It has taken years for women to gain equal opportunities in athletics alongside storied men’s teams, but a new e-mail survey may become the sinister worm that undermines many people’s hard work. New federal guidelines make it easier for colleges to demonstrate compliance with Title IX by using an e-mail survey to show they fulfill the anti-discrimination law’s requirements, according to an article in last week’s Washington Post. If responses to the survey suggest there is insufficient interest among women students to support a particular sport, schools will still be considered in compliance with Title IX, according to the Department of Education’s guidelines. The law mandates that schools receiving public funding provide equal opportunities for men and women. Campus officials would do well to take a public stand against these surveys to help maintain the consistent excellence of Terrapin athletics and the success of other college teams.
Critics argue an e-mail survey will certainly not prove to be a reliable yardstick in measuring women’s interest in college athletics, and some even fear a drastic drop in the growth of women’s sports.
If e-mail surveys return lukewarm responses to women’s programs, recruitment and retention would inevitably crumble. Entire programs could end up less competitive, affecting the quality of this university’s opponents as well.
One of the e-mail survey’s biggest problems is its failure to gauge prospective students’ interest in women’s sports. One way to comply with Title IX is for a school to show it is “fully and effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex.” But the survey only polls women students, not those potentially enrolling to play college sports. If current women students are not interested in, say, women’s lacrosse, and the program is axed or severely cut back, prospective students will not enroll at the university. The school will lose the sport — and any students interested in playing it — and would potentially require a massive overhaul to bring the program and talented recruits back on board.
Athletics Director Debbie Yow and other university administrators have tackled issues of national importance in education in the past. This is yet another opportunity for this university to lead a strong fight against potentially drastic guidelines. With women’s teams becoming increasingly venerable foes on the court, field, track and everywhere else games are played, no one wants to see their talent fall by the wayside.
