Donna Lopiano Raises Title IX Issues
By Tamara Zakim
Sports Editor

She's a Hall of Fame athlete, a participant in 26 national championships, and a nine-time All-American. If you expect her to be the stereotypically thickheaded jock, however, Dr. Donna Lopiano will certainly surprise you. Lopiano, the country's foremost Title IX advocate and one of "The 100 Most Influential People in Sports" according to Sporting News, graced the stage of Pomona's Rose Hills Theatre last week with eloquence and a keen understanding of the issues of Title IX and gender equity in sports.

Poor turnout for the event, whether a reflection of Five-College apathy towards issues in women's sports or the failure on the part of the Athletic and Women's Studies departments to adequately publicize the lecture, had no bearing on Lopiano's enthusiasm at the podium. Her efforts to reveal what she described to be the "mind-boggling" realities of Title IX non-compliance were effectively delivered with a mixture of seriousness and anecdotal comic relief.

Appropriately, Lopiano's introduction was delivered by Pomona's own Dr. Penny Lee Dean, the Sagehen women's swim coach and a highly esteemed member of the sports community with numerous world records and more than 20 conference championships to her name. Accompanying Dean at the lecture was an impressive number of female sports veterans. Among them was Dr. Anne Lebedeff, a retired professional tennis player and Pomona-Pitzer's current tennis coach. Lebedeff was joined by Dr. Joan Johnson, former athletic director at Cal State LA, member of the women's Intercollegiate National Hall of Fame, and a coach of Billy Jean King. Dr. Lynn Emory, former athletic director at Cal Poly Pomona, a historian of sports and a mentor of Dr. Dean, and Dr. Wonda Rainbow, the current chair of physical education at Cal Poly were also in attendance. Dr. Anne Bages, retired coach and athletic director at Pomona-Pitzer, and Jeri Shephard, a coach at Pasadena City College and a chair of the Western Women's Society for Physical Education and Health, completed the group. The presence of these pioneers in the audience reinforced the significance of Lopiano's visit to Pomona, the impact she has had on gender equity in sports, and the looming threats to Title IX posed by the current political situation.

Lopiano is currently the executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, a non-profit educational organization founded in 1974 by Billy Jean King dedicated to the promotion of equal access to participation and leadership opportunities for females in sports. She is credited with doing more for women's sports in the United States than any other individual and is consistently cited in top newspapers and publications as the premier expert on women's sports issues. Lopiano explained her devotion to the cause by telling a story of her own taste of discrimination when she was 11 years old. "The one thing I've wanted to do most in life, I've never been able to do," she said. "I wanted to be a pitcher for the New York Yankees." The sheepish grin that appeared on Lopiano's face as she proclaimed her life-long dream prompted laughter from the audience, though the tone of her voice made it clear she wasn't merely joking. Lopiano described how, after trying out for the local Little League, she was drafted as the starting pitcher only to be told by a father while she stood in line for a uniform that "no girls were allowed." Denied the opportunity to play baseball as a child, she has spent her adult life making sure young girls have opportunities she did not. "No child should ever be told they cannot pursue their dreams," Lopiano insisted.

Lopiano opened her lecture by emphasizing the impact of Title IX on society as a broad civil rights movement for women. Passed in 1972, the preamble to the Educational Amendment reads, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational programs or activity receiving federal financial assistance." Title IX, Lopiano pointed out, demands equality for women across all educational programs, not just in sports. Upon surveying the audience to discover that most listeners were born years after its passing, Lopiano launched into a portrayal of women's lives before Title IX, describing the common view before 1971 that education was often "wasted" on women. Her narratives were met with affirmative nods from the handful of older audience members.

With pride, Lopiano discussed how Title IX has successfully eliminated discriminatory admissions quotas in higher education institutions, opening the door for women pursuing graduate degrees. In 1994, women received 38 percent of medical degrees and 43 percent of law degrees in comparison to a mere 9 percent and 7 percent, respectively, in 1972. 44 percent of all doctoral degrees to U.S. citizens went to women in 1994, up from 25 percent in 1977. In the realm of sports, progress has been equally notable. More than 100,000 women participate in intercollegiate athletics today, representing a fourfold increase since 1971; more impressively, the increase in high school girls' participation in sports has been eightfold. Whereas only 1 in 72 high school girls played sports in 1972, today every 1 in 2.5 is a participant.

Thirty years after its passing, however, Title IX is under direct attack from the Bush Administration for the alleged "threat" it poses to men's athletic programs. Lopiano referred to current Title IX debate as a "sharing the sandbox" phenomenon. She contends that male athletes and coaches are appealing to the white male-dominated Republican Party in protest of the alleged compromise they are forced to make for women's programs. "Imagine a family with three children, two older sons and a younger daughter," said Lopiano. "Claims made against Title IX insinuate that in order for the younger daughter to play sports at all, the wrestling son must be killed. Clearly, this is a ridiculous allegation." Lopiano insisted that the daughter and the sons can co-exist, and that complaints about the "killing" of men's sports are groundless. According to Lopiano, men's sports participation and funding has continued to grow, with men's sports participation being at its highest level ever. If some men's sports have been dropped, other more popular sports have been added. Decisions to drop men's non-revenue sports are institutional decisions related to choosing to place more resources into revenue-producing men's sports rather than women's sports.

Indeed, an article in this week's New York Times highlights the unbalanced priorities of Division I athletic programs. Sports writer Joe Drape addresses the growing trend of big-time sports schools building elite 50 plus million dollar basketball arenas. "St. John's announced it was cutting six sports, five of them men's teams, largely to have the ratio of male to female athletes more closely reflect enrollment, in compliance with Title IX. But Athletic Director Dave Wegrzyn admitted that St. John's was trying to reposition his department and get the most out of its $14 million budget." Cases like these support Lopiano's argument: blame is often placed on Title IX legislation even when it's apparent that teams are cut to generate more funds for high-profile men's sports.

Though the facts do not support the growing contention that Title's IX's proportionality provision is responsible for the elimination of men's sports, President Bush indicated during his election campaign that he would support amending Title IX to change the law's provision. As a result, female athletes stand to lose $100 million in scholarships and over 300,000 participation opportunities under new proposals. The actions taken by the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics at their last meeting in Washington, D.C. are "outrageous," contended Lopiano. No less than six proposals being advanced to the Secretary of Education from the Commission could result in discriminatory treatment of female athletes. These proposals would reduce the obligations of colleges and universities by tampering with the way in which athletic participants are counted. These proposals could result in the loss of numerous women's teams and millions of dollars in scholarship money annually.

"We cannot negotiate civil rights laws," Lopiano decreed. Because institutions are unwilling to keep all men's sports by lowering expenditures on those men's sports with the largest operating budgets, Title IX is carrying the blame. Lopiano returned to her metaphor of the family with three children: "Reasonable parents aren't going to split the pie of opportunity 50/50, forcing the two boys to share half the pie while the daughter gets the rest. All Title IX asks for is that everyone gets an equal piece. Any parent can see that the pie needs to be split into thirds."

Lopiano avoided preaching in favor of a matter-of-fact presentation of existing realities. Her defense of Title IX balanced publicized statistics with often-overlooked circumstantial details. Lopiano revealed, for example, that the group of men primarily responsible for the challenge to Title IX included Speaker of the House Dennis Haster, a former wrestler, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, also a former wrestler, and Secretary of Education Rod Paige, a former football coach. In highlighting the athletic backgrounds of these officials, Lopiano effectively displayed their disturbing biases. "This commission is stacked," Lopiano declared. "It supports a predetermined outcome."

Lopiano reinforced that, ultimately, the issue at stake extends far beyond the existence of any particular men's wrestling program or women's crew team. "How important is it to live in a society where our sons and daughters are treated equally?" she asked. "Sports are not simply about winning, losing and recreation," Lopiano maintained. "Sports are where we learn to succeed, to be healthy, and to be educated." Clearly, it is Lopiano's exemplification of success, education and accomplishment that has catapulted her into a leading role in Title IX activism.