Paula, I have a different opinion about cutting men's sports to
achieve parity.  A twenty-five-year record of failing to live up to
the principles an educational institution should initiate on its own
doesn't deserve sympathy as a conscientious effort.
 
A college which isn't in Title IX compliance after a generation is a
college which stands up and broadcasts that it can't operate
responsibly unless forced to.  The widespread prevalance of that
condition is a distressing commentary on a social institution with
such an important social role.
 
I eagerly welcome the opportunity for Title IX to weaken men's
sports.  There's an opportunity here that goes beyond the basic (and
very worthy) issue of equal athletic opportunities for men and women.
The possibility that makes me drool is my hope that Title IX will
reduce the influence on higher education of the testosterone-crazed
chauvanists whose only attraction to an educational institution
arises from sports.  Now that we have liability laws so the bartender
can no longer just send those clowns home in any condition, let's
get the Joe Jock mentality back on a barstool where it belongs and
out of the educational environment.
 
If NO women wanted to attend college and therefore NO basis existed
for a Title IX issue, I'd say we should force a few women into
college just to create the issue.  Ridding higher education of obnoxious
sports fans and good-old-boy athletic administrations is too valuable
a benefit to pass up and it's too bad if those women don't want to go
to college, they should do it for their country.
 
Some women will also need to step forward and start running athletic
departments as programs that no longer discredit their institutions'
claims as centers of academic learning.  Men have had that chance.
But before turning her attention to that, the first official act by a
woman AD should be to get Pat Summit a salary higher than a mediocre
men's coach.
 
The woman's touch in athletic administration is long overdue, though
it will probably take a hefty fist to start that process.  When
athletic departments are equally staffed from top to bottom,
especially at the very top, we'll be far more likely to have programs
which support the legitimate goals of higher education.
 
Bob Griebel
 
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