Title IX, the federal statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in sports and academics for any school or college receiving federal funding, is under fire from a lawsuit filed against the Department of Education by the College Sports Council (CSC).

CSC, the umbrella corporation which includes the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA), associations representing men’s and women’s track coaches, men’s and women’s swimming coaches, and men’s gymnastics coaches, as well as the Marquette University wrestling team and others, was expected to file a response this week to the Department of Education’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that a 1996 clarification of the 1972 Title IX statute discriminates against male athletes in lower-profile sports such as wrestling and gymnastics by causing schools to cut men’s programs instead of adding women’s in order to achieve compliance with Title IX.

“We would like to see fairness restored,” said Jim McCarthy, spokesman for the CSC. “A good law has been hijacked by radical feminist groups. They, along with the Clinton Administration established an interpretation of the law which amounts to a quota.”

McCarthy said the CSC hopes to have a judge restore fairness to Title IX.

“Fairness for everyone is what Title IX is all about,” McCarthy said. “We want to see the law restored to its original intent. They [feminist groups] have taken it and warped it into their own vision of what the world ought to be like.”

“Tens of thousands of male athletes are losing their athletic dreams and scholarships,” McCarthy said. “There are currently less than 30 men’s gymnastics teams across the country.”

Dru Hancock, Big 12 associate commissioner and member of the board of directors for the National Association of Collegiate Women’s Athletic Administrators (NACWAA), said she can see the CSC’s point, but thinks they are misdirected their blame.

“There has to be serious questions asked as to whether Title IX is the real cause of [the wrestlers’] problems,” Hancock said. “For every new dollar that goes to women’s sports, three new dollars go to men’s sports. It’s going to men’s basketball and football. That’s where the problem lies.”

Elaine Hieber, who recently resigned as the senior associate director of athletics for Iowa State, echoed those sentiments.

“I’m sympathetic to the wrestlers’ problem on one level, but I think they’ve identified the wrong enemy here,” Hieber said. “The real issue is how dollars are allocated in Division I. We should be de-escalating the enormousness of some of the more expensive programs.”

Hieber likened the issue to the way a family redistributes its budget once another child comes along – the resources are divided evenly between the children.

McCarthy said he thinks the problem goes beyond budget concerns though, and he cited the example of the Marquette wrestling program, which is a party to the lawsuit.

“Marquette cut their wrestling program at the end of last year and it is a very compelling story there,” McCarthy said. “The school wasn’t spending a penny. The program was funded by outside sources. The example makes it obvious it was cut for quota and not funding.”

McCarthy said he didn’t think there was much chance the judge would throw out the suit based on the government’s motion to dismiss.

“It’s a very cookie-cutter, basic response that happens in most lawsuits,” said McCarthy. “We hope at the end of the day the judge will strike that part of the law that establishes a quota and schools will no longer be legally responsible for a quota and cuts to men’s programs.”

Hancock said if the lawsuit were successful, it could be detrimental to women’s athletics.

“Hypothetically speaking, if the suit were successful, I suppose institutions wouldn’t have to worry about the proportionality,” Hancock said. “Women’s opportunities would be hurt. It would change the complexion of the number of opportunities on every campus.”

Hancock said that a lot of the ground that has been made hasn’t been “simply out of the goodness of administrator’s hearts.”

She said there has been a lot of progress made, but there is still a long ways to go.

Hancock said it is very difficult to pinpoint which areas need the most improvement because different schools are doing different things to comply with Title IX.

Bruce Van De Velde, athletic director for Iowa State, believes Title IX is very important.

“It’s very important to have some type of law that follows through on our commitment to women’s athletics,” Van De Velde said.

Van De Velde said he trusts the courts and lawmakers when it comes to making laws.

“We’re very, very supportive of Title IX,” Van De Velde said. “If [the courts] feel they need to review it, then fine, but I’m not in favor of going back and rewriting Title IX.”

Van De Velde said Iowa State’s goal is to meet the proportionality test, which is the strictest of the three ways schools can comply with Title IX.

“We are in compliance with the proportionality test. We meet the strongest test,” Van De Velde said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t have things to improve, but we do meet the proportionality test.”

Van De Velde said Iowa State tries to offer both the men’s and women’s coaches equal incentives.

“We’ve been aggressive with our coaches compensation so that both men’s and women’s coaches have contracts with incentives that are equal,” he said. “We’ve recently made a major commitment to women’s basketball to retain our head coach and assistants.”

One area at Iowa State that continues to see large gaps between men and women, is expenditures for recruitment.

According to responses to a gender equity survey for the NCAA released by Iowa State, men’s teams spent $586,451 for 2000-2001, while women’s teams only spent $236,446.

This amounts to 71.3 percent of the total for men and 28.7 percent for women.

“That is one area that will continue to need very close monitoring,” Hieber said.

“In terms of numbers and the expense of national recruiting, that should not preclude providing an equal amount of women’s dollars to do national recruiting,” she said.

Van De Velde said there are several reasons for the gap that aren’t necessarily related to budget concerns.

“One of [the reasons] is on the men’s side you’ve got football, which has a lot more scholarships. Nationally there is no other sport like it. It skews the recruiting dollars,” Van De Velde said.

“It’s not driven by the budget but individual philosophies of the coaches,” Van De Velde said. “Men’s basketball may feel it has to go out and recruit nationally in order to stay competitive, whereas [women’s basketball coach Bill] Fennelly may feel he can recruit more local kids from Iowa and Minnesota and Nebraska and still be competitive.

“It’s not based on the budget, but on what it takes to get the job done.”

Van De Velde also said that in terms of percentages for financial aid for each athlete, women’s athletics are funded to a greater degree than men’s.

“We fully fund the women’s scholarships to the maximum allowed by the NCAA,” said Van De Velde.

“We don’t limit the amount of financial aid for our women based on whether it is in-state or out-of-state,” he said.

The numbers from the gender equity survey regarding financial aid are very similar to the actual enrollment figures for men and women at Iowa State.

The amount of student aid awarded to male athletes was $1,996,566 or 56.8 percent of the total for 2000-2001, while the figures for women show they received $1,518,350, or 43.2 percent, even with the much larger number of scholarships given in football compared to other sports.