(sorry if the previous post said nothing new, my mail program was broken)
 
Leigh Torbin ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
[statistics deleted]
:         As this data shows, at all the schools above, male athletes
: occupy a greater percentage in the athletic department than they do in the
: student body, a major Title IX no-no. Although exact equality is not
: required, the percentages should be reasonably close. Both UMass (2%) :-)
: and Harvard (4.5%) are within a comfortable five%, which shouldn't be a
: problem at all.
        This is all true under the interpretation that Judge Raymond
Pettine made last week in the case against Brown.  However, nowhere in
the Title IX code does it explicitly say that the numbers of participants
must be equal or proportional (nor does it say anything about athletics,
but that's beside the point).  The Plaintiffs argued (and Pettine agreed)
that the ratio of male to female athletes must be proportionate to the ratio
of male to female students, based on a statement in an Office of Civil Rights
(OCR) report.
        But Brown argued that in the same report, the OCR stated
that the number of "participation opportunities" for athletes should be
proportional to the interests and abilities of the students.  Pettine also
found that the level of interest among women at Brown is greater than the
opportunities offered.  As you may know, Brown plans to appeal the decision.
        The point here is that even if the numbers of men and women competing
at a particular school are equal, the school is not necessarily in
compliance.  If every woman at a school wants to play a sport, and the school
only offers enough opportunities for half the women and all the interested
men (even if there are the same number men and women playing), the women
could conceivably bring a lawsuit against the school.
 
:         Adding women's teams makes more people happy, which is the point of
: ameteur athletics. This should be done instead.
        I agree. Except there's a problem: Money.  That's the reason Brown
cut back in the first place.  It's widely accepted here that, if the appeal
fails, men's teams will be cut. Unfortunate, yes, but the University doesn't
have much of a choice.
 
        The Brown Daily Herald has been covering the Brown Title IX case
intensely since the beginning.  More info can be wound on the WWW at
<URL:http://www.netspace.org/herald/tchest/titleix>.
 
-Brian Fisk
My opinions are mine, etc., etc.
 
-- Brian Fisk * [log in to unmask] * <URL:http://www.netspace.org/users/bfisk> --