A hockey team that had been to every national tournament in five years.
A men’s gymnastics program that was consistently ranked in the top 10 in the country.
A baseball program that is part of Oregon’s rich athletic history — in the early 1880s, a baseball game against Monmouth College was one of the first documented Oregon athletic events.
While officials say these programs, along with women’s gymnastics, women’s field hockey and men’s and women’s swimming and diving squads, were cut by the Athletic Department mainly because of budgetary reasons, there was also another factor.
Title IX.
Title IX, technically, prohibits gender discrimination in public and private schools that receive federal funding. Passed in 1972, it applies to high schools and colleges, and to opportunities both on the field and in the classroom.
However, the most widely-used interpretation of Title IX is the gender equity law that has spurred the mass entrance of women’s athletics and female athletes into existence and the national spotlight.
Monday, the Athletic Department announced that a varsity women’s lacrosse program will begin at Oregon in fall 2004. The announcement came four days after a Title IX Commission appointed by the Bush administration approved recommendations to make minor, but calculated, changes to Title IX that will, if approved, affect how schools determine whether they are in compliance.
Currently, schools must show that they meet three standards.
One standard is athlete scholarships, and making sure they are given proportional to student-athlete participation according to gender. Oregon is in compliance with this standard — in the 2001-02 school year, 37.47 percent of Oregon’s student-athletes were female, and 37.36 percent of scholarship money went to those females.
Another standard schools must comply with is the “laundry list.” This list of 11 items includes travel expenses, publicity and equipment. The school must show that men and women have equal funding and access to these items.
The third, and most difficult to interpret, is “accommodation of interests and abilities,” a three-prong test. Schools must meet one of three criteria: Athlete gender percentage must be proportional to the student body, the school must demonstrate a history and continuing practice of program expansion for the underrepresented gender, or the school must show that it fully and effectively accommodates the interests and abilities of the underrepresented gender.
For Oregon, the prong choice is a simple one — the second prong. Oregon strives to demonstrate a history and continuing practice of program expansion for the underrepresented gender.
In 1987, the women’s golf team was reinstated. Nine years later, the women’s soccer team began its first season in the fall of 1996. Lacrosse will begin eight years after soccer.
“We’re showing that there’s growth and that we’re meeting the interests of our athletes,” Senior Associate Athletic Director Renee Baumgartner said. “Obviously we’ve added soccer, we’ve committed to add lacrosse and I believe there will be more women’s sports that we will add in the future, depending on the interests and the needs of our students.”
Adding sports is not something the Athletic Department can easily do, because of budgetary limitations. The annual budget for a women’s lacrosse program — a non-revenue-producing sport — will run the Athletic Department $530,000.
“Certainly one of the reasons that we expanded Autzen Stadium was to provide revenue to address Title IX concerns,” Athletic Director Bill Moos said.
That additional revenue is sure to help the lacrosse program get started, and the lacrosse program will help emphasize the point the Athletic Department is trying to make:
“We actually are in compliance now,” Moos said.