A divided Supreme Court expanded Title IX Monday to protect anyone who blows the whistle on sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs from retaliation.
Title IX, which was enacted by Congress in 1972, prohibits schools from engaging in discriminatory practices. The 5-4 ruling earlier this week by the Supreme Court reaffirmed the law and expanded its protections.
"Congress enacted Title IX not only to prevent the use of federal dollars to support discriminatory practices, but also to provide individual citizens effective protection against those practices," the court found in the majority opinion written by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "This objective would be difficult if not impossible to achieve if persons who complain about sex discrimination do not have effective protection against retaliation."
Such protection seems logical to ensure enforcement and the ability to discuss the laws implications, coaches said.
"You can't have a law in place without people being able to speak up either for or against it," University women's tennis coach Phil Rogers said.
Some schools, including the University, have expanded funding and other support for women's sports in an effort to ensure equal treatment.
The women's golf team, for example, competed in its first season in the fall of 2003. Additionally, the men's crew team is a club sport while the female team has varsity status.
"If we were a varsity team like the women, we would have better recruits, higher status and compete against better teams," said first-year Engineering student Rudy Reynolds, who rows on the men's team. "One good thing about not being a varsity team is that it's open to anyone who wants to try."
Originally both men and women competed on the club crew team. In the mid 1990s, mirroring a national trend, the University responded to disproportionate male representation in the overall varsity athletics program by making the women's crew team a varsity sport.
Despite the growth of women's collegiate athletics, Title IX is necessary and beneficial, even in light of the occasional hardships, men's crew coach Tony Kilbridge said.
"There have been unfortunate side effects, but for decades women were treated poorly," Kilbridge said. "This was kind of a crude way to make it right, but sometimes you have to do something like this."
Under the new Supreme Court ruling, a dialogue about the merits and concerns with Title IX compliance can be aired more freely.
The case was brought by a girl's high school basketball coach in Alabama who claimed he was fired after complaining publicly about unequal funding and access for his public high school team.
Rogers said he would be eager to contribute to the discussion and has proposed reducing non-need based athletic scholarships in favor of increased team appropriations.
"I think you can have it all," Rogers said. "The maximum number of men and women participating, more participation is good for everybody."
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