Although it's been more than 30 years since the establishment of Title IX, the federal mandate for gender equality at any educational institute receiving federal funding, UAF lags behind compliance standards.
In the 2004-05 academic year, athletic scholarship costs for women at the university were at a mere $170,612, making up for only 27 percent of total funds allotted. Male athletes were granted the remaining funds, $460,532.
Although women made up 52 percent of the student body at UAF, the university was still under-representing them. This significant imbalance in funding between genders is nothing new to the athletic department.
"This isn't something that happens overnight," said Athletic Director Forrest Karr. "It's been a tedious process that is constantly being challenged by the growing deficit in the department."
In 1972, Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments Act. Specifically regarding athletics, the law demands schools and colleges not discriminate against women in awarding athletic scholarships, offering opportunities for participation, and providing other services and benefits like uniforms, equipment, travel and recruiting opportunities.
Colleges with major athletic departments nationwide struggle over what to do with men's and women's sports because programs have evolved into a hybrid of amateurs and professionals. Athletic directors across the country devote all the resources they can to the professionalized sports like hockey or basketball and football, in the often vain hopes of returning a profit. While the athletic departments support women's sports, finding the finances to provide for equal opportunities has become a major struggle.
On a national plane, UAF is finally in a position to stand proud at the progress made in reaching equivalency. However, three years ago, the department ranked as having one of the lowest scholarship equivalency rates on the West Coast.
THE VICIOUS CYCLE
It's a cycle: For UAF to boost women's scholarships, the Athletic Department must make enough money to fund the program and pay off deficits. These deficits are largely a result of the department's attempt to equalize opportunity for both men and women.
In Fairbanks, that means investing a large portion of funding in the hockey program. So, the department allots more money to the hockey team in hopes of producing a profit to help the Athletic Department move forward. Last year's department financial report shows the Nanook hockey team barely broke even, earning $1.4 million.
In 2001, UAF skated along aware, but not overly concerned, about its failure to uphold Title IX. The Nanook hockey team was working its way up the ranks in the most competitive Division I hockey conference and becoming a nationally ranked program. The rifle team had just won its third NCAA title and the men's basketball team was bringing in more revenue than any other sport on campus.
Randy Pitney had just resigned and Jake Poole signed on as interim athletic director.
"Upon my arrival into the Athletic Department, it was brought to my attention that we were in pretty bad shape," Poole said. "Gender equality wasn't a high priority."
That is, until the annual Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act report showed significant discrepancies among gender equivalencies.
Following the report, Poole demanded a review of gender equity compliance in the department as well as an action plan to address any concerns being raised by the inequities. All aspects of the program with gender equity were to receive immediate attention. Additionally, the corrective plan issued a nationwide search for a permanent athletic director.
That October, the external review of athletic practices in the Athletic Department launched a detailed look at Title IX, scholarship practices, facilities, equipment, travel and competitive opportunities. The final report of the findings listed deficiencies in the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act Report as well as differences in the resources provided by UAF to female student-athletes and their programs.
Once the discrepancies were noted, Poole immediately went to the general counsel to present the report's findings, of which they had virtually no idea about.
"Let me tell you, that was fun," said Poole. With the support of the university's lawyers behind him, he went right to work.
IN THE LINE OF FIRE
Just one year later, in June 2002, UA President Mark Hamilton received a letter from the National Women's Law Center, a non-profit organization that works to protect the rights of females in education. According to the letter, UAF needed to get their act together with compliance, and fast.
The law center's letter nailed UAF for "failure to provide a substantially proportionate share of athletic scholarship dollars to its female varsity athletes."
The arrival of this letter launched an external review in October 2002 of athletic practices in Title IX, scholarship practices, facilities, equipment, travel, and competitive opportunities.
As a result of the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, publicly funded universities are required by law to report a detailed summary of funds allotted to student -- athletics, among other programs, on an annual basis. The report covers everything from equipment to travel expenditures, scholarship money awarded and even coaches' salaries and recruiting expenses. The law center used statistics as reported by UAF to show the discrepancies in gender equity.
During the 2000-01 academic year, the scholarship gap at the university showed that the average female athlete received on average $1,315 less than the typical male athlete. Female athletes at UAF collectively were shortchanged about $36,029 each year.
The NWLC was quick to inform UAF that out of 30 colleges and universities being investigated, UAF was ranked as having the 17th worst scholarship adequacy.
"I'm really surprised that we weren't investigated by the NCAA," Poole said.
Poole said being such a small school, there is no excuse for not having scholarship equivalencies in the athletic department.
"It's just not fair to the student-athletes," Poole said.
In a two-page response, Poole thanked the law center for its concern and set out to ensure the organization that UAF was committed both to compliance with Title IX as well as to fair and equitable treatment of both sexes.
Despite room for improvement, UAF was in compliance with Title IX to Poole and the administration's knowledge. According to the "three part test" set up by the Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights, which divides compliance standards into three distinct parts, UAF was not entirely out of compliance. But meeting only two out of three is still falling short.
UAF fell short on opportunities proportionate to enrollment. At the time, the female population at UAF was 55 percent, making up more than half of the student body. But participation rates for females rested at only 45.8 percent for the 2001-02 academic year.
"In addition," Poole wrote, "there were non-discriminatory reasons for the discrepancy between males and females with regard to scholarship funding."
For example, during the 2000-01 academic year, which the NWLC based its research on, UAF offered 14 out-of-state scholarships to men while women's teams offered only six. Out--of-state tuition costs run significantly more for students, and the majority of the hockey team has traditionally been comprised of Canadian citizens.
"The opportunity was available for women's teams to offer more out-of-state tuition scholarships, but the coaches of our women's basketball and volleyball teams opted to focus on in-state recruitment," Poole said.
Luckily for women's basketball and volleyball, UAF provided six full scholarships, the maximum number allowable under the NCAA Division II rules for both sports. Prior to this, both teams were using just under a third of the total allotted scholarships.
"The contributions of our women athletes are valued just as highly as our men," Poole wrote in closing.
A NEW ERA
In January 2003, a nationwide search for a new athletic director concluded with the hiring Cory Schwartz.
"When Cory Schwartz came onto the scene, she picked up our Title IX work and ran with it," Poole said. "She worked very hard to ensure that UAF would be in compliance."
Many changes took place during Schwartz's three-year reign. With a $400,000 "Title IX" Loan taken out by the department, Schwartz installed a student-athlete academic center.
She also reinstated a 10th sport, the women's swim team, which accounted for a lifting a heavy burden off of the department's shoulders.
Perhaps more than any member of the Athletic Department, Scott Lemley has seen the department's highs and lows. As a student athlete from 1971-1973, Lemley was denied his senior year of competition when the university cut the swimming program for lack of financial support.
"My sense is that it would have taken a fair amount of time, energy and money to have kept the program going," Lemley said.
Lemley chose to stay in Fairbanks anyway. In 1982, John Gilmore, the athletic director at the time, informed Lemley that the department was in violation of NCAA rules, having one too few team sports, according to Lemley.
"He said he had known about it and let it slide for a couple of years, during a grace period, while he had worked behind the scenes to get the rule changed," Lemley said. By fall 1982, the rule hadn't changed and the department was nine months away from being penalized by the NCAA.
Gilmore asked Lemley if he'd be interested in helping him out by coaching this team. In a frenzy, Lemley had to throw together a team of 11 warm bodies and organize a total of nine competitions over the Christmas break, a task that generally takes almost a year in advance.
Lemley continued to coach the UAF mixed swimming team for five more years. But the program was discontinued once again.
"The actual decision was made while we were on the road," Lemley recalled.
The cut was final and swimming took an 18-year hiatus. But now, almost 20 years later, swimming has been reinstated. Once again, Lemley is back serving as coach.
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
Five years and three athletic directors later, the department has come a long way, reaching scholarship equivalencies of almost 45 percent for women and 55 percent for men. But these numbers still don't meet compliance standards, and based on the ever-increasing amount of debt by the department, UAF still has a long way to go.
"That letter brought the issue to the full attention of the administration," said Karr, who says he felt the impact of the letter even three years after its arrival.
"Dr. Cory Schwartz made Title IX compliance a priority," Karr said. "The state of Title IX compliance was abysmal when I arrived in August of 2004, but was improving quickly under her leadership."
Now, after replacing Schwartz as director, Karr expects the department to be fully compliant during the 2007-08 academic year, provided women's swimming uses all eight scholarships that have been promised by upper-level administration.
There's no doubt athletically related financial aid has been his biggest concern.
"I've focused on scholarships because the numbers are real and leave no wiggle room," said Karr. "I'm trying to run a fiscally sound operation while finding ways to allocate scarce resources within the university's expectations."
Trying to reach perfect equivalencies among male and female athletes while simultaneously trying to pay off debts acquired and keep up with rising tuition and travel costs is no small task.
"Everyone who respects the legal process understands Title IX compliance is not a choice," said Karr. "We've been very fortunate to work under socially conscious leadership."
THINGS ARE LOOKING UP
For the past four years, the department's progress in equivalency has remained constant over the past four years.
Last year, largely thanks to the establishment of women's swimming, female scholarships made up 39 percent of the total funds, an increase of 12 percentage points. Although men's scholarships still made up 61 percent, the equivalencies were improving. Debts accumulated for the 2005-06 academic year amounted to an additional $41,000.
That same year, in order to better the equivalency rate, the Athletics Department had to raise $156,542 to cover expenses.
At the end of this year, scholarship costs will have amounted to $718,542 among both male and female athletes. Of that total, women's scholarships will amount to 45 percent.
"I suspect by next year we'll be in pretty good shape," Poole said.
In order to maintain even this degree of support for women the Athletic Department will have to raise $95,000 more than last year, making the total amount needed $240,878.
"Although the average female scholarship is up 16 percent," Karr points out, "I'm concerned about the FY07 financial prospects with the increase in tuition and travel expenses."
Rebecca George is a senior journalism major. She is also a co-captain of the newly instated women's varsity swim team.
