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Media Reports on EIA's action with Ohio
University
OU student-athletes join group's effort to force Title IX
changes
By Meghan Montgomery
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
With
the addition of 20 Ohio University students, the Great Lakes Chapter of Equity
in Athletics Inc. is growing by the day as new people join to save the recently
cut varsity-sport teams at Ohio University and to restore what they feel is
federal Title IX's original intent of eliminating discrimination in athletics.
"So far our voices and suggestions have been tossed aside. However, we have
not yet begun to fight," vowed OU freshman swimmer Branden Burns.
According to its Web site, EIA is a coalition of students, alumni, parents and
coaches who want to preserve broad-based, equitable sports programs. EIA is a
national group, containing Virginia, Pennsylvania and Great Lakes chapters. The
Great Lakes Chapter is made up of members from Ohio and Michigan.
Burns said that he and other OU students became involved with EIA after Burns
consulted Title IX experts within the academic community, the U.S. Department of
Education, and NCAA officials on the status of OU's Title IX compliance.
"All agreed that these cuts were not necessary to comply with Title IX and
that the university used Title IX as a scapegoat," said Burns.
After conversations with local experts, Burns said he contacted EIA to explain
OU's situation, and soon joined the organization and began discussing ways to
save the athletic programs with EIA attorney Larry Joseph.
"As a member of EIA, I work with other EIA members to strategize and
organize ways in which we can save our teams," said Burns. "I joined
EIA because they had already started in the battle to save programs at JMU (John
Marshall University in Virginia), and they have the experience and know-how when
dealing with Title IX situations like the one we have here at OU."
Burns, a swimmer for the recently cut men's swimming and diving team at OU,
acknowledged that the university's recent decision was disappointing. "I
realize that this has been a tough situation for all parties involved,"
said Burns. "However, the decision to cut four sports was a terrible
decision." (The three other cut sports include women's lacrosse and men's
indoor and outdoor track and field.)
The athletes affected by these cuts, Burns added, represent the best and the
brightest students this institution has to offer. "These cuts, if they
stand, will have a far more negative affect on this institution than I think the
administration realizes," said Burns. "This has caused student moral
to go down, and this then affects student retention and new student
recruitment."
Emily Wylam, swimmer for the OU women's swim team, which survived the cuts, said
the decision was devastating to everyone who was involved. "I don't think
that it was correctly gone about by the administration," said Wylam.
"I think it was very hidden in their agenda, and they didn't truly consider
the feelings of the athletes they'd be affecting."
In hopes for a compromise, Burns and other EIA members have suggested many
solutions to the OU administration, including a "Phase Out" plan, as
an alternative to abruptly dropping the sports after the current seasons.
"We have given many suggestions on how OU can do this with a positive
outcome for both the university and the students affected," said Burns.
Burns said the Phase Out plan would allow the freshman class to finish out their
eligibility on the team, and proposes funding for the teams for the next several
years through alumni and local fundraisers and donations. This proposal would
buy the teams extra time while EIA's case proceeds through litigation. The
organization is hoping that its lawsuit against the federal Department of
Education will result in such eliminations of sports teams that occurred at OU
being ruled unconstitutional.
"We love OU, and we don't want OU to get trashed all over his. However we
are fighting because we want to stay here," said Burns. "We want to go
about this as professionally and politely as possible, but if it cannot be done
that way, then unfortunately it will most likely have to go to litigation.
In the April 17 letter to John Burns, OU's director of legal affairs (no
relation to Branden Burns), EIA attorney Joseph said students were not the only
local party to question the sports cuts. "Even members of OU's Board of
Trustees privately have expressed the concern that OU did not handle these cuts
well procedurally, and now EIA-GL has raised significant substantive questions
as well," wrote Joseph.
In the letter, EIA refers to its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of
Education in the U.S. District Court for Western Virginia "and its Great
Lakes Chapter's intent to file a similar lawsuit over the OU cuts." The
Great Lakes Chapter asked OU to postpone its plans to cut the athletic programs,
and threatened to file a lawsuit against OU if the university doesn't comply
with the group's demand.
The letter maintains that if OU maintains its sports cuts, the university is
violating both the U.S. Constitution and Title 1X, which according to the press
release, creates an equal athletic opportunity, based on the assessed relative
interests of both genders.
Branden Burns said that EIA is also out to invalidate the 1996 "three-part
test." This calls for "equal athletic participation, based on
enrollment, with no need to assess either gender's interest." Joseph said
in his letter that like many universities, OU now relies on the three-part test.
This, however, does not constitute a valid or current interpretation of Title
IX, he argued.
"For a school ostensibly acting in part to save money and in part to comply
with Title IX, going through with the planned cuts will not achieve either
goal," stated attorney Joseph in his letter to OU legal director Burns.
Currently, Branden Burns and other EIA members are working to save the sports
teams by contacting alumni for support and meeting with the Board of Trustees
and President McDavis, along with creating and proposing plans to save the cut
sports teams. Burns stressed that EIA and its members are not out to get OU.
"EIA's fight is with the Department of Education and not with OU," he
said. "We do have a problem with their cuts; however, we see the
predicament that they are finding themselves in."
Branden Burns encourages all OU students to join EIA and support the cause.
OU has limited its response to EIA's letter and threat of a lawsuit with a short
statement from its Board of Trustees chair. In the statement, issued last
Friday, Trustees Chair R. Gregory Browning said, "We will not reverse the
decision. It is consistent with the law and good public policy."
In general, the university has justified the cuts both on the basis of gender
equity and budgetary limitations.
National group threatens lawsuit over OU sport cuts
2007-04-19
Equity in Athletics, Inc. (EIA)
announced yesterday afternoon that its Great Lakes Chapter has formally asked
Ohio University to postpone its plans to eliminate four varsity sports. The
group threatened to file suit against OU if the university doesn't comply with
its demand.
EIA cited an April 17 letter that it sent to OU that
refers to a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education in the U.S.
District Court for Western Virginia "and its Great Lakes Chapter's intent
to file a similar lawsuit over the OU cuts."
Earlier this year, OU announced that it was cutting its
men's indoor and outdoor track teams, men's swimming and diving team, and
women's lacrosse team. University officials said the cuts were both a
money-saving move and a way to comply with federal Title IX gender-equity
guidelines.
The decision provoked strong criticism among affected
student-athletes and their parents, as well as supporters on campus.
In the news release issued yesterday afternoon, EIA
President John Licata stated, "Sadly, schools across the country are making
the same misguided, unnecessary and illegal decisions to cut men's teams and
small-roster women's teams based on the wrong test for compliance with Title
IX."
In both Virginia and Ohio, according to the release, EIA
argues "that the 1975 Title IX regulations create an equal-opportunity
standard, based on interest, with schools having the obligation to assess the
interest of both genders. In a series of actions in 1979, 1996, 2003 and 2005,
however, the federal government has created a rival standard of equal
participation, based on enrollment."
EIA argues in the release that the post-1975 actions were
both procedurally and substantively illegal. Therefore, according to the group,
"Under EIA's interpretation of the Title IX regulations, OU's planned cuts
are illegal," while the university's current alignment of teams complies
with the law.
EIA's letter maintains that OU's sport cuts violate both
Title IX and the U.S. Constitution and asks OU to postpone the cuts to allow
EIA's litigation to resolve the appropriate standard for schools' athletic
compliance in the federal Sixth Circuit.
According to EIA's Web site, the group "is a
nonprofit coalition of athletes, coaches, parents, alumni, and fans who want to
ensure broad-based and equitable athletic opportunities for all athletes, at all
levels of competition."
An article yesterday in the Harrisonburg, Va. Daily News
Record described EIA as "a group of 400 student athletes, coaches, parents
and fans from across the United States, half of whom are affiliated with JMU
(John Marshall University in Virginia).
The story is about EIA adding JMU to the lawsuit it filed
last month against the U.S. Department of Education.
The NEWS received the news release at deadline yesterday,
and a spokesman for OU Intercollegiate Athletics said that the department was
unprepared to comment on such short notice.
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DROPPED
TEAMS
2006
Women's Lacrosse Team
Swimming
and Diving
and
Track
and Field
|
