Title IX still hotly debated, many schools just becoming compliant

OGDEN — School administrators at Weber State University feel like they have finally made it.

Almost 40 years after Title IX was enacted, Weber State believes it is now in compliance with the federal law when it comes to offering equal opportunities to both male and female athletes. The athletic department now has men and women playing sports in about the same proportion to the men and women in the school population.

More than a decade ago, the school cut men's wrestling and soccer in an effort to achieve the right balance, but that still wasn't enough to compensate for the number of football players the school has, said Norm Tarbox, vice president of administrative services at the school. Weber then added women's volleyball and soccer and just recently added softball — giving the school nine women's varsity sports to seven for men.

"For any institution that is subject to Title IX, you need to plan on offering two to four more women's sports than men's to balance out football," he said.

Yet 41 percent of those recently surveyed by The New York Times and CBS believe women are still given fewer opportunities than men in college. And Tarbox said many schools around the country and in Utah are in the same position as Weber State: They feel like they are just about in compliance or are still trying to comply, but instead of just adding more opportunities for women, many schools have had to cut opportunities for men. Still others have skewed their numbers to make it look like their school is in compliance.

BYU eliminated men's gymnastics and wrestling in the late 1990s and added softball and women's soccer to achieve compliance with Title IX.

Utah State University has added women's soccer and basketball in the last 10 years.

And Southern Utah University said not a week goes by that someone does not ask them about adding men's soccer or wrestling to the school's varsity sports, said Ken Beazer, SUU's director of athletics.

"It would throw my Title IX numbers," Beazer explains, "and financially we are in no position to add any sports."

SUU gets about four times as many inquiries to add more men's varsity sports as women's, he said.