PUSHED OUT OF POOL, TECH ATHLETES SEEK TITLE IX SUIT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 15, 1993                   TAG: 9301150057
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
PUSHED OUT OF POOL, TECH ATHLETES SEEK TITLE IX SUIT
Virginia Tech may face a Title IX lawsuit if it doesn't restore its women's swimming and diving program, cut last fall along with the men's program.
Tech swimmers and divers have written athletic director Dave Braine and President James McComas, asking the school to reinstate the men's and women's teams on their "own merits." If Tech refuses, swimmer Sarah Howerton says, the women swimmers want to sue rather than file a Title IX complaint through the Office of Civil Rights because "a lawsuit should be quicker."
Tech's elimination of swimming and diving is effective next year.
Howerton's letter claims female swimmers at Tech are being denied equal access to varsity competition, a violation of Title IX - the 1972 law that prohibits sex-based discrimination by institutions that get federal aid.
The swimmers have asked Tech to respond by Jan. 22 - the day before the team's last home meet - or, as swimmer Leslie Parker said, "They're in for it." Howerton said the swimmers would vigorously pursue a lawsuit, which would be filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, in Roanoke.
"If that's what it takes, that's what we're going to do," she said. "We're hoping it doesn't go that far."
Braine was in Dallas on Thursday at the NCAA Convention and hadn't seen the swim team's letter, sent to him this week. He said Tech isn't being caught unprepared.
"Our studies are in order. Obviously, the university's legal staff has been apprised of everything we've done, every step taken. They have concluded what we're doing is proper," he said.
Several schools have tangled unsuccessfully with Title IX. Since 1988, the Washington, D.C.-based Trial Lawyers for Public Justice has taken on seven Title IX cases. William and Mary, Temple, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and Massachusetts reinstated women's programs before going to court. Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Brown University lost court decisions. Brown has appealed.
One of Title IX's requirements is that a school's male-female athlete ratio closely resemble its undergraduate enrollment ratio. According to gender equity studies by Tech, 16.5 percent of the school's athletes are female compared to 41 percent of its students.
"That's a big gap," said Kathryn Reith, assistant executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation. "Virginia Tech needs to preserve any women's opportunities it has."
Another way a school can comply with the "participation opportunities" requirement is to show "a history and continuing practice of program expansion" that benefits women.
"[That's] what we're trying to do," Braine said.
Tech will add women's soccer next year and plans to add softball in 1994-95. But a six-year study by Tech shows the number of women athletes will drop from 96 in 1990-91 to 82 in 1993-94 before increasing to 102 when the softball team is brought aboard.
"There's no increase in the number of opportunities until 1994-95," Reith said. "The opportunities are the real problem. Cutting a women's team is not going to get them there."
Braine says Tech has "just about achieved" Title IX balance in money spent on men's and women's operating budgets and scholarship aid - the other two major requirements of Title IX. Reith noted that Tech's financial aid requirements will increase as more women's teams are created and said Title IX investigators would want to know "what the [budget] money is buying."
A gender equity projection produced by the school shows that by 1995-96 Tech will spend money proportionate to the percentages of male and female athletes. At present, 84 percent of Tech's sports budget is spent on the 83 percent of athletes who are male.
Under Braine, Tech has hired full-time coaches for volleyball and women's track/cross country, a full-time women's basketball coach and an assistant athletic director for women's sports; renovated locker rooms for women's basketball, volleyball and track; and increased budgets and salaries for its women's sports.
Whether that's enough for Tech to be found in compliance with Title IX is unclear.
"The [current] statistics, on the face of it, seem like a pretty clear Title IX violation," Reith said.
Athletic committee chairman Bennet Cassell and committee members Braine, Tech vice president for student affairs Tom Goodale and Tech professor Sue Murrmann said the debate over whether to cut men's and women's swimming didn't emphasize Title IX concerns.
Cassell said the focus was on adding women's soccer, not cutting women's swimming; and Murrmann, on the subcommittee to study women's athletics at Tech, said she thought they "were not talking about a female sport, but a sport that happened to be male-female."
Braine, who has been preparing a report on Tech's plans for compliance with Title IX, said cutting the swimming programs was "totally a financial decision."
"We have made giant strides [in Title IX compliance]," he said. "I'm not saying we're there."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB