Philly hosts Title IX talks

Fresh off its 30th anniversary, Title IX -- the law that mandates gender equity in athletics and education -- may receive a bit of a facelift come Jan. 31.

On June 27, Secretary of Education Roderick Paige established a commission that would evaluate virtually every aspect involved in Title IX legislation.

After town meetings where the 15 selected delegates met both to listen to testimony and to deliberate on how they can suggest changes for the future of the law, the delegates will be responsible to submit a charter with the commission's findings to Paige by Jan. 31.

For the past two days, the Commission on Opportunities in Athletics met in Philadelphia for its fifth of six town hall meetings.

After hearing direct testimony in Atlanta and Chicago from those who have been affected by Title IX legislation, this particular town hall meeting concentrated specifically on giving suggestions about what will enter the final product at the end of January. Also discussed were some specifics on how the document would look.

While there was dissension on several issues that panelists brought up -- notably about whether an athletic program like Marquette wrestling should be allowed to receive an endowment to continue its deceased program -- the idea of using proportionality as one of the three prongs to evaluate Title IX compliance will not change.

"I think if you take away prong one, you're in effect not creating a civil rights law anymore," USA soccer player and President of the Women's Sports Foundation Julie Foudy said. "I think that everyone on the commission understands that there's value in all three prongs, and there's clearly a misconnect in people's interpretation of them."

The commission will have one final town hall meeting on Jan. 8, which is when it will vote on suggestions about the future of the legislation.

But in addition to the lack of knowledge about whether the commission will insert testimony into the report -- which was stressed to be important by Dr. Rita Simon, the founder and president of the Women's Freedom Network -- the commission does not yet know the semantics of how to pass a decision.

After the 15 commissioners hand over a document of observations and suggestions about the implementation of Title IX, Paige and the Department of Education will then have the opportunity to proceed and present the findings before Congress.

But nobody is sure about where the process will go after the commission finishes its report.

"I think this commission is just the first step in what's going to have to be a number of steps to affect any change in this arena," Commission Chairman and Stanford Athletic Director Ted Leland said. "We're just part of the first start, and it may come to nothing and it may come to really something."

The government has no legal obligations to heed the commission's findings so it remains to be seen whether it will be anything more than a way to educate people about the law.

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