As a part of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX is a
piece of U.S. legislation that states, “No person in the United States shall,
on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits
of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity
receiving Federal financial assistance...”
That piece of legislation has been a point for much debate
in the United States since its inception clear through to today.
Many athletes, coaches, administrators and spectators have
very passionate views on the Title IX legislation. As recently as 2009,
Slippery Rock University was in court dealing with Title IX suits filed by
former players and coaches.
The university was told that it must improve its women’s
softball field and provide additional funding for female athletics as part of a
settlement that was filed in December of 2009.
One student athlete, Travis Arrigoni, who is on the track
and field team, said that the initial development of Title IX was a very
important step for women’s rights but now universities are taking shortcuts to
get around actually granting equality.
“In the time Title IX was developed and proposed it was a
huge stepping stone for women’s sports,” Arrigoni said. “Today with the
environment of big money sports with football and basketball, Title IX needs to
be revised to all the lower revenue sports to have a chance to compete on the
high level that football and basketball does.”
In Slippery Rock’s 2009-2010 Equity in Athletics Disclosure
Act (EADA) report, there were 299 female athletes compared to 241 male
athletes.
One of the areas that is most affected by Title IX is track
and field and cross country because there are both a male and female team that
compete closely together and unlike basketball where there must be five people
on the floor at all times, the track and field sports don’t have a set number
of people that must always compete.
Therefore, in order to comply with Title IX there must be a
higher amount of females on the track and field teams because of how many men
are on the football team.
In 2009, the cross country team had 27 females to 12 males,
indoor track had 66 females and 35 males and outdoor track had 66 females to 53
males.
Cheerleader Kristin Karam talks about her thoughts on Title IX implications on cheering and other sports at SRU.
Senior member of the men’s lacrosse club on campus Andrew
Lacey believes Title IX must be revised to give an opportunity to club sports
like men’s lacrosse that aren’t able to be official sports due to Title IX
regulations.
“It’s frustrating that we have to be a part of a different
tier than the female lacrosse team because of Title IX implications,” Lacey
said. “Any sport that has the interest and desire behind it should be able to
take part on
the NCAA Division II level here at Slippery Rock.”
Overall, the consensus of most of the student athletes on
SRU’s campus seems to be that Title IX was an intricate part in giving women
rights for equality in sports but now it appears that most universities are
just cutting men’s sports over improving the quality of women’s sports which
isn’t helping to improve the experience for anyone.
This is the first part of a three part series on Title IX at
Slippery Rock. The second part will be up next week and discuss the facility
differences between the men’s and women’s teams involving recruiting, financial
aid, and operating costs for the stadiums.
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