination against 25 colleges and
universities, including five in New England.=20
 
The schools neglected to provide equitable amounts of scholarship
dollars to female athletes, the law center said.=20
 
The complaints, filed with the civil rights office of the US Department of
Education and based on 1995 figures, say the schools should ``come into
compliance with Title IX or lose the millions of taxpayer dollars they
benefit from every year,'' said Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of
the legal group.=20
 
The New England schools are Boston College, Boston University,
Northeastern University, the University of Maine at Orono, and the
University of New Hampshire.=20
 
"We think that all of these schools have serious and substantial
problems. We would not say that they're necessarily the worst,''
Greenberger said.=20
 
Title IX, passed in 1972, bars sex discrimination by educational
institutions that receive federal funds. The law was backed up by the
recent Supreme Court decision requiring Brown University and other
institutions to provide athletic programs for men and women in proportion
to their enrollment numbers, or risk losing federal money because of
noncompliance.=20
 
Greenberger said the list is not a ranking of the worst violators, but it is=
 a
starting point.=20
 
``Boston University is giving the average female athlete $3,754 less
during one year alone than the average male athlete,'' Greenberger said.=20
 
While females constitute about 55 percent of the university's student body
and about 45 percent of its varsity athletes, only about 32 percent of
athletic scholarship dollars go to women athletes, according to the
complaint.=20
 
At Boston College, Greenberger noted that women make up about 53
percent of the student body and 37 percent of varsity athletes, while
receiving 31 percent of total athletic scholarship money. The yearly
difference between male and female scholarships, on average, is $1,792,
the complaint stated.=20
 
At Northeastern University, women are 44 percent of the student body
and 38 percent of varsity athletes, but receive only about 31 percent of
athletic scholarship money, the complaint states. The scholarship gap at
Northeastern is about $1,970 per year.=20
 
At the University of New Hampshire, women make up 57 percent of the
student body and 50 percent of varsity athletes, while receiving
approximately 41 percent of athletic scholarship dollars, according to the
complaint. The annual difference between average male and female
scholarships is $1,148.=20
 
At the University of Maine at Orono, where 47 percent of the student
body and 40 percent of varsity athletes are female, women receive only
26 percent of athletic scholarship dollars, the complaint states The
scholarship gap comes to about $1,991 per year for the average female
student.=20
 
Both Boston and Northeastern universities said that because the
complaints are based on 2-year-old data they are not valid.=20
 
Boston University said it has increased female sports participation to 49
percent and its scholarship level for female athletes to 36 percent.
Scholarship funding will increase to 43.5 percent by the 1998-1999
academic year, the school said.=20
 
Northeastern University is in the middle of a 5-year NCAA-approved
plan to comply with Title IX, said spokeswoman Mary Breslauer. The
plan includes an extra $300,000 in next year's budget to fund women's
programs and scholarships, which currently show a 43 percent
participation level, she said.=20
 
According to Breslauer, female athletes at Northeastern currently receive
36 percent, not 31 percent, of total athletic scholarship dollars.=20
 
Boston College had no comment. Attempts to reach the University of
New Hampshire were not successful.=20
 
Joe Carr, public affairs spokesman for the University of Maine, said that
the school had no comment about the complaint, but he did say that
women's athletic scholarship money had risen from 26 percent to nearly
33 percent. The school also instituted a long-term gender equity program
in 1995, but Carr said results have been slow because the program is
partially dependent on private finances.=20
 
Most colleges and universities included in the complaint showed a
scholarship gap of between $1,000 and $3,000 per year.=20
 
In response to challenges that increasing scholarships for female athletes
would reduce opportunities for male athletes, Greenberger offered an
analogy.=20
 
``When women are paid less, compared to a male worker, the answer is
not to lower the wage of the male worker. The answer is to raise the
female worker's wage. We see it as the same thing here,'' she said. ``The
schools on this list have not exhausted the scholarships that they can give
to women.''
 
Greenberger said the complaints are a first step intended to give the
colleges and universities ``a chance to get their houses in order'' before
further legal action is taken.=20
 
Globe correspondent Josh Trudell also contributed to this report.=20
 
                  This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on=
 06/03/97.=20
                  =A9 Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.=20