TITLE IX’S PROGRESS

Amid worries about budget cuts and raising academic standards, the University of Maine has done better than its peers in complying with Title IX, the 1972 law requiring publicly funded schools and colleges to offer women equal access to sports. Especially given the university’s limited resources, this is an important accomplishment.

In a report released this week, the Women’s Sports Foundation, which was founded by tennis great Billie Jean King, gave the National Collegiate Athletic Association a C for complying with the 35-year-old law. The University of Maine, the state’s only NCAA Division I school, received an A.

The report, written by John Cheslock of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona, focused on proportionality, one way schools can comply with the law. The proportionality section says the percentage of women in the student body and the percentage of women participating in athletics should be roughly equal.

At UMaine, for example, the student body is 49 percent female and 47.3 percent of its varsity athletes are female, for a proportionality gap of 1.7. The NCAA average was 13, with Division I-AA, which is where UMaine is ranked, averaging 13.2.

Other Maine universities and colleges to earn A’s in the report were the University of Maine at Augusta, Bowdoin College, Maine Maritime Academy and Unity College.

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation report, women’s sports grew substantially between 1995 and 2001, when the growth slowed. Between 1995 and 2005, female participation grew by nearly 26,000 athletes nationwide, with only 15 percent of the growth after 2001.

Men’s participation also increased, growing by about 7,000 athletes between 1995 and 2005.

One criticism of Title IX is that many schools have cut men’s sports to comply with the law. The report found that while men’s wrestling and tennis, which UMaine dropped in 1988 and 1991 respectively, had significant declines – dropping nearly 1,200 athletes between 1995 and 2005 – four other men’s sports – football, soccer, baseball and lacrosse – had large gains. Football, for example, added more than 4,000 participants and baseball increased by more than 1,500 players.

At UMaine, one men’s team – golf – was cut during this time period, for financial reasons, according to the athletic department. Two women’s teams – volleyball and ice hockey – have been added and women’s tennis dropped. Since 1995, the university has dropped 22 male athletes, while adding 42 female athletes, although the number of women playing sports has declined slightly since 2001.

Although more women are playing sports at UMaine and other colleges, fans have yet to turn out in the same numbers as they do for men’s games. Aside from women’s basketball, which should again become popular with Cindy Blodgett as the head coach, few women’s sports draw sizable crowds.

The university has done its part by providing women with opportunities to participate in sports. Now, it is up to the fans to show up to the games.