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FOR RELEASE January 18, 1996
Contact: Rodger D. Murphey (202) 401-0774
In response to inquiries from college presidents and athletics associations, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued a final clarification of its policy on Title IX and intercollegiate athletics.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities. Under Title IX, if an institution that is a recipient of federal funds sponsors an athletic program, it must provide equivalent athletic opportunities for males and females. The clarification resulted from discussions with interested parties over a two-year period and from consideration of nearly 300 written comments.
"My conversations with the university community and with athletic associations and other groups have confirmed that there has been some confusion over one segment of the requirements of Title IX as it applies to sports," said Norma Cant?, assistant secretary for civil rights. "In an effort to be as helpful as possible to colleges, student athletes and others who deal with this issue, OCR has worked to provide substantive, specific and meaningful guidance to clarify the standards that have been applied by four administrations. This clarification confirms that OCR's focus continues to be on increasing opportunities for all students."
Cant? said the legal obligations spelled out in this clarification of the Title IX policy guidance have been in effect since 1979, noting that every federal court which has addressed the issue since then has approved of the standards provided by OCR.
The policy guidance includes a three-part test that OCR uses to assess an institution's compliance with Title IX in intercollegiate athletics:
Whether intercollegiate level participation opportunities for male and female students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments; or
Where the members of one sex have been and are underrepresented among intercollegiate athletes, whether the institution can show a history and continuing practice of program expansion that is demonstrably responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the members of that sex; or
Where the members of one sex are underrepresented among intercollegiate athletes, and the institution cannot show a history and continuing practice of program expansion, as described above, whether it can be demonstrated that the interests and abilities of the members of that sex have been fully and effectively accommodated by the present program.
If an institution has met any part of this standard, OCR will find the institution in compliance with the participation provision of Title IX in the area of athletics.
Cant? said it is important to note that, contrary to claims by some who have advocated that OCR abandon the three-part test that was first applied in 1979, the test does not establish or endorse quotas. Cant? reiterated in her letter transmitting the clarification that there are three separate avenues for compliance and stressed there are no "strict numerical formulas or 'cookie cutter' answers" to questions that are "inherently case- and fact-specific." She noted that OCR has "tried to allow for as much flexibility as possible in the clarification, while remaining true to the Congressional mandate of Title IX.
The final clarification is the result of a number of discussions with interested parties over a two-year period and consideration of the nearly 300 written comments received by OCR on a draft that was issued Sept. 20, 1995.
The guidance is being sent to over 4,500 interested parties, including the presidents of all colleges and universities that have intercollegiate athletic programs.
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NOTE TO EDITORS: A copy of the clarification of Title IX athletics is available upon request.