News |

Gender equity complaints against UMaine dropped

By Abigail Curtis

Posted on Monday, November 18th, 2002, 12:00 am

E-mail

Tell us what you think!
Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.

After five years, the U.S. Deptartment of Education Office of Civil Rights dropped its gender equity complaint against the University of Maine late this summer.

In 1997, during the reign of basketball star Cindy Blodgett, all was not roses and high ticket sales for the women’s athletics program at UMaine.

A complaint was brought against the university and 24 other schools for being in violation of Title IX, the federal law mandating gender equity in intercollegiate sports.

“I’m very pleased that we have resolved this matter,” said Evelyn Silver, UMaine’s director of equal opportunity and Title IX coordinator.

UMaine is the first school of the 25 to have its complaint dropped.

The 25th anniversary for Title IX was in 1997. To point out that much work still needed to be done, specifically in terms of parity in athletic scholarships given to women athletes, the National Women’s Law Center cited 25 universities for being in violation of the law.

“It was a big press on the 25th anniversary of Title IX,” Silver said. “They wanted schools from all parts of the country. They wanted some private schools and some public schools.”

Title IX mandates that women athletes receive a fair share of scholarship money. In 1997, the National Women’s Law Center looked at data that showed that male athletes at the university received about seven percent more scholarship money than the women did.

“Now, women are basically getting their share of athletic scholarships,” Silver said.

Silver cited the advent of two new varsity sports for women, ice hockey and volleyball, as helping UMaine gain compliance with the law.

Some schools cut men’s sports programs in order to gain compliance.

“We didn’t want to do that,” Silver said. “But it has required a lot of fundraising for us to give out the athletic scholarships we have had.”

The university worked from a plan developed in 1994 to achieve their goal of compliance without elimination of men’s programs.

“It was a team effort,” Silver said. “I have to give a lot of credit to the athletic department.”

Dr. Suzanne Tyler was athletic director from 1995 until earlier this year.

“This process has required, and will continue to require, flexibilty and commitment,” Tyler said in a recent press release. “We were making progress when the complaint was filed, but it helped us to focus our efforts and to continue to move toward compliance in terms of scholarships and participation.”