Title IX

This particular law, which was passed in 1772 by the Congress, "prohibits institutions that receive federal funding from practicing gender discrimination in educational programs or activities"(Reading 4,paragraph1). Both males and females are expected to receive fair and equal treatment in all areas of public schools. "It applies to all elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities"(Reading 1, paragraph 4). It is supposed to offer more athletic programs for women without cutting men's teams, but unfortunately reality is different. The opinions vary.

College coaches usually complain that the law goes too far, forcing them to cut men's teams to accommodate women. Their opinion is that "women add very little to the college experience for the student body as a whole"(Reading 2).

Charlie Hickey, former head coach of the Providence College men's baseball team, states that they "had to eliminate the 1999 Big East champion team because schools officials feared they were vulnerable to a Title IX lawsuit." (Reading 3, paragraph 2).

One of the ways to comply with Title IX would be to offer a proportional amount of athletic programs based on gender enrollment. But that would be impossible for example at the University of Alabama, where the enrollment ratio is nearly 6 to 4 female to male. "Times have changed since 1972", says Jeff Poor, assistant sports editor, when women were indeed disadvantaged, but today the number of women attending colleges has grown very much and "this calls for a tweaking to Title