In March 2005, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U. S. Department of Education issued the Additional Clarification of the Intercollegiate Athletics Policy. The “Clarification” allows colleges to use student interest web-based surveys that follow specific technical guidelines outlined by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to assess students’ athletic interests as a means to demonstrate Title IX compliance with Prong 3 (meeting athletic interests and abilities).  According to the OCR, there is no fairer way to measure interest than to ask directly. To provide technical assistance in implementing a viable interest evaluation that is acceptable, the NCES prepared the “Model Survey” and User’s Guide to Developing Student Interest Surveys.

Schools using the surveys incorporate them into college registration forms.  The surveys are not “spam emails” sent out to female students as have been characterized.

For more details, go to the College Sports Council blog.

Pacific Coast Classic promotes MOMSS

MOMSS Elite Members can save up to 33% on select admission passes to the 2010 Pacific Coast Classic, USA’s premier men’s gymnastics competition at the Oakland Convention Center in Oakland, CA (February 19-21). This  event is in its seventh year and was created to draw awareness to the plight of men’s collegiate gymnastics and is a national platform for supporting collegiate athletic programs in the United States.

In order to continue to encourage and promote college sports and the Fairness in Sports Foundation objectives, USA Sports Management, the host of the Pacific Coast Classic, is offering a special sale for MOMSS with current Elite Memberships.  This sale is for a limited time only and ends January 18, 2010.  Annual MOMSS Elite Memberships start at $10 and are tax-deductible. Click here to join the MOMSS alliance.  (Photo by Heather Maynez)

“…no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance…”

Title IX is a good law and has greatly expanded opportunities for women across the United States.  It was enacted at at time when it was sorely needed.  However, Congress’ intent for this nondiscrimination statute has been distorted.  Through misinterpretation and misapplication of the statute and its regulatory tools, many universities are ultimately forced to discriminate against men.

The 1979 Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Interpretation of Title IX identified three basic parts (Sections) as it applies to equal opportunities in athletic programs. Institutions must meet all three requirements in order to be in compliance with the law.  Section C requires “institutions to accommodate effectively the interests and abilities of students”.   This section has become the focus of Title IX with its Three-Prong Test.  Measuring equality through a rigid affirmation action quota system (Prong 1 of the Three-Prong Test) as the courts and Title IX 1996 Clarification suggest, without regard to individual student interests and abilities is illogical, discriminatory and in direct contradiction to Title IX compliance requirements.

Fairness in sports is about effective accommodation, awareness, and equal opportunity and is first, and foremost, a human right.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is now officially known as the Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in honor of its principal author.  This federal law was renamed by President George W. Bush on October 29, 2002.  Congress commissioned a likeness of Congressman Mink’s image in the halls of the U.S. Capitol as a reminder of her significant contributions towards equal rights in the country and for being one of the most influential public servants of her generation.

At age 14, Mink (1927-2002) was an eyewitness to the carnage of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  As a Japanese American, she was treated like the enemy by both sides in the conflict.  Nevertheless, Mink remained patriotic, optimistic and courageous during a time when she met segregation, belittlement, and contempt for both her race and gender.  The discrimination was relentless, mostly unchallenged, and thoroughly practiced by society.  Mink refused to stand silent and became a legislative trailblazer.

Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink wrote Title IX as an outgrowth of the adversities she faced in obtaining her college degrees at the University of Hawai’i, University of Nebraska and University of Chicago.

Mink was known as articulate, tenacious and willing to fight for causes regardless of their magnitude.  She became a leader on issues involving women’s rights, education, child care, peace, the environment, welfare, and civil rights.

Throughout her career, she never associated herself with the women’s liberation movement despite her work on Title IX.  ”Just because I’m interested in women doesn’t mean I’m for women’s liberation,” she told The New York Times in 1970. ”I support all groups when what they do coincides with what I believe in.”

Educational Adversity

• Mink was born in Maui and attended the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (Oahu) in 1944.
• After the war, she was allowed to transfer to the mainland and attended the University of Nebraska.  She was angered by the university’s long-standing racial segregation policy whereby students of color were forced to live in the same dormitories apart from the whites. Mink organized and created a coalition of students, parents, administrators, employees, alumni, sponsoring businesses and corporations and ended the university’s segregation policies.
• After her successful war against segregation at the University of Nebraska, Mink returned to Honolulu to prepare for medical school.  She received two bachelor’s degrees (zoology and chemistry) from the University of Hawai’i.
• In 1948, she was rejected by all twenty medical schools to which she applied.  None would accept women. Mink decided the only way to get medical schools to accept women would be through the judicial process. Mink decided to go to law school.
• Mink applied to the University of Chicago Law School.  Contrary to other schools, it admitted women from its inception in 1902 and Mink graduated in 1951.
• Mink was the first Japanese American woman to pass the Hawai’i state bar exam.

Political Career (1956-2002) – Summary

• Japanese American politician from the U.S. state of Hawai’i.
• Democrat who served the people of Hawaii for nearly fifty years.
• Congresswoman for 12 terms – Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district.
• First woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawai’i.
• First woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress.
• First Asian American to seek the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in the 1972 election.
• Elected to the Hawai’i territorial house (1956-58); territorial senate (1958-59); and state senate. (1962-64); House of Representatives (1965-77; 1990-2002); Honolulu City Council (1983-87).

Congresswoman Mink was a woman devoted to fairness and a valiant protector of equal rights.  She stood steadfastly against discrimination and championed for fair treatment of ALL people.  Thanks to Rep. Mink, times have changed, but over time and litigation, so has the heart and purpose of Title IX.  Let’s restore the equity that Rep. Mink fought so fiercely to achieve.

UCLA breaks ground for $10M aquatic center

Now here’s one that’s hard to swallow. The UCLA Athletic Department began construction on their $10 million aquatic center on June 30.  And who benefits?  According to UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, providing “more aquatic opportunities for our teams, clubs, faculty, staff and students is going to be a win-win situation for everyone.”  Everyone except for men’s swimming and diving.

UCLA eliminated men’s swimming and diving teams in 1994.  This is after they produced 16 Olympic Gold Medalists, 41 individual national titles, and a team title in 1982.  The new center will feature a “Champions Wall” showcasing these past UCLA aquatic accomplishments, but for some of us, it’ll punctuate the death of those programs where the scars still remain after 14 years.

UCLA offers only one aquatic sport for men – water polo; and three for women – water polo, swimming and diving with no plans on the horizon to bring back the dropped men’s teams.

The new aquatic facility is being made possible by a lead gift of former student-athlete Tod Spieker and his wife Catherine.  Spieker, an All-American in 1969, swam for the Bruins from 1968-1971 and is now a Master’s competitor.  Spieker said, “Quite frankly, it was an easy decision for us to make this gift.  The benefits I received as a student-athlete at UCLA have assisted me throughout my adult life. Now that we are in a position to give back, we want to see those same benefits provided for current and future Bruin student-athletes.”

Can’t help but wonder if the subject of an endowment to bring back UCLA men’s swimming was ever raised. That would have been a true gift of giving back to the sport.  Arizona State University donors raised $1 million in two months to reinstate their men’s swim team.  If UCLA chose to endow their men’s swimming and diving program (rather than build a multimillion dollar aquatic center with the Spieker name splashed across it), would adding more male athletes at UCLA scream noncompliance under Title IX?

On March 17, 2005, the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education issued an “Additional Clarification” to Title IX policy. It allows the use of surveys to determine student interests and abilities. How else do you accommodate students interests if you don’t ask them directly what they want? Surveys are a straightforward, fair and obvious solution.

According to the Title IX Policy Interpretation (Section C), to provide equal opportunities for males and females, one must:

• Have knowledge of the desire of individuals to participate in athletics
• Recognize the ability to participate within each of these individuals
• Evaluate the development of the competitive levels involved

The interests and abilities of students is at the heart of Title IX – NOT the relative proportion of the sexes (quota system). Interests and abilities must be measured in order to appropriately provide athletic opportunities.  A standardized measure of interest for both male and female students has been long overdue.

BUT…the women’s groups vehemently disagree.  The Save Title IX campaign leaders decry the Department’s “Clarification” and accuse the Bush Administration of resorting to “stealth tactics”.  Olympic Gymnast Dominque Dawes told the Senate Committee in 2006 (then president of the Women’s Sports Foundation) that surveys would set women’s athletics back to “the days of Billie Jean King”.  The naysayers of the Clarification say surveys are:

• A giant loophole
• A way for advocates for men’s sports to erase Title IX gains that women and girls have made in sports and to funnel resources to more ‘deserving male athletes’
• A potential threat that will stop the growth of women’s sports in its tracks
• A clear opportunity for non-compliant schools to escape adding more participation opportunities for girls and women

“Save Title IX” organizations are walking the halls of Congress opposing the Additional Clarification and have staged a national action plan to fight it.  So, MOMSS, let’s roll up our sleeves and build a bigger army. We need to “Restore the Original Intent of Title IX”.  This Federal Law was passed to create gender equitable schools that could not discriminate between men and women in athletics.

USA Volleyball Boosts Club Teams to Varsity

USA Volleyball has the right idea. To cope with Title IX consequences, the National Governing Body for volleyball developed a grant program.   The $6000 grant is awarded to NCAA institutions that sponsor a men’s volleyball program. The objective:

1.  To increase opportunities for men to play varsity collegiate volleyball.

2.  To grow the sport at the collegiate level.

Being one of the most cost-effective sports of any NCAA institution, only 80 or so schools sponsor a men’s varsity program.  Since USAVB stepped up, over 35 schools have elevated their men’s club program to varsity status.

The 1984 and 1988 USA Men’s Olympic Gold Medal Olympic volleyball teams were comprised of experienced NCAA varsity players (with one exception).  Volleyball is just one of many sports that depend on men’s intercollegiate programs for Olympic talent. As thousands of college men are left standing without a sport, where will the USA be standing at future Olympiads?