Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 18, 1995 TAG: 9504180138
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A U.S. District Court judge in Roanoke on Monday approved the settlement of a class-action lawsuit against Virginia Tech that ensures more money and more programs for female athletes at the school.
An attorney for 12 students who sued the school called Judge James Turk's approval of the settlement a "landmark decision" that will benefit student athletes for years at Tech and should be noticed by other universities.
Tech's assistant athletic director referred to it as the end of a "frivolous lawsuit" that slowed down, rather than increased, Tech's expansion of women's sports.
Although Tech's undergraduate enrollment is about 40 percent female, only about 20 percent of athletic opportunities were for women when the suit was filed. The settlement requires that the athletic opportunities and scholarships provided to women must be tied to the percentage of female undergraduates enrolled.
An expansion plan for women's athletics was approved by Tech's Board of Visitors last May and assistant athletic director Steve Horton said a lot of the settlement's requirements already had been addressed in that plan, which was designed to bring the school into complete compliance with Title IX by 1999.
A dozen female student athletes sued Tech last year, claiming the university was violating Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits federally funded schools from discriminating on the basis of sex in an education program or activities.
In college athletic programs generally, "widespread blatant discrimination" still exists, said Deborah Brake, an attorney at the National Women's Law Center in Washington. Brake represented the students who sued, although the suit was certified as a class-action, making all present and future Virginia Tech female students beneficiaries.
A 1993 internal study of Title IX by Tech admitted the school's opportunity ratio was "one of the worst comparisons in Division I athletics."
"We're glad Virginia Tech is willing to increase women's opportunities," Brake said. "If you're a high school student wanting to play sports [at Tech], this settlement is good news."
Sixteen Title IX lawsuits have been filed against schools over athletic program inequities since 1990 and "the plaintiffs have won every single one," Brake said.
Tech already has added a women's lacrosse team, and softball will be added next year, bringing the total to 10 women's teams, compared to 11 for men. A new varsity softball facility is in the works and other facilities "will be comparable overall" to those provided to male athletes, according to the settlement.
What the students who filed the suit won't get is varsity team status for field hockey and crew, which are now club sports. Horton said adding those sports wouldn't have been feasible.
Lacrosse and softball were added as teams after a student survey was taken and a study was done of whether there were enough competing teams in the area to make them practical.
The settlement requires that the changes be made no later than the end of the 1996-97 school year and last through 2001. Horton said it would be unrealistic to bind the school to a plan for more than four or five years at a time, since sports change in popularity and so do priorities.
The rate of varsity athletic participation for women must be within three percentage points of the female full-time enrollment. For example, if 40 percent of undergrads are women, at least 37 percent of varsity participation must be by women. If a good faith effort is made by the school to recruit female athletes and there is a lack of participation, the school is exempt from that ratio.
The "good faith" exemption does not apply, however, to the amount of scholarships given to women. Tech must provide a percentage of its athletic financial aid that is within five percentage points of the undergraduate female enrollment.
Horton said no money will be taken away from programs for male athletes to increase the women's programs. All funds to comply with the settlement will be in addition to the existing budget, he said, but couldn't immediately provide a dollar figure.
Tech must provide annual reports to the Women's Law Center and the students' other attorneys to show the school is in compliance with the settlement.
The school also will pay $50,000 to the plaintiffs for attorneys' fees, a fraction of the nearly $500,000 Horton said they had been seeking. The $50,000 will be paid by state insurance.
by CNB