Your A.S. Council just passed a resolution supporting the greatest obstacle to UCSD ever having a football team. Did you notice?
The council passed a resolution supporting Title IX — a 1972 gender equality act — without discussion, by consensus. It is this statute that requires schools to conform to a standard called proportionality in order to be found compliant.
The proportionality clause, as enforced by the Office of Civil Rights, says that a school’s student-athlete population must be proportional to the composition of the student body as a whole, and spending is expected to follow.
So how do schools deal with this restriction? They cut men’s sports. Collegiate wrestling is an endangered species, men’s tennis teams are becoming more rare and each year a few more football programs are discontinued.
Title IX was intended to increase participation in women’s sports, and it did. It did not intend to do that at the expense of men’s sports. But it did. That’s where I have a problem.
It’s nearly impossible for a male to present an argument against Title IX without sounding sexist, but that’s what I’m trying to do. I love women’s sports. In the past two months, I’ve attended 15 women’s games here at UCSD. I am passionate about seeing women’s teams here at UCSD, and beyond that, I think the life lessons that sports teach are worth learning for both boys and girls.
I’ll concede that Title IX has brought about progress in our society, and I’m not so naive as to think that women’s sports would survive and prosper without some help from the federal government. However, the option is not Title IX or nothing. We need to demand something better.
Great innovation is born out of dissatisfaction with an inferior system. The horse and buggy served its purpose, but had Henry Ford not demanded better, we would not have the automobile. Candles give off light, but if Thomas Edison had thought that was good enough, we would not have the light bulb. If the Articles of Confederation were accepted for their flaws, we would not have the Constitution.
There are obvious flaws in Title IX. Even if funding was donated for a football team here, the faculty miraculously approved, a suitable facility was found and every student at UCSD cried out in favor of football, we could not have a team because it would upset the delicate balance of proportionality. That just seems wrong.
Title IX seeks gender equality, but in dealing with numbers, statistics and percentages it misses the human nature of the problem. Men and women are different. Physically, intellectually, emotionally and in what interests we hold, the sexes are very unique. Hopefully someday we’ll get to a point where equal work will mean equal pay and where our leaders will be elected by their qualifications and not by their gender, but I hope that we never reach the day where men and women are the same. The differences are what make us unique.
This society needs equal treatment for men and women in athletics, but it does not need Title IX. It needs something that is more competent in recognizing the individual needs of athletes and institutions. It needs something that is able to meet the goal of increasing athletic participation for women without being at the expense of men, and it needs students to demand that our government find a better solution.
You are unanimously in favor of Title IX. You must be. Your representatives have just said as much. But, if they’re wrong and this campus’ true feelings are not being represented, you need to tell them so.
If I’m wrong, and you’re happy with the system as it is, that’s fine too. But, if that’s the case, I won’t ever expect to hear a complaint about our lack of a football team again. The status quo is never going to make that happen.
