UM chief pledges $700,000 for women’s athletics

Give the University of Maine three more years to work on it and campus president Frederick Hutchinson believes women students will enjoy a standard of athletic equality with their male counterparts that could reach the elusive goal of gender equity.

Hutchinson revealed Monday several parts of what he described as an unwritten plan to put the Orono campus in compliance with Title IX, the federal law guaranteeing equal opportunity. Hutchinson also revealed ways Maine expects to pay for the improvements for women.

“I’m optimistic. I think we’re going to get there. I think we’re going to get close in a three-year period,” Hutchinson told editorial writers and reporters during a 75-minute meeting at the Bangor Daily News.

Hutchinson said the “draft plan” currently being put together by several UM administrators includes pumping an additional $700,000 into women’s athletics over the next three years.

In a matter closely related to athletics, Hutchinson said there is also a plan in the exploratory stage to build a multi-million dollar recreation center on the current site of the Alumni Center. The new facility would feature an indoor track, racquetball courts, weight rooms, aerobic rooms, and a rock-climbing wall. The facility would be available to all students.

Any increases in athletic opportunities for women would help Maine’s current gender equity status, which is tilted sharply in favor of men.

According to figures provided by the UM Department of Public Affairs, intercollegiate men’s sports received 73 percent of the athletic budget this year, or $2.8 million compared to just over $1 million for women. Of Maine’s 524 varsity athletes, 61 percent are male.

To meet Title IX guidelines, both expenditure and participation rates should mirror Maine’s undergraduate student body ratio, which is 53 percent male. Facilities for each sex should be comparable.

To pay for the $700,000 women’s sports budget increase, Hutchinson said approximately 50 percent of the money would come from revenue produced by Alfond Arena, which is scheduled to be paid off within three years. This assumes the UM women’s basketball team continues to draw well, as it did last season. The rest of the money would come from an increase in fund-raising and student fees.

Money for the recreation center would come from gifts and both the student comprehensive fee and intramural athletics fee. A special fee might be instituted to support the building.

UM acting Athletic Director Walt Abbott said there is currently no price tag on the recreation center. A facility was recently built at Northeastern University in Boston for $11 million, he said.

“It will be built, it’s just a question of when,” said Abbott.

Pressed for more details about the entire gender equity plan, Hutchinson said it would not boost the budgets of Maine’s nine women’s sports equally. He said he would not reveal which programs are to be favored until the coaches had been informed.

“It will be a week or 10 days. We’re moving as fast as we can. We will go wide open-public the minute we get to that point,” he said.

Hutchinson said funding the women’s increases may call for an increase in the overall athletic budget. He said faculty and the academic community would have to understand if that is the case.

“We will reallocate funds within the institution for a lot of purposes. This happens to be one of them. I know I’ll take heat on it, but that’s just the way it is,” said Hutchinson.

The president said while existing funds might be reallocated, he does not expect to eliminate any men’s sports to help women reach technical compliance with Title IX.

Hutchinson said the possibility exists, however, football might become part of a scaled-down Yankee Conference that awards only need-based financial aid rather than the current 63 full scholarships. Such a move would eliminate the $636,877 Maine spent on football scholarships this year.

“There is motion in the Yankee Conference among some of the schools in the northern part,” said Hutchinson, noting the presidents at New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Northeastern and Boston University have discussed at least a scholarship reduction. He said Vermont, which dropped football 23 years ago, might reinstitute it under a need-based-aid agreement.