WASHINGTON, D.C. — Twenty-five years old this year, Title IX has become a hot topic in Washington and elsewhere as universities nationwide hustle to ensure their athletic programs meet the fall 1998 deadline for compliance with the sex-discrimination law.

Enacted as part of the 1972 Educational Amendments, Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs which receive any kind of financial assistance from the federal government.

Meeting compliance standards is hardly a simple task. With no hard-and-fast rules to guide them, athletic directors say they are finding themselves in touchy situations.

Many athletic departments are facing complaints that men’s non-revenue sports are falling victim to departments efforts to increase the number of women athletes while keeping their budgets in check.

According to a report released by the NCAA, men’s wrestling, swimming and gymnastics have been hit the hardest.

Iowa State is no exception. Citing budgetary concerns, the athletic department cut men’s gymnastics and men’s tennis in April of 1994 and added women’s soccer a year later.

A former member of the tennis team, Matt McElroy left ISU to play for the University of Northern Iowa after ISU’s program was cut. He said the entire team believed the decision to cut men’s tennis was related to gender equity.

“They were so in non-compliance [with Title IX regulations] it was terrible,” McElroy said. “They were in the red, as far as the budget goes. But they would have gotten socked anyway by the NCAA.”

Though Associate Athletic Director Eileen Hieber concedes ISU was not in compliance with Title IX when the tennis and gymnastic teams were discontinued, she denied the allegation that gender equity was a reason for the decision. “That statement did not come from the athletic department,” she said.

Hieber said many factors go into making a decision to cut a program, such as available funding, high school participation and the popularity of a sport. “Men’s gymnastics was a dying sport,” she said. “Right now, we offer the most popular sports as identified by the NCAA.”

“I hate it when they use Title IX as an excuse,” Hieber said of universities that claim they are cutting men’s non-revenue sports in order to obey the law.

Iowa State’s men’s gymastics was one of the school’s most successful athletic programs, winning 10 Big Eight championships. ISU was the national men’s gymnastics champions in 1971, 1973 and 1974. The program also produced several Olympic candidates and one Olympic team member.

Ed Gagnier, who retired from coaching men’s gymnsatics at ISU in 1983, was disappointed when the program was cut.

“It always struck me as unfortunate that Iowa State would drop one of the few programs that had drawn national recognition,” Gagnier said.

Most athletic programs are funded through men’s basketball and football and receive little or no support from academia. Title IX, he said, was not intended to cause athletic departments to cut men’s programs, but, instead, to increase the number of women’s programs through support from academia.

But universities across the country have droppped men’s sports to the disadvantage of male athletes, he said.

“I’m not trying to hold back women’s sports, but the basic idea was to get support from academia,” he said.

Gagnier said he feels the trend to drop men’s sports has finally come to an end, and universities are now looking for other solutions.

He said it is doubtful ISU will ever again pick up men’s gymnastics.

“It certainly is a good thing for women. It is too bad that the men’s programs have been victimized,” he said.

Jackie Nunez, head volleyball coach, said she is pleased with the support women’s athletic teams have received from ISU.

“Iowa State has made tremendous efforts and strides towards women’s athletics,” she said, saying she feels President Martin Jischke is committed to gender equity in athletics and academics.

Nunez said national progress has, unfortunately, come slowly. Many university administrations have had problems with compliance.

She said she would rather have seen more women’s teams than seeing men’s teams get cut.

“Unfortunately, Title IX and women’s athletics are being blamed for men’s non-revenue sports being dropped,” she said. “If institutions had come into compliance long ago, this wouldn’t be a problem now.”

Last week, the Supreme Court refused to review a petition filed by Brown University regarding a legal battle Brown lost over Title IX.

Under the sex discrimination law, college athletic programs must meet at least one criterion of the following three-part test established by the U.S. Department of Education:

* The percentages of varsity men and women athletes must be “substantially” proportional to the percentages of men and women in a college’s undergraduate student body.

Exceptions to this condition are allowed for schools that can demonstrate a consistent history of adding sports for the underrepresented gender — usually women — and for schools that can show they are accommodating the interests and abilities of their student bodies.

* The percentages of scholarship money granted to men and women athletes must be proportional to the percentages of men and women in a school’s student body.

* Men’s and women’s athletic programs must be equal in all other areas, such as travel, facilities, coaching and practice schedules.

The numbers seem to suggest ISU is falling short of expectations. This year, women comprised 43.3 percent of the undergraduate student body but only 35.29 percent of athletes.

However, Hieber said it is her understanding ISU is in compliance with Title IX by meeting the rules for the exception under the first criterion.

“I know we have made a good-faith effort not just to meet the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law,” she said.

Hieber said ISU has made real progress in the last five years. There are now 11 varsity women’s sports and nine varsity men’s sports at ISU.

Beyond scholarship money and participation, Hieber said it is also important to her that men and women athletes are treated equally in all areas of a program, “that the women aren’t traveling by car while the men are traveling by bus.”

“Our true goal is to provide equitable opportunity,” she said.