(NAME-MCE) Government's Enforcement of Gender-Equity Law Is Inadequate, Says Women's Legal-Advocacy Group

[Bill Howe]

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - Chronicle of Higher Education


Government's Enforcement of Gender-Equity Law Is Inadequate, Says
Women's Legal-Advocacy Group
By SARA LIPKA


Washington

The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has been lax
in enforcing gender equity in college athletics, according a report
released on Tuesday by the National Women's Law Center.

The civil-rights office is responsible for enforcing Title IX of the
Education Amendments of 1972, the law that prohibits sex
discrimination at institutions that receive federal funds. The agency
typically evaluates discrimination complaints filed by students,
parents, and coaches, in addition to conducting its own "compliance
reviews" of schools' and colleges' athletics programs.

>From 2002 to 2006, the Office for Civil Rights received 416 complaints
alleging sex discrimination in high-school and college sports,
according to the report, "Barriers to Fair Play." The federal agency
resolved most of those complaints, though in several cases with delays
of two or more years, the report says. (About a quarter of the
complaints involved colleges.)

In the same five-year span, the office conducted only one compliance
review of an educational institution's athletics department, according
to the report.

"These findings are deeply troubling because they suggest that the
Office for Civil Rights is abdicating its responsibility to take
proactive steps to ensure compliance with the law," Jocelyn Samuels,
the law center's vice president for education and employment, said in
an interview.

The report also examines the types of complaints filed with the
enforcement agency. Of the 105 involving colleges' athletics
departments, 38 percent alleged unequal treatment of women's teams,
compared with men's. Inequitable facilities and access to coaches were
the most commonly cited examples of unfair treatment.

About half of complaints about poor treatment implicated a college's
entire sports program, according to the report. But the individual
sports most cited were softball (nine complaints about treatment),
followed by soccer (six), the report says.

A lack of a chance to play -- for both women and men -- was another
common reason for lodging a complaint, according to the report.
Thirty-five percent of complaints against colleges noted either an
absence of athletic opportunities over all or sufficient interest in a
sport for which the college did not offer a team.

Of the participation complaints, 25 were made on behalf of women and
12 on behalf of men, the report says. For those complaints, the
civil-rights office did not find any evidence of discrimination
against men, the report says.

Some investigations of Title IX complaints have resulted in improved
athletics opportunities for women, according to the report. It offers
five examples of institutional agreements with the Office for Civil
Rights to remedy Title IX violations -- at Adams State College, in
Alamosa, Colo.; Assumption College, in Worcester, Mass.; Colorado
State University at Pueblo; Humboldt State University, in Arcata,
Calif.; and Minnesota State University at Moorhead.

But the agency must do more to enforce Title IX, the women's law
center says. It points to delays of up to four and a half years in
resolving some complaints. By that time, the students who face
discrimination have graduated, Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of
the center, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Representatives from the Office for Civil Rights said the law center's
report excludes important information about their efforts to enforce
Title IX. David F. Black, deputy assistant secretary for enforcement,
said in an interview that he meets frequently with high-school and
college athletics officials to educate them on their responsibilities
under the law. In the past five years, the agency has conducted more
than 60 reviews of institutions' Title IX grievance procedures and
more than a dozen reviews of sexual-harassment policies, he said.

Valerie M. Bonnette, a former investigator with the Office for Civil
Rights, said the agency's dwindling staff and increasing load of
complaints were part of the reason for its drop-off in full compliance
reviews.

"This is what they do in their spare time, and they don't have any
spare time," Ms. Bonnette said. In the early 1990s, she said, the
agency conducted three to five reviews of college athletics
departments a year.

The National Women's Law Center is trying to push the agency toward
more thorough enforcement.

"The Office for Civil Rights is not doing its job as it should," Ms.
Greenberger said at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday morning. She
cited the report in her testimony before a subcommittee of the House
of Representatives education committee.

Ms. Greenberger recommended more Congressional oversight of the
civil-rights agency in her comments before the Subcommittee on Higher
Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness, which had scheduled
the hearing to mark the 35th anniversary of Title IX.

If Congressional oversight is not enough, the women's law center has
other suggestions. Along with its report on administrative
enforcement, it released a legal guide to Title IX, "Breaking Down
Barriers," designed for students and their advocates who might want to
sue institutions under the law.

"Litigation has proven to be an essential tool in the fight to secure
gender equity in athletics and will likely continue to play a key
role," the guide says.

The nonprofit center frequently represents athletes in lawsuits
alleging sex discrimination.

Brad Wolverton contributed to this article.



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