Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 15, 1994 TAG: 9402150094
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors on Monday approved the school's response to a sex-discrimination lawsuit filed last month, but Tech officials offered no specifics about how it plans to achieve compliance with Title IX.
Because of the lawsuit, the school won't make public its strategy to achieve gender equity in its athletic programs. Tech executive vice president Minnis Ridenour said the Board did not formally enact athletic director Dave Braine's plan because it is subject to possible negotiation and litigation. The Board spent two hours, five minutes in executive session, at least part of it discussing this issue.
But Tech President Paul E. Torgersen confirmed the Board approved what he called a "course of action" that will be the school's first response to the lawsuit, filed Jan. 25 in federal court in Roanoke. Torgersen said a formal vote could come at the next Board of Visitors meeting in April.
"I couldn't be happier in terms of what I see unfolding here," Ridenour said. "[But] we're under a lawsuit, and we simply cannot talk about it."
The class-action lawsuit, filed by 12 female students, charges Tech violates Title IX because the percentage of female athletic opportunities is lower than the percentage of female undergraduates. The women want softball, crew, lacrosse and field hockey upgraded to varsity status and are seeking damages for lost scholarship opportunities.
Sources have said the athletic department's plan would bring the athletic opportunity ratio to within two percent in a period of fewer than five years - a shorter time span and a closer ratio than similar plans at other universities that Tech has studied. A lawyer for the plaintiffs has said Tech lawyers told her the plan would include adding softball, crew, lacrosse and field hockey as varsity sports. The plan also calls for a comprehensive student survey to help determine what sports to add.
Uncertain is where Tech will get the money to fund additional sports. One possibility is increased student fees, but the Board did not address the issue during its public session Monday afternoon.
Deborah Brake of the National Women's Law Center has said the women want their sports upgraded as soon as possible to give them the chance to be varsity athletes. Brake has said she would like Tech to offer to add two sports this spring and two more next fall.
That's unlikely.
"It would be nice to be there tomorrow," Torgersen said, referring to full compliance with Title IX. "We're not going to be there tomorrow. We can't afford it.
"You can't even man the appropriate sports more quickly than we're progressing. You can't put in a new sport tomorrow and field a team."
Title IX is a 1972 law that bars sex discrimination by institutions that receive federal aid. The regulations governing athletics went into effect in 1975 with a three-year phasing-in period.
Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said court challenges by universities gave them a shelter.
"Case law did not require compliance by universities," Hincker said. The 1987 Civil Rights Restoration Act, Hincker said, "required universities to come under compliance."
Since 1988, when Braine became athletic director, Tech has upgraded the resources of its eight women's sports and added one sport, women's soccer.
Ridenour commissioned an internal Title IX study that was completed last fall, when Braine began work on the plan presented to the Board on Monday.
Torgersen said Monday he's pleased with the school's Title IX efforts.
"One of the intents of all this is to make progress," he said. "We're making good progress. I'm not at all embarrassed to meet female students on this campus and face them in good conscience that we're going to treat them as we treat male students in intercollegiate athletics."
by CNB