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WASHINGTON - June 18 - On
the eve of the 30th anniversary of Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination
in education, the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) today released the names
of 30 colleges and universities in twenty-four states that fail to give female
athletes their fair share of athletic scholarship dollars as required under the
law. NWLC found the annual gap to amount to nearly $6.5 million in lost athletic
scholarships to young women at these schools, many of whom depend on scholarships
to attend college.
"Thirty years after Title IX, our young women are still being shortchanged.
Sex discrimination in athletic scholarships has a harmful and practical impact
on female students and their families who are trying to make ends meet while also
paying for college tuition," said Marcia D. Greenberger, NWLC co-president.
"We hope these schools will come forward to fulfill their legal obligation
to their female athletes and treat them fairly."
NWLC sent letters to these 30 schools, warning them of their possible Title
IX violation and demanding that they fix the harmful and unfair practice: University
of Alaska-Fairbanks; Samford University (Ala.); University of California-Berkeley;
Delaware State University; University of Miami (Fla.); University of South Florida;
University of Idaho; Lewis-Clark State College (Idaho); Northwestern University
(Ill.); Indiana University at Bloomington; University of Notre Dame (Ind.); Kansas
State University; Western Michigan University; Michigan State University; University
of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Columbia College (Mo.); University of Nevada-Las Vegas;
SUNY at Buffalo (N.Y.); University of Cincinnati-Main Campus (Ohio); Central Methodist
College (Ohio); University of Toledo (Ohio); Oklahoma State University-Main Campus;
Portland State University (Ore.); Bucknell University (Pa.); East Tennessee State
University; University of Texas at Austin; Weber State University (Utah); Green
Mountain College (Vt.), West Virginia University Institute of Technology; and
the University of Wyoming.
The athletic scholarship gap represents the difference between the percentage
of female athletes and the percentage of scholarship dollars they receive. The
law requires the percentages of total athletic scholarship dollars awarded to
male and female athletes to be within one percent, or one scholarship (whichever
is greater), of their total athletic participation rates, absent any legitimate,
nondiscriminatory reasons. For example, if women comprise 40 percent of the athletes,
they should get between 39-41 percent of the athletic scholarship dollars.
The athletic scholarship gaps at the 30 schools range from 4 percent to 17
percent. The gap between what an average female athlete and an average male athlete
at a school receives in scholarship dollars ranges from $993 to $6,545 per year,
for a loss of between $3,972 and $26,180 during a female athlete's four-year college
career at these 30 schools. If the 30 schools cited today awarded female athletes
their fair share, young women at these schools alone, over one year, would receive
a total of at least $6.5 million more in scholarships. At the 30 schools, the
average male athletic scholarship is $7,875 and the average female athletic scholarship
is $5,744, with female athletes receiving on average $2,131 less per year than
male athletes. NWLC's analysis is based on public information made available by
each school under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, which is available on
the U.S. Department of Education's website at http://www.ope.ed.gov/athletics.
"As our investigation shows, we still need continued and greater enforcement
of Title IX. It takes a long time to root out this kind of persistent discrimination.
Now is not the time to weaken the policies that have greatly expanded opportunities
for student female athletes," said Greenberger.
The information revealed in today's investigation comes nearly thirty years
after Title IX was signed into law June 23, 1972, and as questions have surfaced
as to whether the Bush Administration will continue to support long-standing Title
IX athletics policies that have been defended by previous Democratic and Republican
administrations. The Administration failed to defend Title IX's athletics policies
on their merits when it requested a dismissal of a Title IX lawsuit, National
Wresting Coaches Association v. Department of Education, on purely technical grounds
in May.
NWLC awaits the Administration's response to the wrestlers' filing yesterday.
NWLC is representing four coaches associations, the Women's Sports Foundation,
and the American Association of University Women who have filed a friend-of-the-court
brief in the case. NWLC also released a report today that outlines why Title IX
is so important to young women in this country and rebuts arguments made by its
detractors.
For more information, please view the 30 letters to colleges and universities
and "The Battle For Gender Equity in Athletics: Title IX at Thirty"
at http://www.nwlc.org/TitleIXat30MediaKit.
The National Women's
Law Center is a non-profit organization that has been working since 1972 to advance
and protect women's legal rights. The Center focuses on major policy areas of
importance to women and their families including economic security, education,
employment and health, with special attention given to the concerns of low-income
women.
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