Opening Statement

Jacqueline Woods, moderator
American Association of University Women

Good morning, I am Jacqueline Woods, Executive Director of the American Association of University Women, and this year AAUW chairs the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education. For 121 years the American Association of University Women has advocated for equal opportunity and treatment of girls and women in the classroom and on the athletic field. We are proud of our work with the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education.

NCWGE was formed in 1975 by representatives of national organizations concerned about the failure to issue regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. NCWGE was successful in mobilizing strong support for publication of the Title IX regulations by the then Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. And we are here today to defend the enforcement of this 30 year old civil rights law.

The purpose of this briefing is to inform you of the potentially destructive impact of changes to Title IX, based on proposals from the U.S. Department of Education Secretary's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics' report, scheduled to be released on January 31st. In today's briefing we will address:

The current Title IX law and why it is still necessary and important;
False allegations of lack of interest in sports by girls;
Problems with the Commission's proposals;
Flaws and abuses in the Commission's process; and
The real "game" played with athletic budgets.

Please go the NCWGE website at www.ncwge.org for fact sheets and other resource info. for today's briefing.

Title IX is a civil rights law that addresses discrimination against girls and women in both education and sports. Before Title IX, girls were encouraged to be cheerleaders, not soccer, basketball or hockey players. Efforts to weaken Title IX must be viewed as nothing less than attempts to roll back the clock.

Equally troubling, the threats are now coming from the Department of Education - the very agency charged with enforcing Title IX provisions and protecting the rights of women and girls.

Unfortunately, we are in an environment where there is still resistance to basic civil rights and changes in the discriminatory practices of old. It certainly further demonstrates why we need to remain vigilant and vigorous in our protection of such civil rights-like Title IX. Though it is a new day, there are those who want to "pull back" to the old ways.

Title IX is about ending gender discrimination in all aspects of education. It's about providing equal opportunity and enforcing the law. Any action by the Administration to undermine Title IX will be contrary to fundamental principles supported by every previous Administration since the inception of this longstanding civil rights law.
Make no mistake Title IX is a civil rights issue, and while women's participation in athletics is critical for its own sake, the Administration's actions in this context will have repercussions for fundamental civil rights principles as a whole.

While schools have advanced significantly over the last 30 years on behalf of equity for women and girls, more work certainly still needs to be done. That is why flawed and destructive proposals coming from the Secretary's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics' report in January must not go unchallenged.
Now I will introduce our panelists who are just as passionate as I am about Title IX. They will address the specifics for this briefing:

Jocelyn Samuels who will be addressing the Title IX law itself, is Vice President and Director of Educational Opportunities at the National Women's Law Center, where she supervises an active litigation docket of Title IX cases, including cases seeking equal athletic opportunities for girls. She leads the Center's efforts to ensure that young women are treated fairly in career education programs, and challenges biased testing that restricts opportunities for female students as well as policies and practices that block women's access to non-traditional courses such as mathematics and science.

Nancy Hogshead-Makar, who will address the allegation that there is a lack of interest in sports among girls, was an Olympic triple Gold Medallist swimmer in the 1984 Olympics. She is also the former President of the Women's Sports Foundation. As a lawyer in private practice, Nancy represented both plaintiffs and defendants in Title IX matters. She is currently a law school professor at the Florida Coastal School of Law, where she teaches Torts and Sports Law.

Athena Yiamouyiannis, who will be addressing abuses in the Commission's process, is the executive director of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport. Prior to this position, she worked for 10 years at the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Athena has also served as a spokesperson and advisor for the NCAA, the Committee on Women's Athletics and the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators. She has also been instrumental in planning several gender equity initiatives including the NCAA Title IX Seminars and initiatives that resulted from the NCAA Gender Equity Audit.

Christine Grant, who will speak on the problems in the Commission's proposals, is Associate Professor in the Health & Sport Studies Department at the University of Iowa, where she had been director of women's athletics for 27 years. She is the former president of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) and the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA). She has also been an expert consultant to the HEW Office of Civil Rights Title IX Task Force.

Andrew Zimbalist, who will be covering the real "game" in athletic budgets, is presently the Robert A. Woods professor of economics at Smith College. He has been a visiting professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan and a visiting research fellow at Harvard University. Dr. Zimbalist has published thirteen books primarily in the areas of comparative economic systems, development and sports economics, including "Unpaid Professionals: Commercialization and Conflict in Big-Time College Sports", published by Princeton University Press.

Let's begin with our first panelist…

[Question & Answer Period]
Thank you panelists, we will now open the briefing to questions from the press.

[Briefing Closure]
We are now going to end our press briefing. I want to thank the panelists and those members of the press who have participated on this briefing, and close by urging that the destructive proposals of the Secretary's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics' report not go unchallenged. That we not let Title IX become "fair game" for unfair change-for the sake of our daughters and our sons.

Thank you.