Title Ix

My alma mater made it official this past Friday: Towson University has made the despicable choice to drop the mens' soccer and baseball programs. The decision-makers had the audacity to inform the student ballplayers, their parents, and the community it was due to Title IX mandates (which basically calls for equity among the genders in our NCAA colleges and universities). Being in its off-season, the mens' soccer program was cut immediately. The baseball team will play out the remainder of its season, but many players on the team now have to make contingency plans about where to further their college baseball passion.

A GOLF PRO named Suzy Whaley has decided to play in the Greater Hartford Open, a PGA Tour event she qualified for last summer. She'll do it, she said, "to have a little fun" and "inspire young women to play anywhere they want to." That sounds good, even if Whaley will have to play from the men's tees this time, adding 700 yards and the likely possibility that she'll miss the cut by a mile. Doesn't matter. Bravo. Her initial reluctance to play and make a spectacle of herself was the sign of a reasonable woman, but symbolism is important.

WASHINGTON -- Women and girls who are victims of illegal sexual harassment, abuse or assault in schools or colleges have a right to collect money damages, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in a decision that women's rights activists called "a stunning victory."This means that sexual discrimination complaints on campus or in school buildings will now have a stronger remedy, not limited to court orders or to cutting off federal aid.The ruling -- a decision the Bush administration had urged against -- was the court's first on sexual harassment since that issue figured prominently last fall in the Senate fight over Justice Clarence Thomas' nomination.

The Towson University Board of Visitors fully supports President Maravene Loeschke and her leadership of the University ("Franchot goes too far" April 20). President Loeschke has taken the responsible approach to ensure that Towson athletics are fiscally responsible, compliant with federal Title IX law and competitive in the NCAA Colonial Athletic Association, Division 1 athletic conference. The Board of Visitors is a service and advisory organization of Towson University established to provide advice to the president.

Terps' Yow is correct on Title IX inequities When looking at the high-profile teams (football, basketball), Debbie Yow has obviously done a very good job putting together a successful athletic department during her tenure at the University of Maryland. I found Yow's perspective, as a woman, on Title IX very interesting ["Title IX is fair game for debate," Nov. 19]. She obviously sees that the desire for male athletes to compete in college sports extends beyond football to many and varied sports.

From: Kauko H. KokkonenTowsonWhen Anne Arundel Community College's scholarship director Barry Weinberg was asked by reporter Jay Apperson (Anne Arundel County Sun,March 14, 1991) whether the school's displaced-homemaker scholarshipwas gender-specific, Weinberg reportedly replied that it was not. However, when the headline, "College aid for women," appeared in the Evening Sun Dec. 26, 1990, it stated, "A displaced homemaker was identified as a woman . . ." and gave an Annapolis address to obtain more information.

The news that the Bush administration is attempting to water down the language of compliance with Title IX, the law that gave women the opportunity to play sports, has me wondering if women's sports have not indeed achieved equity with men's sports -- in every bad way. Title IX was passed in 1972 to address the inequity in hiring, paying, and promoting women professors at the nation's public colleges and universities. It was not until almost six years later that the law began to be applied to intercollegiate sports, and it has been stuck there ever since.

COLLEGE PARK - It is 7:30 on a cold, rainy morning, and in an auxiliary gym at Comcast Center, the University of Maryland's competitive cheerleading squad is already sweating. Dressed in white "Soffies" (short shorts) and black, cap-sleeved tops each with the word "Terps" glittering in red across the front, the team is counting out the timing on a new routine, moving around the padded floor mat with energy and purpose. In the middle of this mosaic, Lauren Spates, 19 and a sophomore communications major from New York, is climbing foot-over-hand, up and up, 15 feet into the air. She springs above the two women at the base, then moves above a third supporter, who holds her there in midair.

CHICAGO - Title IX, the 1972 federal law mandating equal opportunity for females in high school and college sports, has helped spur huge changes. But its supporters have trouble believing their eyes. Despite the enormous gains for female athletes, they act as though the gains could be erased overnight. They are currently outraged by a new Bush administration guideline that offers colleges a new way to show they are not discriminating - by asking all female students if they are interested in participating in athletics.

COLLEGE PARK -- Five years of stunting, weightlifting, competitions and curling irons have created this: the University of Maryland's competitive cheerleading team, one of the best in the country. "I believe that because we are the first school to launch cheerleading as a varsity sport, we will always be a dynasty," coach Jarnell Bonds said. "We will always be the leaders in this." Not to diminish the women's accomplishments, but Maryland also remains the nation's only cheerleading team to have varsity status.