The NCAA News -- September 30, 2002
Title IX panel considers second round of debate
CHICAGO -- The September 17-18 town hall meeting of the
Secretary of Education's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics was a chance
for the commission to focus on the impact of Title IX at the high-school and
two-year college level.
Most of the invited panelists for this second meeting of the
commission were from the high-school or junior college ranks, though two
speakers -- Athena Yiamouyiannis, executive director of the National
Association for Girls and Women in Sports, and Katherine Kersten, senior fellow
for Cultural Studies at the Center of the American Experiment in Minneapolis --
went head-to-head on Title IX in general and also on the question of whether
women are interested in sports.
There also was much talk of how to measure women's interest
in sports. The commissioners asked
Yiamouyiannis and Kersten several questions regarding that topic. They also
probed the concept of interest surveys.
This was the second of four planned town hall meetings for
the commission, which was announced in June by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod
Paige.
The public comment time was not limited to high school or
two-year athletics, and many of the speakers chose to spend their five minutes
speaking either in favor of or in opposition to the proportionality prong of
Title IX regulations, much as other speakers had done in Atlanta at the
commission's first meeting. (See
the September 16 issue of The NCAA News for coverage of the Atlanta meeting.)
By the time allotted for public comment in the mid-afternoon of the first day, the meeting room held a standing-room-only crowd. At three- to five-minute intervals per speaker, the commission could accommodate only the first 40 wishing to speak. And unlike in Atlanta, where everyone who had registered ahead of time was able to comment, the commission didn't have time to hear from many who had pre-registered. Commissioners also were unable to dip into the waiting list, which held another 80 people interested in commenting.
Perhaps the most notable comment at the Chicago meeting was
from Laurie Priest, athletics director at Mount Holyoke College. She used her public comment time to
question whether Gerald Reynolds, the assistant secretary for the Office for
Civil Rights, was pushing the commission in a particular direction. Reynolds is an ex officio member of the commission,
but he attends meetings and asks questions of panelists just as any other
commissioner does.
"Based on the hearing in Atlanta, as well as sitting
here in the audience today, it appears that Gerald Reynolds already has a
predetermined political agenda," Priest told the commission. "With all due respect, it is clear
that the direction he has been given is to use the commission, through these
hearings, to get you to buy into the concept of changing Title IX and using a
so-called interest survey to halt progress for women in sport.
"Before we even think about changing the law, or as
Gerald Reynolds stated (in Atlanta), before we 'bless a survey instrument,' you
as commission members have an obligation to the American people to understand
the law and its existing guidelines and to try to work within these parameters
toward a solution for all. I urge
you to develop solutions that are truly the work of the commission and not
someone else's political agenda."
Though commissioners do comment and ask questions during the
panelists' time, they do not speak during the time for public comment, so they
were unable to respond to Priest.
"I was disappointed that someone would criticize a
commissioner's motives, especially when they had no evidence," said Ted
Leland, athletics director at Stanford University and co-chair of the
commission. "I thought the
comments were unfortunate."
The second day of the commission meeting was the
commissioners' first chance to discuss the issues among themselves. As required by federal law, that
discussion also was open to the public, though it was primarily limited to
subcommittee meetings focusing on what additional information the commission
would like to see.
The commission's next town hall meeting is in Colorado
Springs, Colorado, October 22-23.
Title IX panelists
Department of Education officials chose
the following individuals to testify before the commission in Chicago. The focus of this meeting was athletics
at the high school and two-year college levels, though two panelists spoke more
generally to Title IX and women's interest in sports.
Panel One
·
Sue
Hinrichsen, assistant executive director, Illinois High School Association.
· Griff Powell, retired superintendent of high schools in five school districts.
· Washington Bush, director of athletics at James B. Conant High School in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
· Kathleen M. McGee, director of athletics and head girls' basketball coach at Powers Catholic High School in Flint, Michigan.
Panel Two
· Robert Gardner, chief operating officer of the National Federation of State High School Associations.
· Athena Yiamouyiannis, executive director of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sports.
· Katherine Kersten, senior fellow for cultural studies at the Center of the American Experiment in Minneapolis.
· Karen L. Sykes, president of the National Junior College Athletic Association.
Panel Three
· Kathleen Welsh, athletics director at Kennedy King College. .(She read a statement from Wayne Watson, chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago.)
· Deborah Dahlen Zelechowski, senior vice-president of institutional advancement at Robert Morris College.
· Kevin F. McCarthy, director of athletics and chair of the department of physical education at State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill.
· Ron Case, director of athletics and dean of health at Gloucester County College.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association
October 8, 2002 KH:map