Title IX and the Restructuring of Intercollegiate Athletics

In the past eight years, I have gone from the presidency of a university known around the world for its prominent athletic program (particularly its men's football), to that of an Ivy League university which kept sports at a somewhat less prominent level, to the chancellorship of Vanderbilt University, where athletics falls somewhere between the two extremes. Each of these three universities belongs to a different conference, each of which has its own rules about how to conduct an athletic program, but they have all been touched by Title IX in their policies and in their procedures. The Scholar & Feminist Online has graciously requested that I contribute to their issue on women, sports, and cultural values, based on my experience in higher education administration, and particularly on my experience with restructuring Vanderbilt's athletics program. I am honored to accept their invitation. Please allow me to give you some background on Title IX, before I suggest to you that it does not do enough or go far enough to advance the cause of women in intercollegiate athletics programs.

Title IX has helped more women advance in sports than any other program. But despite the fact that the idea and the theory of it sound like the most uncontroversial topics one could imagine, Title IX has had a complicated history of producing more strong feelings and press coverage about colleges and universities than any other federal policy outside of affirmative action. This comes as no surprise to me, as I am thoroughly aware, through my own experience with public policy, that any time a new federal policy arises that would change the way things have always been done, some people will resist in fear or misunderstanding, just as some will continue to fight for what they know in their hearts is right. And add to the history of Title IX the fact that sports always raises strong, almost tribal feelings, and you are looking at a situation that is sure to prove difficult. I know, personally and professionally, the power college athletics holds over human emotions, what a strong force they are in our culture and particularly on our campuses.

College athletics are the one way that many people come into contact with institutions of higher education, primarily through broadcast media and through merchandising. And the opinion people develop about college athletics colors their opinion of higher education in general: some see the unity and spirit aroused by athletic contests, while others see the corruption of our academic communities, or worse, come to the conclusion that our academic community is really only another commercial enterprise, as steeped in cynicism as any other. The public perception of college athletics would seem to be a force difficult for administrators to control.

A university's athletic program directly affects an institution's bottom line, especially through its impact on alumni relations and on the quality and quantity of media coverage a college or university receives. Athletics influences admissions at every university in this country. And at some schools, the preferential or differential treatment given to athletes is a source of controversy that carries with it the tone of class unrest. Athletes are scrutinized for their behavior both on and off the playing field. The rates of graduation of varsity athletes are monitored by media and by watchdog groups. Sports even manage to affect the relationship a university has to the town surrounding it! At every alumni club I visit, the subject of athletics comes up. After every less-than-stellar football game, I receive ferocious e-mails and telephone calls.

In these heated conditions, Title IX has to operate. And even Title IX itself can become a symbol for other strongly held emotions and positions. For its supporters, Title IX was the long-awaited opening that finally allowed women to receive some of the benefits and riches of college athletics. It was the means that brought women more fully into the area of higher education that had been most resistant to claims of equality. It was seen by many to help women compete more brilliantly in the Olympics, and stood for fairness and expanded opportunity in college athletics. It was a long-overdue check on the corruption associated with big-time college sports, a way to open up the cigar-smoky back rooms of athletic departments, where riches and benefits are distributed. It was about reforming a world in desperate need of change and renewal. It was the one force able to withstand the appeal and power of the big-time football programs.

But of course there have always been opposite interpretations: that Title IX was another interference of the federal government in the internal decisions of colleges and universities; that Title IX was only about cutting men's teams; that it represents a culture of litigation, taking athletic policy out of the athletic director's office and into the courtroom. Title IX invites courts right into college athletics and university finances, realms far outside their traditional areas of competence, comfort, and expertise. Courts are being called on to oversee the budget-making processes of universities, and to oversee all areas of college athletics for the long term.

As you can see, just as everything about athletics seems to arouse strong feelings, so too did - and does - this particular piece of federally enacted public policy.