The Women's Sports Foundation released its "Gender
Equity Report Card" yesterday, where Foundation Trustee Dr.
Don Sabo analyzed 767 NCAA schools and issued each
institution a grade based on athletic participation,
scholarship allocations, recruitment spending, operating
expenditures and composite GPA. Sabo: "Our findings suggest
that many colleges and universities are allocating resources
and opportunities at a roughly 2-1 ratio between male
athletes and female athletes despite the fact that women
outnumber men on most campuses. In addition, it is proven
that the rise of women's sports over the past 18 years has
not come at the expense of men's programs but rather the
misallocation of funds has caused the elimination of men's
non-revenue sports programs." The report, for the '95-96
school year, showed that while women were 53% of all
undergraduate students, they were only 37% of all NCAA
athletes, and received $142.6M less scholarship aid than
males. Additionally, men's teams in the study spent over
$255M more on operating expenses than women (WSF).
Yesterday U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) and U.S. Rep.
Nita Lowey (D-NY) announced legislation "designed to put
more teeth" in Title IX. "Fair Play Act" would require
colleges to report to the Department of Education
expenditures on men's and women's sports, respectively
(Kathy Orton, WASHINGTON POST, 6/19).
