U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency established by 

Congress in 1957. It is directed to:

Investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by 

reason of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of 

fraudulent practices.

Study and collect information relating to discrimination or a denial of equal protection of 

the laws under the Constitution because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or 

national origin, or in the administration of justice.

Appraise federal laws and policies with respect to discrimination or denial of equal 

protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national 

origin, or in the administration of justice.

Serve as a national clearinghouse for information in respect to discrimination or denial of 

equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or 

national origin.

Submit reports, findings, and recommendations to the President and Congress. 

Issue public service announcements to discourage discrimination or denial of equal 

protection of the laws.

Members of the Commission

Gerald A. Reynolds, Chairman

Abigail Thernstrom, Vice Chair

Todd Gaziano

Gail Heriot

Peter N. Kirsanow

Arlan D. Melendez

Ashley L. Taylor, Jr.

Michael Yaki

Martin Dannenfelser, Staff Director

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

624 Ninth Street, NW

Washington, DC 20425

(202) 376-8128

(202) 376-8116 TTY

www.usccr.gov

This report is available on disk in ASCII Text and Microsoft Word 2003 for persons with visual 

impairments. Please call (202) 376-8110.
TITLE IX ATHLETICS: 

ACCOMMODATING 

INTERESTS AND ABILITIES

A Briefing Before

The United States Commission on Civil Rights

Washington, DC

Briefing Report



Table of Contents v

Table of Contents

Executive Summary.....................................................................................1

Findings and Recommendations......................................................................3

Summary of Proceedings...............................................................................5

 Daniel A. Cohen.....................................................................................6

 Jessica L. Gavora.................................................................................... 8

 Jocelyn F. Samuels.................................................................................11

 Judith M. Sweet.....................................................................................14

 David F. Black..................................................................................................................16

Discussion..............................................................................................18

 Administration of the Model Survey, Its Use and Response Rate...........................18

 Surveys and Compliance under Prong Three...................................................22

 Opposing Views on the 2005 Additional Clarification and Proportionality................24

 Men‘s and Women‘s Interest in Participation in Sports.......................................28

 Impact of Title IX, Sports Elimination, and Worldviews.................................................29

Statements..............................................................................................33

 Daniel A. Cohen....................................................................................33

 Jessica L. Gavora....................................................................................46

 Jocelyn F. Samuels.................................................................................50

 Judith M. Sweet.....................................................................................58

 Stephanie J. Monroe................................................................................67

Public Comments......................................................................................75

 American Association of University Women...................................................75

 Eagle Forum.........................................................................................76

 The Independent Women‘s Forum...............................................................76

 Women‘s Sports Foundation......................................................................77

 National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education........................................78

 Don Sabo and Christine H. B. Grant.............................................................79

 Dolores Halls, Anne-Marie Mallon, Majorie Mead, Valerie McNay, Nancy Mion, and..... 

Virginia Ralston.....................................................................................81 
vi Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals..............................................................82

 Abigail Thernstrom, Vice Chair...................................................................83

Arlan D. Melendez and Michael Yaki (Dissent)................................................88

 Arlan D. Melendez and Michael Yaki (Rebuttal)...............................................89

Speaker Biographies..................................................................................105

 Daniel A. Cohen.....................................................................................105

 Jessica L. Gavora.....................................................................................105

 Jocelyn F. Samuels...................................................................................106

 Judith M. Sweet.....................................................................................106

 David F. Black.......................................................................................107

 

Appendix A: Further Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance 

Regarding IX Compliance from Gerald Reynolds, Assistant Secretary for Civil

Rights, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC, July 11, 2003........................108

Appendix B: Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy: ThreePart Test, Part Three, from James F. Manning, Delegated the Authority of the 

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, Washington,

DC, March 17, 2005....................................................................................111 

Appendix C: Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance: The ThreePart Test, Norma V. Cant, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of 

Education, Washington, DC, Jan. 16, 1996.........................................................113 

 

Appendix D: Limitations of the U.S. Department of Education‘s Online Survey 

Method for Measuring Athletic Interest and Ability on U.S.A. Campuses, Don 

Sabo, Ph.D., and Christine H.B. Grant, Ph.D., June 2005.........................................128 

Appendix E: Go Out and Play: Youth Sports in America, Executive Summary, 

Women‘s Sports Foundation..........................................................................135 

Appendix F: Gender Equity: Men‘s and Women‘s Participation in Higher

Education, U.S. Government Accountability Office Report (GAO-01-128)

to the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug 

Policy and Human Resources Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of 

Representatives. Washington, DC, Dec. 2000......................................................141 

Appendix G: Who‘s Playing College Sports? Trends in Participation, Executive

Summary, John Cheslock, Ph.D., Women‘s Sports Foundation, June 5, 2007.................143 
vii

Appendix H: User‘s Guide to Developing Student Interest Surveys Under 

Title IX, U.S. Department of Education, March 2005.............................................173

Executive Summary 1

Executive Summary

Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments Act of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the 

basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance, 

including athletics. Since 1979, one way in which eligible educational institutions can show 

compliance with Title IX is by demonstrating that the institution‘s present program ―fully 

and effectively‖ accommodates the ―interests and abilities‖ of the sex that is 

underrepresented among intercollegiate athletes. Eligible educational institutions could also 

demonstrate compliance by either providing intercollegiate level participation opportunities 

for male and female students in numbers ―substantially proportionate‖ to their respective 

enrollments or by showing a ―history and continuing practice‖ of expanding these 

opportunities in a manner demonstrably responsive to the developing interest and abilities of 

the members of the underrepresented sex.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education is responsible for

enforcing Title IX and issued further guidance on the ―interests and abilities‖ compliance 

option in March 2005. Under this guidance, an institution will be found in compliance with 

this option unless there exists a sport(s) for the underrepresented sex for which all three of 

the following conditions are met: 1) unmet interest sufficient to sustain a varsity team in the 

sport(s); 2) sufficient ability to sustain an intercollegiate team in the sport(s); and 3) 

reasonable expectation of intercollegiate competition for a team in the sport(s) within the 

school's normal competitive region. Thus, schools are not required to accommodate the 

interests and abilities of all their students or fulfill every request for the addition or elevation 

of particular sports, unless all three conditions are present. This guidance also included a 

model survey instrument to measure student interest in participating in intercollegiate varsity 

athletics. When this Model Survey indicates insufficient interest to field a varsity team, OCR 

will not exercise its discretion to conduct a compliance review of that institution‘s 

implementation of the three-part test.

This guidance was issued at a time when critics of Title IX claimed that rigid compliance 

forced the cancellation of many educational programs or teams for men, as many schools 

demonstrated Title IX compliance through ―substantial proportionality.‖ The 2005 guidance 

also prompted a strong and often negative reaction from the National Collegiate Athletic 

Association and many women‘s groups. In response, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 

assembled a panel of experts on May 11, 2007 including a U.S. Department of Education

official, to discuss the guidance, the Model Survey‘s strengths and weaknesses, any findings 

emerging from institutions‘ use of the survey, and whether compliance with Title IX had 

improved over time. The Commission received oral and written testimony from Daniel A. 

Cohen, an attorney specializing in Title IX cases; Jessica Gavora, vice president of the College 

Sports Council; Jocelyn Samuels, vice president for education and employment at the 

National Women‘s Law Center; Judith Sweet, representing the National Collegiate Athletic 

Association (NCAA); David Black, then-deputy assistant secretary for enforcement of the U.S. 

Department of Education‘s Office for Civil Rights; and Stephanie Monroe, Assistant Secretary, 

Office for Civil Rights, United States Department of Education.
2 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

All five panelists fielded additional questions from the Commissioners covering a wide range of 

issues, including: 

 The methods that schools used to administer the Model Survey, with special attention to 

electronic means and the impact on the response rate.

 The appropriateness of using any survey in gauging interest.

 Are men and women equally interested in sports?

 To what extent has Title IX affected women‘s participation in sports?

 Has Title IX resulted in the elimination of any men‘s sports?

 How is ability in sports determined?

Based on the testimony, discussion, and a number of comments received from the public, the 

Commission found, among other things, that the Model Survey currently provides the best 

method available for attaining Prong Three compliance, because it offers institutions a 

flexible and practical, yet rigorous means of attaining a high student response rate. 

Consequently, the Commission recommends that OCR continue to encourage institutions to 

use the Model Survey as a method of complying with Title IX, rather than relying on 

mechanical compliance with proportional representation, which may result in unnecessary 

reduction of men‘s athletic opportunities.

Furthermore, the Commission recommends that Prong Three regulations should be revised to 

take explicitly into account the interest of both sexes rather than just the interest of the 

underrepresented sex and that the Model Survey be structured accordingly. The Commission 

also asks that the NCAA reconsider its objection to the Model Survey and not discourage

educational institutions from using student interest surveys or urge them to avoid their use, 

since college students are adults capable of assessing their own interest in sports.
Findings and Recommendations 3

Findings and Recommendations

Findings

1. Since 1979, the U.S. Department of Education‘s Office for Civil Rights has enforced 

the Title IX athletics law by requiring postsecondary institutions to satisfy any one 

part of a three-part test for compliance. The three parts are usually referred to as 

prongs, and require: a) substantially proportional representation of men and women in 

athletic participation; or b) substantial progress in providing opportunities for the 

underrepresented sex; or c) adequate accommodation of the interests and abilities of 

the underrepresented sex in the institution‘s athletic offerings.

2. In 1996, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance that specified additional 

factors (other than a survey) for measuring interest that needed to be taken into 

account in order to achieve compliance using Prong Three. A survey by itself was 

deemed to be insufficient.

3. Critics charged that the 1996 policy guidance on Prong Three was too vague to offer 

institutions a satisfactory means of attaining compliance. As a result, many 

institutions likely opted to use Prong One‘s proportional representation method, 

which provided a legal ―safe harbor‖ for Title IX compliance.

4. Panelists reported instances of colleges and universities dropping men‘s sports 

programs in order to reach Title IX compliance under the proportional representation 

requirement.

5. In its 2003 clarification of Title IX regulations, the U.S. Department of Education 

encouraged the use of student interest surveys in order to achieve Prong Three

compliance. For compliance under Prong Three, an institution must consider student 

interest, student ability, and availability of competition. More specifically, an 

institution must show: a) there is no unmet interest among students; b) if there is 

unmet interest, it must show insufficient ability among students to sustain a team in 

the sport; and c) if there is interest and ability, it must show no likelihood of 

competition in the region in which the institution is located. Satisfaction of these three 

elements is sufficient to comply with Prong Three.

6. In its 2005 additional clarification, the Department of Education developed the Model 

Survey method, which is a specially designed survey colleges and universities can use 

to ascertain student interest in athletics.

7. At this point in time, the Model Survey provides the best method available for 

attaining Prong Three compliance, because it offers institutions a flexible and 

practical, yet rigorous means of attaining high student response rates. The U.S. 

Department of Education recommends that all students be required to complete the 

survey as part of mandatory class registration. Institutions that follow these survey 

procedures faithfully would be deemed to be in compliance with Prong Three of Title 

IX.
4 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

8. While the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has long maintained that 

ascertaining student interest is a valid means of complying with Title IX, it has been 

critical of the 2005 Additional Clarification provided by the Department of Education 

and has urged institutions not to use the Model Survey.

[Chairman Reynolds and Commissioners Gaziano, Heriot, and Taylor voted in favor of these 

findings. Commissioner Kirsanow abstained. Vice Chair Thernstrom and Commissioners 

Melendez and Yaki were not present for the vote.]

Recommendations

1. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights commends the U.S. Department of Education 

for developing the student interest survey and for providing a rigorous yet practical 

means of complying with Title IX. It recommends that the Department‘s Office for 

Civil Rights continue to encourage institutions to use the Model Survey as a method 

of complying with Title IX, rather than relying on mechanical compliance with 

proportional representation, which may result in unnecessary reduction of men‘s 

athletic opportunities.

2. Since female students are fully capable of expressing interest in athletics, or lack 

thereof, advocates for particular views on Title IX compliance should not devalue or 

dismiss their perspectives.

3. Prong Three regulations should be revised to explicitly take into account the interest 

of both sexes rather than just the interest of the underrepresented sex. This would help 

to restore Title IX to its original goal of providing equal opportunity for individuals of 

both sexes. 

4. The NCAA should reconsider its objection to the Model Survey and not discourage

educational institutions from using student interest surveys or urge them to avoid their 

use, since college students are adults capable of assessing their own interest in sports.

[Chairman Reynolds and Commissioners Gaziano, Heriot, and Taylor voted in favor of these 

recommendations. Commissioner Kirsanow abstained. Vice Chair Thernstrom and 

Commissioners Melendez and Yaki were not present for the vote.]
Summary of Proceedings 5

Summary of Proceedings

As enacted, Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments Act of 1972 prohibited sex 

discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities.1 Two years later, 

Congress expressly applied this prohibition to intercollegiate sports.2 The U.S. Department of 

Education (then Health, Education and Welfare), issued implementing regulations in 1975. 

With respect to athletics programs, the regulation specifies that a:

recipient which operates or sponsors interscholastic, intercollegiate, club or 

intramural athletics shall provide equal athletic opportunity for members of both 

sexes. In determining whether equal opportunities are available, the Director will 

consider, among other factors [w]hether the selection of sports and levels of 

competition effectively accommodate the interests and abilities of members of both 

sexes.3

The U.S. Department of Education subsequently issued policy guidance in 1979, 1996, 2003, 

and 2005 to explain in part what is meant by ―interest.‖ These documents advanced a threeprong test that the department‘s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) uses to determine education 

institutions‘ compliance with Title IX regarding sex discrimination in athletics. The test 

examines whether an institution offers men and women opportunities to participate in sports 

that are substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments; or has established a good

faith history and ongoing practice of providing increased opportunities for the 

underrepresented sex; or fully and effectively accommodates the athletic interests and 

abilities of the underrepresented sex.

OCR issued the last of these guidance documents, ―Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate 

Athletics Policy: Three-Part Test—Part Three,‖ on March 17, 2005, accompanied by a 

User‘s Guide to Developing Student Interest Surveys Under Title IX, developed by the 

National Center for Education Statistics in March 2005. According to OCR‘s Web site, ―The 

Additional Clarification outlines specific factors that guide OCR‘s analysis of the third 

option for compliance with the ―three-part test,‖ a test used to assess whether institutions are 

effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of male and female student athletes 

under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The User‘s Guide contains a model 

survey instrument to measure student interest in participating in intercollegiate varsity 

athletics.4

 

1

Pub. L. 92-18, 86 Stat. 373 (codified as amended 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688 (2009). Section 901(a) of the 

statute states that ―No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, 

be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving 

Federal financial assistance.‖

2 The Educational Amendments of 1974, Pub. L. 93-380, § 844, 88 Stat. 612 (1974).

3

34 C.F.R. § 106.41 (2009).

4

See http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/title9guidanceadditional.html (accessed Feb. 26, 2009).

Central to the development is the report, Title IX Data Collection: Technical Manual for Developing the User‘s 

Guide‖ by Alan F. Karr and Ashish P. Sanil of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences and the Research 

Triangle Park. In a ―Dear Colleague‖ letter of March 17, 2005, OCR stated:
6 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Daniel A. Cohen

Daniel A. Cohen, an attorney specializing in Title IX cases, stated that his task as an attorney 

was to inform clients about the law and help them comply,5and as such, he neither supported 

nor opposed the 2005 Additional Clarification.6 For schools seeking compliance under Prong 

Three, however, he generally favored use of the Model Survey.7 According to him, much of the 

criticism of the 2005 Additional Clarification had been unfair, but it was important to 

distinguish between general Title IX policy concerns and criticisms specific to the 2005 

Additional Clarification itself.

8 He said the test for measuring compliance with Prong Three had 

been in place since 1979,

9

and that three factors have to be present simultaneously for a school

to be considered out of compliance with Prong Three: evidence of unmet interest in a sport or 

sports at the institution, evidence of interested students possessing sufficient ability to sustain a 

team, and a likelihood of athletic competition in the region.10

Mr. Cohen said with respect to measuring interest, Title IX had always focused on a school‘s 

current and admitted students, not future or potential ones.11 The 1996 Clarification 

recommended that schools monitor a number of indicators that gauge interest in sports directly, 

he said.12 Its list of indicators was thorough, but the guidance was so vague that schools had no 

way of knowing when they had attained compliance, he said. He remarked further that no 

indicators were considered dispositive or more persuasive than others, and it was unclear at 

what point a showing of some interest might rise to the level of sufficient unmet interest to 

require the addition of a team.13 He said that schools developed subjective measures to gauge 

student interest in athletics to demonstrate compliance with Prong Three, which often included 

varying self-administered surveys.14 According to Mr. Cohen, of the schools that OCR 

investigated between 1992 and 2002, about two-thirds sought compliance with Title IX under 

 

Based on [its] experience investigating complaints and conducting compliance reviews 

involving the three-part test, [it] believes that institutions may benefit from further specific 

guidance on part three....An institution will be found in compliance with part three unless 

there exists a sport(s) for the underrepresented sex for which all three of the following 

conditions are met: (1) unmet interest sufficient to sustain a varsity team in the sport(s); (2) 

sufficient ability to sustain an intercollegiate team in the sport(s); and (3) reasonable 

expectation of intercollegiate competition for a team in the sport(s) within the school‘s normal 

competitive region.

U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, ―Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics 

Policy: Three-Part Test—Part Three,‖ March 17, 2005, pp. iii–iv.

5

Ibid., p. 26.

6

Ibid., p. 26.

7

Ibid., pp. 26–27.

8

Ibid., p. 27.

9

Ibid., p. 27.

10 Ibid., pp. 27–28.

11 Ibid., pp. 28–29.

12 Ibid., p. 28. Since 1996, he said the U.S. Department of Education‘s Office for Civil Rights recommended that 

schools monitor the athletic interests of local nonstudents and high school students as an indirect way of gauging 

future, potential interest in a sport. See also Mr. Cohen‘s supplemental statement.

13 Ibid., pp. 28–29.

14 Ibid., p. 29.
Summary of Proceedings 7

Prong Three.

15 Of these, about three-quarters used some form of survey to assist them in 

measuring interest.16

Mr. Cohen stated that the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, convened in 2002 by thenSecretary of Education Rod Paige, studied Title IX and the 1996 Clarification extensively.

17 In 

meetings held across the country, he said collegiate athletic administrators repeatedly informed

Commission members that the 1996 Clarification had its merits but was so ambiguous that they 

could not determine when compliance was achieved under Prong Three.

18 Many schools 

resorted to using proportionality, according to Mr. Cohen, because it was measurable and school 

officials knew when compliance with Title IX had been attained.19

Mr. Cohen said OCR commissioned independent, expert statisticians to evaluate the different 

survey approaches schools had employed and submitted to OCR between 1992 and 2002.20

Drawing on best practices, the statisticians then designed a streamlined Web-based model 

survey, he stated.21 This tool for measuring interest in sports became the centerpiece of the 2005 

Additional Clarification, he said.

22

According to Mr. Cohen, OCR provided guidance for administering the Model Survey in the 

2005 Additional Clarification and built safeguards to ensure the data collected would be 

reliable.

23 An often overlooked safeguard, he said, was the requirement that the Model Survey 

be administered in a manner that generated a high response rate.24 Unless this condition was 

met, he said, OCR would not assume survey findings to be reliable and would consider other 

indications of interest, including those listed in the 1996 Clarification.

25 Mr. Cohen claimed that 

a well-administered Model Survey would identify most direct indications of interest, and thus 

the 2005 Additional Clarification was not inconsistent with the 1996 Clarification. The Model 

Survey simply provided a more direct way to measure the same indications of interest, he 

further claimed.26 In light of this safeguard requiring that the Model Survey be administered in a 

manner designed to generate a high response rate, the pejorative characterization of the Model 

Survey as simply an e-mailed questionnaire was incorrect.27

OCR‘s preferred method of Model Survey administration was one in which students must 

complete the survey or purposefully choose to bypass it, as this would result in a 100 percent 

 

15 Ibid., p. 29.

16 Ibid., p. 29.

17 Ibid., p. 29.

18 Ibid., p. 29.

19 Ibid., pp. 29–30.

20 Ibid., p. 30.

21 Ibid., p. 30.

22 Ibid., p. 30.

23 Ibid., p. 30.

24 Ibid., pp. 30–31.

25 Ibid., p. 31.

26 Ibid., p. 31. See also Mr. Cohen‘s supplemental statement.

27 Ibid., p. 31.
8 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

response rate. 28 Specifically, OCR recommended making the Model Survey a part of mandatory 

class registration.

29 Mr. Cohen stated that even if a school decided to distribute the Model 

Survey via e-mail initially (as the 2005 Additional Clarification permits), OCR still required 

sufficient follow-up efforts to ensure a high response rate.30 In his opinion, the follow-up issue 

has been criticized because what is considered ―sufficient‖ follow-up is subjective and open to 

debate.31 Mr. Cohen then reiterated that the preferred methodology for administering the Model 

Survey was via a mandatory response methodology, not e-mail.32

Mr. Cohen claimed that the 2005 Additional Clarification was a vast improvement over the 

1996 Clarification because it gave schools a clearer road map for complying with Prong Three.

33

OCR, he stated, will defer to the findings of a survey that is administered according to its 

instructions.34 Schools, he said, now have the added advantage of knowing when they have 

attained compliance,

35 and he urged those relying on Prong Three to consider if their compliance 

efforts would benefit from following OCR‘s guidance in the 2005 Additional Clarification.36

Jessica L. Gavora

Ms. Jessica Gavora stated that, for over a decade, Title IX compliance had been based on 

statistical proportionality, which posited that absent discrimination, men and women would 

participate in athletics at the same rate.37She claimed that statistical proportionality triumphed

not by proving that men and women had identical interests in sports, but by making actual 

interest in sports irrelevant to Title IX compliance.38 She stated that proportionality demanded 

that schools ignore actual student interest in sports and manipulate their athletic programs such 

that gender ratios matched that of the undergraduate student population.39

Ms. Gavora presented the College Sports Council‘s proposed amendment to Title IX‘s 

implementing regulation as a way to return Title IX to its original anti-discriminatory 

purpose, protect the gains women have made, and above all, reflect the interests of student 

athletes.40 This proposed amendment would require schools to equally accommodate the 

 

28 Ibid., p. 31.

29 Ibid., p. 31.

30 Ibid., p. 32.

31 Ibid., p. 32.

32 Ibid., p. 32.

33 Ibid., pp. 33–34.

34 Ibid., p. 33.

35 Ibid., p. 33.

36 Ibid., p. 34.

37 Jessica Gavora, Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, briefing on Title IX Athletics:

Accommodating Interests and Abilities, Washington, DC, May 11, 2007, transcript, p. 35, (hereafter cited as 

Gavora Testimony, Briefing Transcript).

38 Ibid., p. 35.

39 Ibid., p. 35.

40 Ibid., p. 41.
Summary of Proceedings 9

interests of both sexes, rather than just the interests of the underrepresented sex.41 Ms. Gavora 

stated that both she and the College Sports Council supported without reservation the spirit 

and intent of Title IX.42 According to her, the proposed change would preserve and protect 

the law for new generations of male and female American athletes of all ages.43

Although the College Sports Council strongly supports this amendment, Ms. Gavora stated 

that in the absence of such an amendment, the organization viewed the benefit of the Model 

Survey as reinforcing the notion that the government, when judging an institution‘s compliance 

with Title IX, recognized women‘s ability to express and act on their own interests.

44 She 

claimed that the reaction of critics such as the Women‘s Sports Foundation45 and National 

Women‘s Law Center46 to the Model Survey has been to refute interest as a measure of 

compliance, even though many such critics had professed that interest was an acceptable 

measure of compliance.

47 For example, she said two prominent defenders of Title IX status quo 

stated that surveys were inadequate to ascertain the relative interest of men and women in sports 

because men were culturally more likely to profess an interest than women, even if the latter 

were interested.48 The critics, she said, also argued that ascertaining student interest in athletics 

only served to inhibit change in a school‘s sports program since women interested in a particular 

sport would not attend an institution that did not offer it already.

49 Ms. Gavora stated that to the 

extent the critics‘ arguments were meritorious, their proposed remedies were so broad and illdefined that Prong Three would revert to being vague and unworkable.50 By way of example, 

she stated that in addition to the Model Survey, critics demand that schools also consult with 

local club sports, youth coaches, high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools, as 

well as consider national trends, in determining women‘s sports opportunities.51 Ms. Gavora said 

the amorphous nature and scope of these requirements would make it near impossible for wellmeaning administrators to seek compliance under Prong Three and would ensure that schools‘ 

lawyers and Title IX consultants continued to advise adherence to substantial proportionality.52

According to Ms. Gavora, the role of the NCAA deserved scrutiny.53 She remarked that like 

many single-issue critics of the Model Survey, the NCAA had long maintained that measuring 

and fulfilling interest was a valid means of compliance with Title IX and vehemently denounced 

 

41 Ibid., pp. 41–42.

42 Ibid., p. 42.

43 Ibid., p. 42.

44 Ibid., p. 36.

45 See http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/Content/Articles/Issues/Title-IX/T/Title-IX-MythFact.aspx? 

(accessed Feb. 26, 2009).

46 See http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=2233§ion=newsroom (accessed Feb. 26, 2009).

47 Gavora Testimony, Briefing Transcript, pp. 36–37.

48 Ibid., p. 37.

49 Ibid., pp. 37–38.

50 Ibid., p. 38.

51 Ibid., p. 38.

52 Ibid., p. 38.

53 Ibid., p. 38.
10 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

the instrument.54 She pointed out that the NCAA, unlike the critics, had a responsibility to 

represent all collegiate athletes, not just female athletes.55A day before this briefing, she said, 

the NCAA, Women‘s Sports Foundation, and others participated in a news conference to preempt discussion of the Model Survey.56 The Women‘s Sports Foundation and the National 

Women‘s Law Center, according to her, had clearly expressed their support for the status quo in 

the enforcement of Title IX; their only objection was that statistical proportionality was not 

applied aggressively enough.57 Special interest groups had the right to voice these opinions, she 

asserted, but the NCAA did not because of its unique status representing all collegiate athletes.

58

She stated that in 2006, Title IX was fully or partly responsible for the loss of hundreds of 

athletic opportunities at Rutgers University, James Madison University, Ohio University, Butler 

University, Clarion University, and Slippery Rock University. She asked if the NCAA 

supported this status quo.59

According to Ms. Gavora, no school had employed the Model Survey to demonstrate 

compliance with Title IX because the NCAA, which periodically reviewed member institutions 

for commitment to gender equity, had expressly asked them not to do so.60 In addition, she said, 

interest groups that routinely sue colleges and universities under Title IX had publicly stated that 

the Model Survey was an illegitimate and illegal tool.61 According to Ms. Gavora, far more 

troubling than the negative publicity and litigation over the use of the Model Survey was the fact 

that the instrument relied on a flawed Prong Three.

62 Prong Three, which was applicable only to 

schools that had not attained statistical proportionality, only required accommodation of the 

interest of the underrepresented sex, which more often than not were women, she said.63

To illustrate, Ms. Gavora gave the example of James Madison University, which offered 28 

athletic teams to students—13 for men and 15 for women. James Madison‘s athletic rosters 

could not keep pace with the growth in its female student population, already at 61 percent. As 

such, the Model Survey offered no protection for existing teams, so when two women‘s club 

teams sought varsity status, the University had no recourse but to achieve statistical 

proportionality by cutting ten teams.64

Ms. Gavora referred Commissioners to the College Sports Council‘s proposed amendment to 

Title IX‘s implementing regulation, which she claimed would return Title IX to its original antidiscriminatory purpose, protect the gains women have made, and above all, reflect the interests 

 

54 Ibid., p. 38.

55 Ibid., pp. 38–39.

56 Ibid., pp. 38–39.

57 Ibid., p. 39.

58 Ibid., p. 39.

59 Ibid., p. 39.

60 Ibid., pp. 39–40.

61 Ibid., p. 40.

62 Ibid., p. 40.

63 Ibid., p. 40.

64 Ibid., p. 41.
Summary of Proceedings 11

of student athletes.65 This proposed amendment would require schools to equally accommodate 

the interests of both sexes, rather than just the interests of the underrepresented sex.66 Ms. 

Gavora stated that both she and the College Sports Council supported without reservation the 

spirit and intent of Title IX.67 According to her, the proposed change would preserve and protect 

the law for new generations of male and female American athletes of all ages.68

Jocelyn F. Samuels

According to Ms. Jocelyn Samuels, the 2005 Additional Clarification conflicted with 

longstanding U.S. Department of Education policy, violated basic principles of equality under 

the law, and threatened to stall or reverse the progress that women have made under Title IX.69

As such, she called for its rescission.

70 She stated that compliance with Title IX‘s participation 

requirements was assessed by means of a three-part test and that frequent attacks had been 

resoundingly rejected.71 According to her, nine federal appellate courts had upheld the test, and 

prior administrations had applied it uniformly.

72 She stated that in July 2003, the U.S. 

Department of Education reaffirmed its commitment to continue to apply its longstanding

interpretations of Title IX, and rejected the recommendations of the Commission on 

Opportunity in Athletics73 that, according to her, would have dramatically reduced and 

undermined women‘s rights to equal opportunity.74

Ms. Samuels stated the 2005 Additional Clarification was inconsistent with the law and prior 

U.S. Department of Education policies for several reasons:

For one, Ms. Samuels claimed the 2005 Additional Clarification impermissibly allowed 

schools to use solely results from an e-mail survey to evaluate whether they had satisfied

their obligation to provide equal opportunity.75 According to her, courts have recognized 

consistently that student interest cannot be measured properly apart from opportunity, since 

interest and ability rarely develop in a vacuum.76 Consequently, she claimed the findings 

from the surveys reflected the discrimination that had already limited and continues to limit 

 

65 Ibid., p. 41.

66 Ibid., pp. 41–42.

67 Ibid., p. 42.

68 Ibid., p. 42.

69 Jocelyn Samuels Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, briefing on Title IX Athletics:

Accommodating Interests and Abilities, Washington, DC, May 11, 2007, transcript, p. 43, (hereafter cited as 

Samuels Testimony, Briefing Transcript).

70 Ibid., p. 43.

71 Ibid., p. 43.

72 Ibid., p. 43.

73 Ibid., p. 43.

74 Ibid., p. 43.

75 Ibid., p. 44.

76 Ibid., p. 44. For example, she said the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has stated that 

interest develops with the availability of opportunity and experience. See also Cohen v. Brown University, 101 

F.3d 155, 179 (1st Cir. 1996).
12 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

women‘s opportunities to participate in sports.77 Relying on them as the basis to establish 

future opportunities for women, she said, continued the cycle of discrimination and enshrined 

the status quo of women‘s lower participation level in athletics.78 According to her, it was for 

these reasons the 1996 Clarification and prior policies of the U.S. Department of Education

endorsed a range of factors that schools must consider in evaluating women‘s interests.79 Ms. 

Samuels said these factors were very specific, including for example, student requests to elevate 

a team from club to varsity status, opinions of coaches and athletics administrators, and surveys 

of the types of sports being played in high schools and communities from which universities 

typically draw students.80 According to her, the U.S. Department of Education‘s decision to 

eliminate schools‘ obligation to consider these factors did not serve students well.81

Second, by restricting the Model Survey to current and admitted students, the 2005 Additional 

Clarification ignored the reality that students were unlikely to attend a school that did not offer a 

sport in which they had an interest.82 She said in failing to require schools to look beyond their 

campuses, the 2005 Additional Clarification allowed them to restrict sports offerings, claim they 

were satisfying the interests of students that were content with existing offerings, and presume 

Title IX compliance.83 In addition, Ms. Samuels asserted, it effectively required women to show

they can fill a new team by relying on students already within the school‘s current student 

body, while leaving schools free to recruit male players with performance assessments, 

incentives, and invitations to visit campus.

84 Citing a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

decision,85 she said that the heart of this contention was ―an institution with no coach, no 

facilities, no varsity team, no scholarships and no recruiting in a given sport must have on 

campus enough national caliber athletes to field a competitive varsity team in that sport before a 

court can find sufficient interest and abilities to exist. It should go without saying that adopting 

this criterion would eliminate an effective accommodation claimed by any plaintiff at any 

time.‖86

Third, the survey methodology the 2005 Clarification chose was deeply flawed because a school 

is permitted to accept nonresponse as evidence of a lack of interest.87 She argued that students 

do not respond to an e-mail survey for a variety of reasons that may be wholly unrelated to 

interest in sports participation, such as not having received the e-mail, insufficient response 

time, or that the message was blocked by spam filters.88 Similarly, she argued that the survey 

 

77 Ibid, pp. 43–44. 

78 Ibid., pp. 44–45.

79 Ibid., p. 45.

80 Ibid., p. 45.

81 Ibid., p. 45.

82 Ibid., pp. 45–46.

83 Ibid., p. 46.

84 Ibid., p. 46. 

85 See Pederson v. Louisiana. State Univ., 213 F3d 858, 878 (5th Cir. 2000).

86 Samuels Testimony, Briefing Transcript, pp. 46–47.

87 Ibid., p. 47.

88 Ibid., p. 47.
Summary of Proceedings 13

methodology was unsound, violating basic principles governing response rates.

89 She 

observed that NCAA guidelines found response rates below 60 percent to be suspect.

90 The 

2005 Additional Clarification, she stated, allowed schools to claim a response rate of 100 

percent91 when the actual response rate, in her opinion, would likely be rejected by a court.92 The 

survey methodology was also unfair, she said, because the 2005 Additional Clarification 

authorized schools to rely on a woman‘s self-assessment of lack of ability to compete as 

evidence of her actual ability.93 She stated that if given the opportunity, many students who 

played sports in high school possess the ability to play at college level, and to accept their selfassessment without consulting coaches and qualified others was a disservice to them.94

Fourth, according to Ms. Samuels, the 2005 Clarification shifted the burden of proof of interest 

in sports to female students and represented a real change from prior law.95 This shift, she said, 

was contrary to the requirement of full accommodation of female athletes‘ interests and 

abilities.96 In addition, she stated that opponents of the three-part test have interpreted Prong 

Three to mean that schools are required only to accommodate the relative interests of their 

students.97 The relative interest argument, she contended, discounted the fact that schools 

seeking compliance under Prong Three were already failing to offer female students equal 

opportunities to participate in sports.98 She added that it drew on inaccurate and impermissible 

stereotypes of women being inherently less interested in sports than men, which was unlawful 

under Title IX and disproved by the surge in the numbers of women participating in sports since 

the statute‘s enactment.

99

Finally, according to Ms. Samuels, the 2005 Additional Clarification provided inadequate 

oversight by the U.S. Department of Education, which she claimed tended to assume 

compliance. Apparently, this was evidenced by the fact that it had no mechanism in place for 

OCR to assess a school‘s claim it had done enough to ensure the Model Survey was delivered to 

a sufficient number of students and the response rate was adequate.100 In her view, the 

presumption of compliance was an inadequate response by an agency with a responsibility to 

enforce the law and to ensure that all students had equal opportunity to participate in sports and 

freely exercise their civil rights.

101

 

89 Ibid., p. 47.

90 Ibid., pp. 47–48.

91 Ibid., p. 48.

92 Ibid., p. 48.

93 Ibid., p. 48.

94 Ibid., p. 48.

95 Ibid., p. 49.

96 Ibid., p. 49.

97 Ibid., p. 49.

98 Ibid., p. 49.

99 Ibid., p. 49.

100 Ibid., pp. 49–50.

101 Ibid., p. 50.
14 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Judith M. Sweet

Ms. Judith Sweet said she was probably the only panelist with experience in campus athletics 

before and after the passage of Title IX, which she said resulted in improved opportunities for 

women in sports.102 She stated she had observed the commitment of the NCAA and universities 

as they sought to promote equity, as well as the resulting advances in campus and NCAA 

programs.103 According to her, disparity in opportunities and support for women remained 

significant, and the goals of Title IX were far from realized.104

Ms. Sweet said the NCAA‘s Executive Committee105 and its president, Myles Brand, reviewed 

and rejected the 2005 Additional Clarification as a means for assessing interest and Title IX 

compliance.106 The U.S. Department of Education‘s 1996 Clarification, according to Ms. Sweet, 

indicated that surveys were but one of several approaches an institution must use to evaluate 

women‘s interest in sports; on the other hand, she said, the 2005 Additional Clarification 

permitted an electronic survey to be the sole measure, which she claimed appeared contrived to

show that females were not interested in participation.107 She charged that the survey 

methodology permitted institutional manipulation to prove a lack of interest on women‘s part;

108

and a review of data collected under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act109 showed that not all 

institutions were committed to equal opportunity and Title IX compliance.110

 

102 Judith Sweet, Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, briefing on Title IX Athletics:

Accommodating Interests and Abilities, Washington, DC, May 11, 2007, transcript, pp. 50–51, (hereafter cited 

as Sweet Testimony, Briefing Transcript).

103 Ibid, pp. 51–52.

104 Ibid., p. 52.

105 Ibid., p. 52. The executive committee is made up of university presidents and chancellors representing 

NCAA‘s three divisions. 

106 Ibid., p. 52. Ms. Sweet said the executive committee and President Brand, following review and rejection of 

the 2005 Additional Clarification, outlined its flaws in a letter to Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, 

and in a resolution to the NCAA membership. Ms. Sweet submitted both documents to the commission as part 

of the briefing record.

107 Ibid., pp. 52–53.

108 Ibid., p. 53.

109 See The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, Pub. L. 103-382, 108 Stat. 3518 (codified at 20 U.S.C. §1092 

(2009). The Department of Education stated that, ―The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act is designed to make 

prospective students aware of a school‘s commitment to providing equitable athletic opportunities for its men 

and women students. Any co-educational institution of higher education that participates in a federal student aid 

program must prepare an EADA report by October 15 [of each year]. Institutions must also report data to the 

U.S. Department of Education via this [mandatory] online survey. The data are then migrated to the Office of 

Postsecondary Education‘s public Web site.‖ The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary 

Education, Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) Survey, http://surveys.ope.ed.gov/athletics/ (accessed 

Jan. 16, 2009).

110 Sweet Testimony, Briefing Transcript, p. 53. According to Ms. Sweet, 35 years after Title IX‘s passage, 

women still only receive 43 percent of athletics participating opportunities, 38 percent of operating budgets, and 33 

percent of recruiting budgets. She added that in 2005–2006, female high school athletes numbered three million and 

NCAA collegiate female athletes, 180,000; she stated that the size of the high school pool suggests that there would 

be a larger number of participants if more collegiate level opportunities were available. 
Summary of Proceedings 15

The 2005 Additional Clarification, according to Ms. Sweet, also gave noncompliant institutions 

an easy way to claim compliance with Prong Three through use of an electronic survey that 

interpreted nonresponse as an indication of a lack of interest.111 This, she said, was its greatest 

weakness,112 adding that an NCAA study113 concluded the survey method did not meet accepted 

professional standards for assessing interest.114 She added that spam filters often block e-mails,

115

and students have reported consistently that they rarely respond to on-line surveys.116 According 

to her, the NCAA leadership and membership strongly supported the 1996 Clarification and 

urged the withdrawal of the 2005 Additional Clarification.117

Ms. Sweet further stated that the 2005 Additional Clarification ignored the fact that institutions 

recruit athletics teams from regional or national pools of high school and community college 

students.118 Surveying an existing student population to ascertain interest, she said, eliminated 

the input of students who potentially would have attended that university had their preferred 

sport been sponsored.119 College presidents, chancellors, and athletics administrators, she stated, 

agreed that the 2005 Additional Guidance was contrary to the original intent of Title IX because 

a survey alone cannot assess interest comprehensively.

120 She added that the Model Survey was 

cumbersome, confusing, and unprecedented in length, detail, and method of dissemination.121

Very few universities or colleges, according to her, have acknowledged using the Model 

Survey.122 She observed that of the campuses OCR reviewed prior to 2005, close to two-thirds 

used Prong Three to achieve Title IX compliance, thus suggesting that the prior guidance on 

Prong Three was workable.123

Ms. Sweet stated most university presidents, chancellors, and athletics administrators believed

the 2005 Additional Clarification inappropriately made it easier to comply with Title IX, and 

was not truly in compliance with the spirit and intent of the law.124 The intent of the three-part 

test, she said, was to provide flexibility to institutions in meeting Title IX goals, not make one 

particular prong a means for easier compliance.

125 She pointed out that the OCR‘s 2005 

 

111 Ibid., p. 54.

112 Ibid., p. 55.

113 Ibid., p. 55. The report from the study is ―NCAA Data Analysis Research Network Report on the Recent 

Title IX Clarification,‖ NCAA Data Analysis Research Network, 2005. Ms. Sweet submitted it to the 

Commission along with her written statement. The Research Network includes research faculty members from 

around the nation.

114 Ibid., p. 55.

115 Ibid., p. 55.

116 Ibid., p. 55.

117 Ibid., p. 55.

118 Ibid., p. 56.

119 Ibid., p. 56.

120 Ibid., p. 56.

121 Ibid., p. 56.

122 Ibid., p. 56.

123 Ibid., p. 57.

124 Ibid., p. 57.

125 Ibid., p. 58.
16 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Additional Clarification acknowledged the Model Survey narrowed the scope for analysis of 

interests and abilities.126

David F. Black

Mr. David Black stated that public discussion of Title IX, such as this briefing, brought focus to 

issues pertaining to various aspects of the law and could further compliance.127 He said Congress 

enacted Title IX to eliminate sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and 

activities, including the classroom, class offerings, employment under such an education 

program or activity, and all extracurricular activities, and in 1974, extended coverage to 

athletics programs.128 As a result of Title IX, he stated, more women than ever were 

participating in sports and attending and excelling in college and graduate programs.129 He said 

discrimination continued to occur in access to educational programs, classroom activities, and 

athletic opportunities nationwide.

130 The U.S. Department of Education, he said, worked 

diligently to address complaints of Title IX violations in all areas,

131 and provided technical 

assistance and tools to institutions to help them determine compliance with the law.132 The 2005 

Additional Clarification, he said, furthered that mission.133

Mr. Black acknowledged panelists‘ concerns about the 2005 Additional Clarification weakening 

protections for female athletes, but described them as a misunderstanding of the policy.134 He 

said the 2005 Additional Clarification did not establish new substantive standards under Title 

IX, but instead, provided schools with further guidance of OCR‘s long-established athletic 

policies and practices.135 According to him, the Department‘s 1979 intercollegiate athletics 

policy interpretation established a three-part test for OCR to use in determining if postsecondary institutions were providing nondiscriminatory athletic opportunities to their male and 

female athletes.136 It identified three methods of legal compliance and allowed schools to choose 

any one of them freely, he said.137 Under part three of that test, OCR permitted schools to 

demonstrate compliance by showing that they were accommodating the athletic interests and 

abilities of their male and female students.138

 

126 Ibid., pp. 57–58.

127 David Black, Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, briefing on Title IX Athletics:

Accommodating Interests and Abilities, Washington, DC, May 11, 2007, transcript, p. 59, (hereafter cited as 

Black Testimony, Briefing Transcript).

128 Black Testimony, Briefing Transcript, pp. 59–60.

129 Ibid., p. 60.

130 Ibid., p. 61.

131 Ibid., p. 61.

132 Ibid., p. 61.

133 Ibid., p. 61.

134 Ibid., p. 61.

135 Ibid., p. 61.

136 Ibid., pp. 61–62.

137 Ibid., p. 62.

138 Ibid., p. 62.
Summary of Proceedings 17

Mr. Black stated that for a number of years, schools have elected to use athletic interest 

surveys.139 According to him, the Model Survey, User‘s Guide, and the 2005 Additional 

Clarification were based on findings from statistical analyses of OCR‘s cases from 1992 to 2002 

that employed athletic interest surveys under the three-part test.140 He said that the National 

Center for Education Statistics (NCES), evaluated 130 of OCR‘s cases, two-thirds of which 

used part three to comply with the three-part test.141 More than half of those that chose part three 

used interest surveys, which he claimed were flawed, because they relied on a limited pool of 

students that resulted in a very low response rate.

142 The Department issued the Model Survey 

and User‘s Guide to address these flaws, which he said gave schools a practical tool for 

assessing student interest,

143 but added that the survey could only be used if it was administered 

in a manner consistent with NCES recommendations in the User‘s Guide.144 According to Mr. 

Black, the 2005 Additional Clarification promoted compliance with Title IX by first clarifying

the obligations of schools under the three-part test (a commitment OCR made in the 1996 

Clarification and the 2003 Dear Colleague letter), and then by making it easier for them to 

assess their own compliance with part three and determine how they could bring themselves into 

compliance.145

 

139 Ibid., p. 62.

140 Ibid., p. 62.

141 Ibid., p. 63.

142 Ibid., p. 63.

143 Ibid., p. 63.

144 Ibid., p. 63.

145 Ibid., pp. 63–64.
Discussion 18

Discussion

Administration of the Model Survey, Its Use and Response Rate

Commissioner Kirsanow commented on Mr. Cohen‘s remark that administering the Model 

Survey required more than a simple e-mail solicitation, and Ms. Samuel‘s and Ms. Sweet‘s 

disagreement with that statement.

1 Mr. Cohen replied that sending an e-mail alone was not 

permissible under the 2005 Additional Clarification.2 A school may initially distribute the 

Model Survey using e-mail, he said, but it had to follow up on it as well.

3 What was considered 

―sufficient follow-up,‖ he continued, was subjective and open to debate.

4 Commissioner 

Kirsanow then asked whether under Prong Three, surveys were sent to the entire student body 

or to the underrepresented sex.5 Mr. Cohen replied that the 2005 Additional Clarification 

allowed two alternatives; the first and recommended method was administration of the Model 

Survey to the entire student body, whereas the second involved surveying all members of the 

underrepresented sex.6In response to Commissioner Kirsanow‘s inquiry into schools‘ practices 

with respect to administering the Model Survey, Mr. Cohen said he was not aware of any school 

that had employed an e-mail methodology, but was familiar with mandatory response methods.7

For example, if a school chose to administer the Model Survey as part of its application process, 

every student must respond or purposefully bypass the survey, in which case that ―response‖ 

would be interpreted as showing a lack of interest, he remarked.8 Under the requirements of 

OCR, he said, a nonresponse was considered as such only if all students had been given easy 

access to respond to the census, its purpose had been explained clearly, and the students had

been informed that the school treated nonresponses as an indication of lack of interest in sports 

participation.9

Ms. Samuels said a report prepared by the National Coalition for Women and Girls in 

Education10 included statistical and methodological analyses of the perceived flaws of the 2005 

Additional Clarification survey methodology.11 She added that the mandatory approach had 

statistical problems.12 While the 2005 Additional Clarification called for schools to ensure a 

reasonable response rate, she claimed it failed to provide guidance on how this was to be done, a 

 

1 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, briefing on Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities, 

Washington, DC, May 11, 2007, transcript (hereafter cited as Title IX Athletics, Briefing Transcript), pp. 64–

65.

2 Title IX Athletics, Briefing Transcript, p. 65.

3

Ibid., p. 65.

4

Ibid., p. 65.

5

Ibid., p. 66.

6

Ibid., p. 66.

7

Ibid., p. 66.

8

Ibid., pp. 66–67.

9

Ibid., p. 67.

10 See http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/Content/Articles/Issues/Equity-Issues/N/NCWGE-CoalitionReport-on-Title-IX.aspx (accessed Feb. 26, 2009).

11 Ibid., p. 68.

12 Ibid., p. 68.
Discussion 19

point also made by Mr. Cohen if the survey was administered via email.

13 She further said the 

2005 Additional Clarification made no provision for OCR oversight or monitoring to evaluate 

whether schools had engaged in a sufficient effort to ensure that students respond.14

Ms. Sweet reported she had once asked a group of 200 undergraduate students if they had ever 

responded to an e-mail survey, and none replied affirmatively.15 She asked, similarly, a group of 

50 graduate students. Only a marketing student said she had responded to a survey, because, Ms. 

Sweet explained, the student understood the importance of surveys.

16 Ms. Sweet observed that 

based on the responses of these students, one would have to conclude that they have no interest 

in participating in athletics, yet they are all currently involved in sports.

17 As for institutional use 

of the Model Survey, she said that one institution modified it to determine the types of sports 

that might be added to its program in the future, not to measure interest.18 She said this 

institution found it cumbersome, and that even a cash incentive failed to attain more than a 25 

percent response rate.19 Commissioner Kirsanow then asked if the survey was only a minimal 

means to gauge interest and whether a university was prohibited from using other measures.20

Ms. Sweet said if an institution was committed to complying with Title IX fully, then it would 

use a variety of approaches to determine interest, but if it was seeking an easy way to meet 

Prong Three, then the survey was the answer, since the 2005 Additional Clarification mandated 

no further effort.21

Mr. Black said the Department examined the handbooks of several universities and discovered 

that most had policies on e-mailed communications with students. For example, he stated, 

Purdue University, University of Texas, Syracuse University, and New York University 

informed students that e-mail was a presumed mode of communication and they were expected 

to read them.22 He also clarified that the e-mail survey or notice of the survey was not from 

OCR, but was sent as an official e-mail from the university.23 He added that universities also had 

e-mail policies regarding spam; Stanford University, for example, was capable of turning off 

spam filters to ensure that students would receive official university e-mails.24 Commissioner 

Yaki said that cell phone text message alerts were more popular with students and more 

effective than e-mails at informing the public.

25

 

13 Ibid., p. 68.

14 Ibid., p. 69.

15 Ibid., p. 69.

16 Ibid., p. 69.

17 Ibid., p. 69.

18 Ibid., p. 70.

19 Ibid., p. 70.

20 Ibid., p. 70.

21 Ibid., pp. 70–71.

22 Ibid., p. 71.

23 Ibid., p. 71.

24 Ibid., p. 71.

25 Ibid., p. 111.
20 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

According to Mr. Black, the preferred method to administer the Model Survey was in 

conjunction with a mandatory event, such as class registration.26 The use of e-mail was an 

option, he said, but only if the institution followed the strict guidance in OCR‘s User‘s Guide, 

namely: 1) the school conducted a census, 2) students were notified of the survey‘s purpose, 3) 

students were informed that nonresponse would be deemed as a lack of interest response on 

their part, and 4) the school made a reasonable effort to follow up, such as an additional official 

e-mail or contacting students who had not responded.27 Mr. Cohen drew attention to an 

important point in the 2005 Additional Clarification that, according to him, was often 

overlooked: ―Schools may either require students to complete the census or provide the census 

in a context in which most students will complete it.‖

28 He stated, in light of this, it was incorrect 

to assume that schools could properly administer the Model Survey by sending a single e-mail.

29

He added that OCR would not defer to an institution if it had not administered the e-mail survey 

in a manner in which most students would respond.30

Mr. Black disputed the assertion that OCR would not ―look behind the numbers‖ if a school 

administered the Model Survey. He clarified that, if the school raised use of the Survey as a 

defense to a Title IX complaint investigation, OCR would still investigate to see if the school 

administered the survey consistent with the Users‘ Guide.31 He further clarified what the Model 

Survey measured, saying that it did not measure the extent of women‘s interest in sports, 

whether they continued to be interested in sports, or even if their degree of interest was

comparable to the men‘s.

32 The Model Survey, he stated, was a way of identifying female 

student interest in additional athletic opportunities, and that e-mail was a direct way of 

ascertaining student interest in athletic participation.

33 For example, it takes 25 students to make 

up a softball team, and the purpose of the Model Survey is to identify those 25 students who are 

interested in softball, he said.34 The response rate may be two percent, he explained, but if the 

responses are from the 25 students interested in softball, the institution is now eligible to add the 

sport, and assess the ability of the interested students.35 Vice Chair Thernstrom asked if there 

had been a serious problem with the response rate.36 Ms. Samuels responded that no mechanism 

existed to systematically assess which schools or whether any schools were using the Model 

Survey.37 She said research showed that responses to e-mail surveys were extremely low.38

Chairman Reynolds pointed out that the Commission‘s interest was not in predicting the 

problems that could unfold in the future, but the pattern of the data, given that the Model Survey 

 

26 Ibid., p. 72.

27 Ibid., p. 72.

28 Ibid., p. 74. According to Mr. Cohen, the quote may be found on p. 7 of the 2005 Additional Clarification.

29 Ibid., pp. 74–75.

30 Ibid., p. 75.

31 Ibid., p. 72.

32 Ibid., p. 73.

33 Ibid., p. 73.

34 Ibid., p. 73.

35 Ibid., pp. 73–74.

36 Ibid., p. 75.

37 Ibid., p. 75.

38 Ibid., p. 76.
Discussion 21

was a new approach and the NCAA had urged colleges not to use it.39 Vice Chair Thernstrom 

expressed concern about the lack of hard data on response rates to the Model Survey, aside from 

the anecdotal evidence Ms. Samuels was prepared to share with the Commission.40

With regard to Ms. Samuels‘ comment on a lack of a mechanism to collect data, Mr. Black said 

when institutions received federal funds, the U.S. Department of Education required them to 

sign an assurance of compliance with federal civil rights laws, including Title IX, although it did 

not seek information on how they planned to conform.41 He pointed out that the flexibility in the 

three-part test allowed an institution to comply under Prong One at one time point, and seek 

compliance under Prong Three, with its attendant need to assess interest, at another time point 

(e.g., when enrollment changes).

42 As such, he said imposing a reporting requirement on schools

was difficult.

43 He added that schools have expressed interest in surveys generally, and in the 

past, OCR has mandated their use to monitor unmet interest in light of violations; however, it 

did not require use of the Model Survey and, to his knowledge, no institutions subjected to OCR 

investigation had employed it. 44

Chairman Reynolds asked if OCR could inquire about an institution‘s survey response rate 

during a compliance review.45 Mr. Black replied that if OCR chose a representative group of 

institutions, then it could infer a response rate, to the extent these schools used the Model 

Survey to seek compliance under Prong Three.

46 He reported that one school had a response rate 

to a survey other than the Model Survey of two percent, and was still required to add a team.47

Mr. Cohen added that response rates were dependent on the method of administration, and was

unaware of any school that had fielded the Model Survey via e-mail, although he knew of 

instances in which the mandatory response methodology was employed.48 According to him, 

one school that administered the Model Survey as a mandatory part of its application process 

attained a response rate of 100 percent.49 He also said schools were aware of problems using email to administer the Model Survey, and tried to avoid that method because it made them 

vulnerable to attack based simply on their good faith efforts to comply with the law.50 He 

described a school that used a survey to determine athletic interest, and an advocacy group that 

announced its intention to make the situation a litigation test case on the Model Survey, even 

though it had not been used in that instance.

51 He charged that the advocacy group attacked the 

school even though it had attempted to comply with the law using a legal method, decided to 

 

39 Ibid., p. 76.

40 Ibid., p. 77.

41 Ibid., pp. 77–78.

42 Ibid., p. 78.

43 Ibid., p. 78.

44 Ibid., p. 78.

45 Ibid., p. 79.

46 Ibid., p. 79.

47 Ibid., p. 79.

48 Ibid., p. 80.

49 Ibid., p. 80.

50 Ibid., p. 81.

51 Ibid., pp. 81–82.
22 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

add a women‘s team, and sought compliance through proportionality.

52 Fear of such attacks, he 

said, motivated schools to conceal their compliance efforts.53

Surveys and Compliance under Prong Three

Commissioner Braceras said her questions were more policy oriented than those previously 

addressed,

54 and asked Ms. Samuels whether her objections were specific to the Model Survey 

or to the use of surveys under the third prong.55 Ms. Samuels replied that as she testified, surveys 

were inherently unreliable as the only means to evaluate sufficient athletic interest because they 

tended to measure women‘s lack of exposure to sports.56 Commissioner Braceras expressed 

concern that Ms. Samuels would be satisfied only with near or full proportionality,

57 but Ms. 

Samuels replied that there were three independent means to comply with Title IX, one of which 

was Prong Three.

58 The 1996 Clarification, she said, set forth the appropriate and lawful 

standards under Title IX, and surveys were permissible as one of several measures for assessing 

if schools were providing adequate, fair, and equal opportunities to women.

59 She added she 

would not find fault if a school complied with Prong Three under the 1996 Clarification.60

Chairman Reynolds asked if the Model Survey could be modified without having it return to the 

exact approach of the 1996 Clarification, which did not offer guidance to school 

administrators.61 According to Ms. Samuels, about two-thirds of the schools investigated by 

OCR complied with Prong Three under the 1996 Clarification, and it was misguided to suggest 

the 1996 Clarification did not provide adequate guidance.62 Commissioner Braceras then asked 

Ms. Samuels if ascertaining interest and ability was an appropriate method of proving 

compliance with Title IX.63 She said it was, as long as assessment was done in compliance with 

the 1996 Clarification and provided for the full accommodation of the interests of the 

underrepresented sex.64

Commissioner Heriot asked Ms. Samuels‘ thoughts on how a school could comply with Prong 

Three.

65 Ms. Samuels replied that the 1996 Clarification provided a very detailed road map; 

schools, for example, could conduct surveys, but should also consult their coaches and 

administrators, consider the high school sports played in their recruiting area, and consider 

 

52 Ibid., p. 82.

53 Ibid., p. 82.

54 Ibid., p. 82.

55 Ibid., p. 83.

56 Ibid., pp. 83–84.

57 Ibid., p. 84.

58 Ibid., p. 84.

59 Ibid., p. 85.

60 Ibid., p. 86.

61 Ibid., p. 86.

62 Ibid., p. 86.

63 Ibid., p. 87.

64 Ibid., p. 87.

65 Ibid., pp. 87–88.
Discussion 23

requests from their female students.66 Commissioner Braceras asked Ms. Samuels whether she 

would be satisfied if, after following the road map, schools discovered that only 43 percent of 

athletic opportunities were provided to women, even though women comprised 60 percent of 

the enrollment.67 Ms. Samuels said she would be satisfied, but doubted that every effort would 

have been made to follow the road map because of widespread noncompliance with the law.68

Ms. Gavora said that in the U.S. Department of Education‘s transmittal letter accompanying the 

1996 Clarification, the then assistant secretary for civil rights indicated proportionality was a 

safe harbor for schools seeking compliance.69 She observed that in the process of conducting 

research for a book, she reviewed the claim that two-thirds of the schools investigated by OCR 

chose Prong Three to comply with the law.

70 She stated that she found about 64 percent of 

schools under OCR compliance review employed Prong Three, but the investigations invariably 

ended with agreements requiring the addition of women‘s teams or elimination of men‘s 

teams.71 This, she claimed, resulted in a move further toward proportionality.72

Mr. Black sought to clarify several points.73 According to him, the 1979 policy, which 

underwent formal notice and comment under the Administrative Procedures Act, was the 

controlling factor, but still allowed institutions to choose freely nondiscriminatory methods by 

which to determine their students‘ athletic interest and abilities.74 With respect to the 1996 

Clarification, he said the department solicited feedback from institutions but did not subject it to 

formal notice and comment.75 With respect to the oft-referenced ―two-thirds‖ figure, he said 

OCR reviewed cases not in compliance with proportionality, and found two-thirds of them 

chose to comply with Title IX using part three.76 He added that Title IX requires schools to 

provide equal opportunity for admitted or enrolled students.77

Commissioner Braceras repeated her concerns over whether anything less than full 

proportionality necessarily indicates discrimination in the provision of athletic participation 

opportunities (panelists had mentioned that 43 percent of college athletics participants are 

women, while women comprise 60 percent of the student body). She cited the example of the 

University of Massachusetts, which is working to establish a women‘s ice hockey program to 

meet growing female interest in the sport. Commissioner Braceras stated that the absence of 

 

66 Ibid., p. 88.

67 Ibid., p. 88.

68 Ibid., p. 88.

69 Ibid., p. 89.

70 Ibid., p. 89.

71 Ibid., p. 90.

72 Ibid., p. 90.

73 Ibid., p. 92.

74 Ibid., p. 92.

75 Ibid., p. 92.

76 Ibid., p. 93.

77 Ibid., p. 93.
24 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

such a program now is not evidence of discrimination, but is instead reflecting of interest in the 

sport percolating up from the high school level.78

Commissioner Kirsanow observed that Prong Three references a survey with respect to interest 

and ability. He asked Mr. Cohen whether coaches or survey respondents assess ability. Mr. 

Cohen responded that while the survey asks respondents to identify their own ability, the school 

is required to assess ability after there is a requisite demonstration of interest. The additional 

clarification presents a number of different ways to assess ability, including coaches‘ opinions.79

Commissioner Kirsanow then asked if, in the event that the Model Survey indicates an increase 

in men‘s interest in sports or an increase in their unmet interests that exceeds that of women, a 

school has ever added men‘s sports programs. Ms. Gavora responded that Prong Three only 

requires meeting the interest of the underrepresented sex. Mr. Cohen added that once a school 

reaches compliance with any prong under the policy guidance it is free to add sports for either 

sex.80 Commissioner Taylor expressed doubts that a school would do this, since a school could 

preclude an OCR investigation completely by resorting to Prong One (proportionality).81

Opposing Views on the 2005 Additional Clarification and Proportionality

Commissioner Yaki asked the panelists to explain why there was a perception that the 

administration of Title IX required clarification, when in fact a 2001 Government 

Accountability Office study (GAO)82 found the law did not really have an impact on men‘s 

programs.83 He also asked Ms. Samuels and Ms. Sweet to identify the issue to which the 

briefing panel was seeking resolution, since data did not suggest that Title IX‘s benefits for

young women and girls came at the expense of men.

84 Ms. Samuels replied that existing data 

showed that opportunities for both men and women had grown since Title IX.85 She said a report 

updating data in a 2001 GAO study would be released in June 2007.

86 Some specific men‘s 

sports had suffered decline, she said, but Title IX bore no responsibility.87 According to her, 

institutions consider a wide range of factors when deciding what sports to offer, including the 

popularity of the sport, liability concerns, availability of adequate coaching staff, and, most 

 

78 Ibid., pp. 95–96.

79 Ibid., pp. 165–66.

80 Ibid., p. 167.

81 Ibid., p. 168.

82 United States General Accounting Office, Intercollegiate Athletics: Four-Year Colleges’ Experiences Adding 

and Discontinuing Teams, Report No. GAO-01-297, March 2001 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01297.pdf 

(accessed Jan. 16, 2009).

83 Title IX Athletics, Briefing Transcript, p. 98.

84 Ibid., p. 98.

85 Ibid., p. 99.

86 Ibid., p. 99. After the briefing, Ms. Samuels provided a copy of the report ―Title IX Athletics Policies: Issues 

and Data for Education Decision Makers,‖ A Report from the National Coalition for Women and Girls in 

Education, updated May 10, 2007, http://www.ncwge.org (accessed Nov. 21, 2008).

87 Ibid., p. 99.
Discussion 25

importantly, budget.88 She said football and men‘s basketball consume three-quarters of schools‘ 

entire budgets for men‘s sports and, as a result, little remains for broad-based opportunities.89

Ms. Gavora said the NCAA was the sole repository of data on intercollegiate sports 

participation, which in itself was problematic.90 She stated that for the most part, NCAA did not 

account for new institutional members when determining sports participation by men and 

women.91 When the GAO factored that into its analysis, Ms. Gavora said it found a 12 percent 

decrease in opportunities for men from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.92 She reported that the 

College Sports Council recently found clear declines in men‘s opportunities using data corrected 

for new membership, though she said she was not implying this was all due to Title IX.93

Currently, she said, only 17 men‘s collegiate gymnastic programs remained, while track 

opportunities for men and sports opportunities for male minority athletes were declining 

precipitously, and football accounted for only 11 percent of NCAA teams.94

Commissioner Yaki asked Ms. Sweet to explain the NCAA‘s acceptance of the 1996 

Clarification and rejection of the 2005 Additional Clarification.95 Ms. Sweet reiterated that the 

former was a comprehensive approach to assessing interest and ability, whereas the 2005 

Additional Clarification allowed an institution to survey the existing student population to 

evaluate interest using a flawed method.96 Recruitment, she said, was an important aspect of 

intercollegiate athletics and it was insufficient to consider only students already on campus.97

Mr. Black countered that recruitment was a separate issue, and an institution had an obligation 

to meet the needs of its current students.98 The Model Survey, according to him, captured many 

of the factors of the 1996 Clarification, which required, among others, examination of national 

trends in sports.99 It did this by obligating institutions to ascertain student interest in every single 

sport recognized by major athletic associations, he said.100 He added that it captured the opinions 

of coaches and athletic directors as well because they have the authority to add sports to the 

 

88 Ibid., p. 99.

89 Ibid., pp. 99–100. Commissioner Kirsanow interjected that these same sports were also providing three-quarters 

of a school‘s revenue. Ms. Samuels said data showed that the vast majority of schools did not even cover the costs 

of these sports, much less provide subsidies for others. Ms. Sweet remarked that there was difference between 

revenue-producing and profit-producing. According to her, recent NCAA research showed that perhaps six out 

almost 1,000 schools would actually have a net profit. Commissioner Kirsanow stated that schools make decisions 

on where to direct revenue based on a variety of reasons, including the desire to highlight the school, attract alumni 

contributions and student applications, and other reasons that are market-based. 

90 Ibid., p. 104.

91 Ibid., p. 104.

92 Ibid., p. 104.

93 Ibid., p. 104.

94 Ibid., pp. 104–05.

95 Ibid., p. 106.

96 Ibid., p. 106.

97 Ibid., p. 106.

98 Ibid., p. 107.

99 Ibid., p. 108.

100 Ibid., p. 108.
26 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

survey.101 Mr. Cohen said he agreed with Ms. Sweet that it was an important societal goal to 

continue to expand opportunities for women in athletics, but that the debate about whether 

colleges should monitor outside interests in athletics was not germane to the 2005 Additional 

Clarification.102 The latter properly tracked the law, which requires institutions to meet the 

interests and abilities of their current and admitted students, a focus that had been in place since 

1979, he remarked.103

Commissioner Yaki asked Ms. Samuels to provide a historical background on the changes to the 

three-prong test.104 Ms. Samuels responded that the U.S. Department of Education created the 

Commission on Opportunity in Athletics in 2002. A majority of this group‘s 15 commissioners 

represented NCAA Division I-A schools.105 According to her, these institutions had the most 

difficulty complying with Title IX and therefore the greatest incentive in weakening 

standards.106 At the end of a series of regional meetings, in which witnesses testifying against 

Title IX far outnumbered those supporting it, the Commission on Opportunity in Sports 

proposed 22 recommendations, she explained.

107 It was her belief that a significant number of 

them would have brought damaging changes to the Department‘s longstanding athletics 

policies.108 Prior presidential administrations had applied these policies and every court that 

examined them found them acceptable, she reiterated.109 The U.S. Department of Education

eventually rejected the recommendations and strongly supported the prevailing Title IX 

standards instead, she stated.110 In July 2003, the Department issued a further clarification 

expressly rejecting the recommendations and affirming enforcement of the longstanding policies 

and provision of technical assistance, according to her.111 The 2005 Additional Clarification, 

issued on a Friday afternoon without public notice or comment, directly conflicted with the 

Department‘s July 2003 commitment, she said.112 Commissioner Braceras disagreed with Ms. 

Samuels that universities were attempting to weaken Title IX.113 Ms. Samuels replied that 

universities offering big football and men‘s basketball programs were facing financial 

constraints, yet wished to continue running them in the same way.114 Thus, she continued, they 

were seeking easier ways to comply with Title IX and demonstrate that they were already 

satisfying fully the interests of women students.

115

 

101 Ibid., p. 108.

102 Ibid., p. 109.

103 Ibid., pp. 110–11. See also Mr. Cohen‘s supplemental statement.

104 Ibid., p. 112.

105 Ibid., p. 112.

106 Ibid., p. 112.

107 Ibid., p. 112.

108 Ibid., p. 112.

109 Ibid., pp. 112–13.

110 Ibid., p. 113.

111 Ibid., p. 113.

112 Ibid., p. 113.

113 Ibid., pp 113–14.

114 Ibid., p 114.

115 Ibid., p 115.
Discussion 27

Commissioner Yaki asked why the Bush Administration was providing clarifications and 

procedures that would ease institutions‘ compliance with Title IX and yet weaken the program, 

as advocates believed.

116 Chairman Reynolds observed that if this was a method for avoiding a 

school‘s obligation to add women‘s teams, it was a poor idea.117 The 2005 Additional 

Clarification, he continued, would augment the burden on schools over time if women‘s interest 

and ability continued to increase.118 Mr. Black replied that its purpose was to give schools a tool 

to identify unmet interest.119 He agreed with Chairman Reynolds, adding that large universities 

did not want to use this tool because they would find unmet interest.120 Ms. Gavora said the 

requirement to add women‘s teams if unmet interest was found was a reason for the current bias 

toward proportionality.121 Ms. Samuels argued that schools already in compliance under Prong 

One (proportionality), did not need to add teams, and Prong Three came into play only when 

they had not met substantial proportionality, or were unable to show a continuing pattern of 

adding teams for the underrepresented sex.122

Chairman Reynolds said he would like to use a different perspective to discuss a school‘s choice 

of prongs one, two, or three.123 As an administrator, he said, the issue is the likelihood of 

incurring additional transaction costs.124 Prong One, he said, provided a way of complying with 

the law without incurring many transactional costs, since an institution had no further 

requirement on attaining substantial proportionality.125 Prongs Two and Three are more 

expensive approaches because athletic directors need legal advice to determine when they have 

satisfied the law.126 Vice Chair Thernstrom said that the incentives to institute policies that 

ensure proportionality are enormous.

127 Ms. Samuels replied that an institution satisfies equity 

when it meets any one of the three prongs of the three-part test, as long as the prongs are 

appropriately and lawfully applied and interpreted.128 Proportionality, she said, was one way a 

school could show it was offering equality of opportunity, and its elimination would deny 

women the opportunity to participate in sports based on the principle that men and women were 

equally interested in and able to compete in athletics.129

Commissioner Taylor asked Ms. Samuels to explain a previous comment, that the status quo 

would be frozen if Prong One was eliminated.130 She replied that Prong One assumed every 

 

116 Ibid., p 115.

117 Ibid., p 115.

118 Ibid., p. 116.

119 Ibid., p. 116.

120 Ibid., p. 116.

121 Ibid., p. 116.

122 Ibid., pp. 116–17.

123 Ibid., p. 119.

124 Ibid., p. 119.

125 Ibid., p. 119.

126 Ibid., pp. 119–20.

127 Ibid., p. 123.

128 Ibid., p. 125.

129 Ibid., p. 125.

130 Ibid., p. 139.
28 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

student on campus would have an equal opportunity to play sports, whereas Prongs Two and 

Three presume that women had less than equal opportunity.131 There were ways for schools to 

satisfy the law when the latter condition prevailed, she said, such as continuing to add teams for 

women and being able to demonstrate such a history, or showing that they were able to satisfy 

fully women‘s interests.132 Commissioner Braceras said, and Commissioner Taylor concurred, 

that Ms. Samuels‘ response suggested she viewed Prongs Two and Three as transitions to Prong 

One.

133

Men’s and Women’s Interest in Participation in Sports

Commissioner Braceras challenged Ms. Samuels‘ previous statement that men and women were 

equally interested in sports.134 Ms. Samuels said the belief that women were less interested in 

sports was a stereotype, impermissible under the law and disproved by facts.

135 Since the 

enactment of Title IX, she said, women‘s participation in sports had continued to grow, and 

women showed up in large numbers to take advantage of opportunities when they were 

offered.136 Commissioner Braceras argued that they did not show up in the same proportion as 

men.137 Ms. Samuels countered that culture and availability of opportunities in schools remained

geared toward male participation.138 Chairman Reynolds asked Mr. Cohen about the availability 

of data on the relative interests of boys and girls in athletics.139 He replied that an institution 

could employ the Model Survey to gather the empirical evidence.140 Ms. Gavora said that as part 

of a consent decree with the National Organization for Women, the University of California 

system surveyed its member institutions and found that among students indicating interest in 

athletics, 60 percent were men and 40 percent women. She added that the College Board‘s 

survey of students taking college entrance examinations (i.e., the Preliminary Scholastic 

Achievement Test (PSAT) and the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT)), revealed a similar 

breakdown in percentages with respect to interest in sports, and that data on participation in 

voluntary club sports and intramural sports on campuses showed males outnumbering females

overwhelmingly.

141 Ms. Samuels said she disagreed vehemently that there was evidence 

showing women were less interested in sports than men.142 According to her, survey responses 

indicating less interest in sports among women, or lower participation levels, were results of 

lingering lack of exposure and the second-class status of opportunities for women.

143

 

131 Ibid., p. 140.

132 Ibid., p. 140.

133 Ibid., p. 142.

134 Ibid., p. 125.

135 Ibid., pp. 126–27.

136 Ibid., p. 127.

137 Ibid., p. 127.

138 Ibid., p. 128.

139 Ibid., p. 130.

140 Ibid., pp. 130–31.

141 Ibid., p. 132.

142 Ibid., p. 133.

143 Ibid., p. 133.
Discussion 29

Commissioner Heriot took issue with some panelists‘ assertion that even an expressed lack of 

interest in response to a survey was not enough to determine interest, but rather lack of exposure 

to pre-existing athletic opportunities. She asked whether this debate on athletic opportunities 

could mean that the U.S. Department of Education should consider issuing regulations on 

curricular and other extracurricular activities where women may be underrepresented, such as 

science and mathematics classes. Ms. Samuels responded that athletics is unique because it is a 

program that is explicitly and permissibly sex-segregated in the first instance.144 Commissioner 

Heriot countered that, once we do not take survey respondents at their word, we should logically 

extend the reach of the Title IX of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance to any school 

activity in which females may be underrepresented.145

Ms. Sweet said men had been participating in athletics much longer than women.146 For 

example, she said that the NCAA celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2006, but had been 

sponsoring collegiate athletic opportunities for women for only 25 years.147 Speaking of her 

personal experience, she said despite her love of sports, no opportunities were available in high 

school and college.148 She credited the influence of Title IX in bringing about more sports 

opportunities for women.149 The law was relevant at all levels of education, she observed, and, 

since its passage, dramatic changes in career opportunities for women have occurred in 

medicine and science, although less so in engineering.150 Prior to Title IX, she said, the nation‘s 

campuses had about 30,000 female athletes; today, there are more than 200,000 because of the 

commitments colleges made to provide new opportunities, which young women now clamored

to fill.151

Impact of Title IX, Sports Elimination, and Worldviews

Vice Chair Thernstrom said the status of women and how they thought of themselves had 

undergone decades of transformative change, and Title IX was but one of many factors 

contributing to an enormous increase in women participating in athletics today.152 She claimed 

that Ms. Samuels and Ms. Sweet harbored an image of women that belonged more in the 1950s, 

meaning women had a need for Title IX to confirm their potential as athletes.153 Ms. Gavora said 

that women on today‘s campuses felt completely empowered compared to previous generations, 

were fully aware of their majority status, and questioned the need for Title IX, believing that it 

hurt male colleagues when schools eliminated men‘s sports to seek compliance.154 Nevertheless, 

Ms. Gavora added that Title IX remained necessary.155

 

144 Ibid., p. 144.

145 Ibid., p. 147.

146 Ibid., p. 149.

147 Ibid., p. 149.

148 Ibid., p. 150.

149 Ibid., p. 150.

150 Ibid., p. 150.

151 Ibid., p. 150.

152 Ibid., p. 151.

153 Ibid., p. 173.

154 Ibid., p. 152.

155 Ibid., p. 152.
30 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Ms. Sweet reiterated that colleges and universities made the decisions to eliminate men‘s sports 

opportunities, despite the fact that Title IX has no such requirement and the NCAA opposed 

such moves.

156 Commissioner Heriot responded that to claim elimination of men‘s teams was 

not due to Title IX was disingenuous given the limitation of institutional funds and the need to 

achieve proportionality, which was perceived as the safe harbor for schools.

157 Ms. Sweet 

responded that institutions had a requirement to provide equity, not to cut men‘s sports.158

Commissioner Braceras asked how institutions could find the funds to ensure equity without 

eliminating some opportunities for men.159 Ms. Sweet replied that an institution with which she 

was once affiliated had 23 sports, but did not drop any despite several years of budget cuts 

because of a deliberate choice to allocate resources differently.160 Every institution, she 

indicated, had similar opportunities, but some choose, instead, to put more resources into a 

select number of sports.161

Commissioner Kirsanow said that a GAO report162 showed schools eliminated various types and 

numbers of men‘s teams; 170 wrestling teams, 90 gymnastic teams, 80 tennis teams, 45 track 

teams, and various numbers of swim and football teams. He asked if evidence existed that Title

IX had some impact on elimination of men‘s teams, and if schools eliminated female teams 

during the period that the men‘s teams were cut.163 Ms. Gavora replied that ongoing anecdotal 

evidence put the blame on Title IX.164 She and Commissioner Braceras both responded that 

schools have eliminated female teams.165 Ms. Sweet said in regard to gymnastics, schools 

eliminated 60 men‘s teams and 80 women‘s teams in a certain period.

166

Commissioner Braceras posed a hypothetical question to Ms. Sweet: if in a given year, the 

College Board‘s survey of PSAT and SAT test takers found 60 percent of men and 40 percent of 

women expressed an interest in sports, why would a school not be in compliance if its sports 

participation rate mirrored the finding?167 Ms. Sweet responded that surveys as sole measures of 

interest froze past bias against women‘s participation in sports.168 She said many high school and 

college students had informed her that if they had not seen females participating in sports, they 

would not have known they could do so as well; a point just as relevant to elementary school 

 

156 Ibid., p. 153.

157 Ibid., p. 154.

158 Ibid., p. 154.

159 Ibid., p. 154.

160 Ibid., pp. 154–55.

161 Ibid., pp. 155–56.

162 United States General Accounting Office, Intercollegiate Athletics: Four-Year Colleges’ Experiences 

Adding and Discontinuing Teams, Report No. GAO-001-297, March 2001.

163 Title IX Athletics, Briefing Transcript, pp. 169–70.

164 Ibid., p. 170.

165 Ibid., p. 170.

166 Ibid., p. 171.

167 Ibid., p. 156.

168 Ibid., pp. 156–57.
Discussion 31

students.169 Interest in sports was thus influenced by what one saw, she observed.170

Commissioner Braceras said Ms. Sweet‘s response suggested that ascertaining the current 

interest and ability of students at not only the college level, but also those in the pipeline (PSAT 

and SAT test takers), was insufficient to satisfy her sociological worldview.171 Commissioner 

Yaki disagreed with Commissioner Braceras‘s interpretation.172 He said Ms. Sweet meant that 

surveys in and of themselves were inherently limited because they were looking backward.173 If 

one were in an environment in which one did not see young women playing ice hockey, for 

example, one would be unaware of the possibility.174 He added that advocates of women‘s 

opportunities in sports had a strong bias, as would any underrepresented group, to ensure that 

opportunities and access to them were available. 175 This was the promise of Title IX, according 

to him.176

Commissioner Braceras contrasted two worldviews: one posited that elimination of 

discrimination would eventually lead to a 50/50 representation;

177 the other assumed that, even 

absent discrimination, disparities existed among different subgroups.178 She stated that if both 

worldviews could not be bridged, it would be impossible to determine which type of survey or

prong of the test was best for compliance.179 Commissioner Yaki said that by creating this 

dichotomy, Commissioner Braceras had simply highlighted the philosophical difference 

between the majority and minority members of the Commission.180 He said he supported an 

affirmative approach that used the power of the law and government to create a better society.181

Mr. Cohen distinguished between general policy concerns that seek to improve opportunities for 

women, and the three-prong test, which is a narrower aspect of the law.

182 Prong Three legally 

requires schools to meet the interests and abilities of current or admitted students, which is

distinct from such global concerns, he said.183

Commissioner Kirsanow asked Mr. Cohen to explain the process by which institutions 

determined ability in a sport.184 He replied that the Model Survey included a question asking 

students to self-identify their ability level in a sport but that the school would be required to 

 

169 Ibid., pp. 158–59.

170 Ibid., p. 158.

171 Ibid., p. 159.

172 Ibid., p. 159.

173 Ibid., p. 159.

174 Ibid., pp. 159–60.

175 Ibid., p. 160.

176 Ibid., p. 160.

177 Ibid., p. 162.

178 Ibid., p. 162.

179 Ibid., p. 162.

180 Ibid., p. 162.

181 Ibid., pp. 162–63.

182 Ibid., p. 164.

183 Ibid., pp. 164–65.

184 Ibid., p. 165.
32 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

assess ability following a requisite showing of unmet interest.

185 Commissioner Kirsanow then 

asked if any colleges had increased men‘s sports in the face of findings from the Model Survey 

that demonstrated an increase in men‘s unmet interest or an increase that exceeded that of 

females.186 Mr. Cohen reminded him that Prong Three was concerned with the underrepresented 

sex.187 He continued that when a school is in compliance with Title IX under any prong, it is free 

to add men‘s or women‘s sports.188 If a school added women‘s sports or demonstrated a lack of 

unmet interest by female students or otherwise reached a point where the women on campus 

were receiving adequate opportunities under the law, then there was an opportunity to add a 

men‘s sport.189

 

185 Ibid., pp. 165–66.

186 Ibid., p. 166.

187 Ibid., p. 167.

188 Ibid., p. 167.

189 Ibid., p. 167.
Statements 33

Statements Daniel A. Cohen 
34 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Statements 35
36 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Statements 37
38 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Statements 39
40 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Statements 41
42 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Daniel A. Cohen – Supplemental Statement 
Statements 43
Statements 44
Statements 45
46 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Jessica L. Gavora

Thank you for the opportunity to be here. My name is Jessica Gavora. I am Vice President of 

the College Sports Council and the author of Tilting the Playing Field, a 2003 book on Title 

IX.

It is gratifying to me, after more then ten years of studying, writing about and commenting on 

Title IX, that we are here today talking about the issue that is at the heart of Title IX in 

athletics, and that is interest.

In 35 years of the existence of this law, little serious attention has been paid to the subject of 

interest.

For over a decade now, Title IX compliance has been based on a very different standard:

statistical proportionality. The triumph of statistical proportionality—the argument that, 

absent discrimination, men and women would play athletics at the same rate—has been 

achieved not by proving that men and women have identical interests—the data on 

participation and interest fall far short of that. It has been achieved by making the whole 

question of interest irrelevant to Title IX compliance.

As you know, statistical proportionality demands that schools manipulate their athletic 

programs so that their gender ratio matches that of their undergraduate student population. In 

this way, proportionality ignores student interest in sports in favor of an arbitrary numerical 

formula. No other opportunity in education—be it in the education or engineering 

departments, or in drama or dance programs—is apportioned this way. Even 

accommodations that are segregated by sex, like student housing, are apportioned in 

accordance with student interest.

And this brings me to the commission‘s first question, that of the strengths and weaknesses 

of the 2005 Model Survey. It‘s strength—perhaps its only strength—is that for the first time 

in a decade it reintroduces the notion that government should view women as thinking, 

discerning individuals capable of expressing and acting on their interests when judging an 

institution under Title IX.

The 2005 policy clarification was an attempt to respond to a long expressed desire on the part 

of well-meaning college administrators for more specific guidance on how to comply with 

Prong Three—the interests test—of the so-call Three Part Test of Title IX compliance.

Prong Three asks that schools ―demonstrate that the interests and abilities of the members of 

[the underrepresented] sex have been fully and effectively accommodated by the present 

[athletic] program.‖ For decades schools have complained that the government‘s guidance 

for demonstrating compliance under Prong Three has been vague and subjective. In 1996 the 

Clinton Department of Education promised to provide clarity but never did. And in 2003 the 

President‘s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics unanimously adopted a resolution 

calling on the Office for Civil Rights to investigate ways for schools to show compliance 

under Prong Three through interest surveys. 
Statements 47

And so in 2005 the U.S. Department of Education made good on these promises and 

provided guidance to allow schools to become more compliant with the law. But the reaction 

by the Model Test‘s critics has been curious to say the least.

Groups like the Women‘s Sports Foundation and the National Women‘s Law Center have 

long insisted that there are three equally valid ways to comply with Title IX, and that 

assessing the interests of women is in fact one of them. And yet their reaction to the Model 

Survey has been to refute interest as a measure of compliance on two fronts. They have 

argued, first, that women‘s interests cannot be discerned, and second, even when discerned, 

fulfilling the interests of women on campus is insufficient to comply with Title IX. 

On the first objection, two prominent defenders of the Title IX status quo wrote that surveys 

can‘t gauge men‘s and women‘s relative interest in sports because ―culturally, men are 

simply more likely than women to profess an interest in sport.‖ Women, on the other hand, 

―are less likely to profess an interest in sports, even if they are interested!‖

In other words, women are as interested in sports as men; they just can‘t bring themselves to 

admit it.

The critics‘ second objection to the Model Survey is that surveying current students‘ interest 

in athletics only serves to freeze a school‘s sports program in the status quo. The theory is 

that women who are interested in a particular sport will not attend an institution that does not 

already offer that sport. Critics do not explain, however, why this same phenomenon does not 

likewise adversely impact men‘s college choices.

To the extent there is some merit to this argument, the remedies suggested by critics are so 

broad and ill-defined that they serve to return Prong Three to its previous, vague and 

unworkable status. The critics demand that in addition to the survey, schools also consult 

with local club sports, youth coaches, high schools, junior high schools and elementary 

schools as well as consider ―national trends‖ in determining women‘s opportunities. The 

amorphousness and scope of this requirement serves to put Prong Three compliance once 

again out of reach of well-meaning administrators, and guarantees that their lawyers and Title 

IX consultants will continue to advise them to adhere to substantial proportionality.

And here the role of the National Collegiate Athletic Administration deserves some scrutiny.

Like many of the single issue critics of the Model Survey, the NCAA has long maintained 

that measuring and fulfilling interest is a valid method of compliance with Title IX. But the 

NCAA bears a burden that the National Women‘s Law Center does not: it exists to represent 

the interests of all collegiate athletes, not just female athletes. And yet it has objected to the 

government‘s attempt to provide the guidance its member institutions have long requested.

And its objections have been expressed with the same vehemence and in identical language 

to the objections of the special interest groups. The reason why, it turns out, is no mystery.

On April 2, 2005—just days after the Model Survey was announced—NCAA President 

Myles Brand made a remarkable admission to the Washington Post. Referring to the Model 
48 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Survey, Brand said, ―Whether that will be tested in court or some other way, we‘re waiting to

see what the Women‘s Law Center and others might do. We‘re supportive of their actions.‖

Groups like the Women‘s Sports Foundation and the National Women‘s Law Center have 

been clear in their expressions of support for the status quo in Title IX enforcement. Indeed, 

their only objection is that the statistical proportionality standard is not applied aggressively 

enough. This is their right as special interest groups. But what is the responsibility of the 

NCAA? In just the past year alone, hundreds of athletes—at Rutgers, James Madison, Ohio 

University, Butler, Clarion, and Slippery Rock—have lost their opportunity to compete in 

full or in part due to Title IX. Does the NCAA support this status quo?

Which brings me to the Commission‘s second question: No school, to my knowledge, has 

used the Model Survey to demonstrate compliance with Title IX. They haven‘t because the 

NCAA, which periodically examines its member institutions for their commitment to ―gender 

equity,‖ has told them expressly not to. And they haven‘t because the interest groups which 

routinely sue colleges and universities under Title IX have publicly deemed the Model 

Survey an illegitimate and illegal tool, promising still more lawsuits for the brave 

administrator who dares use the survey.

But more important than the negative public relations and legal campaign targeting schools 

employing the Model Survey, the survey itself is a very limited tool for schools seeking to 

demonstrate Title IX compliance for this reason: It depends on Prong Three and Prong Three

is itself flawed.

Remember that Prong Three applies only in cases where schools have not reached statistical 

proportionality. For these schools, it requires that they only accommodate the interests of the 

―underrepresented sex‖—in virtually all cases women. The unmet interest of men is not 

considered.

So if a school that has not reached statistical proportionality surveys its students and finds 

some unmet interest on the part of women and massive unmet interest on the part of men, it 

is obligated to fully accommodate only the women‘s interest. What‘s more, a school that is 

not proportional and has a women‘s club team that requests varsity status—regardless of how 

many men‘s club teams request the same—must accommodate that interest and that interest 

only. 

James Madison University (JMU) is a case in point. Last fall, James Madison offered 28 

athletic teams to its students—13 for men and 15 for women. Only six schools in Division I 

offered more athletic opportunities. But JMU‘s female student population was 61 percent and 

growing and its athletic rosters couldn‘t keep pace. JMU was in no position to add women‘s 

teams. But the Model Survey offered no protection for its existing teams. When two 

women‘s club teams petitioned for varsity status, JMU was forced to achieve statistical 

proportionality by cutting ten teams, seven for men, two for women and one co-ed team.

The College Sports Council has proposed a remedy for this absurd, senseless loss of 

opportunity that is occurring under Title IX today. It is a small change, not to the law but to 
Statements 49

the implementing regulations, that will return Title IX to its original, anti-discrimination 

purpose, protect the gains of women, and above all, reflect the interests of students in 

athletics when judging an institution on its adherence to the law.

Prong Three should be modified from its current requirement that only the interests of the 

underrepresented sex be accommodated, to a requirement that schools equally accommodate 

the interests of both sexes. Under this approach, the results of the Model Survey become the 

―qualified pool‖ against which an equal accommodation standard is measured. So if a school 

finds that 40 percent of its current and prospective students who are interested in athletics are 

women, it would apportion 40 percent of its opportunities to women. In this way, students 

who shouldn‘t be considered in a disparate impact determination of discrimination—such as 

older students, students with families, and students who simply lack the interest and ability to 

compete in sports—would rightly be excluded.

Members of the Commission, I could go on, but my time is expired. I will conclude by 

saying that speaking for both myself and the College Sports Council, we wholeheartedly 

support the spirit and intention of Title IX. We believe that with the changes that I have just 

described, the law will be preserved and protected for new generations of American athletes, 

both men and women, girls and boys.

Thank you.
50 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Jocelyn F. Samuels

I am Jocelyn Samuels, the Vice President for Education and Employment at the National 

Women‘s Law Center in Washington, DC. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you 

today to discuss Title IX‘s requirement that the athletic interests and abilities of male and 

female students be equally accommodated.

Founded in the year that Title IX was passed, the National Women‘s Law Center has been at 

the forefront of virtually every major effort to secure and defend women‘s legal rights, 

particularly with regard to participation in athletics. The Center filed the first comprehensive 

Title IX challenge to discrimination in intercollegiate athletics; has participated in most of 

the subsequent federal appellate cases to consider the application of Title IX to athletics; and 

has filed amicus briefs or been counsel in every Supreme Court case involving Title IX. Of 

particular relevance here, the Center was a key participant in the efforts that led to issuance 

of the three-part test that has for close to 30 years governed assessments of school 

compliance with Title IX‘s participation requirements.

I would like to focus my remarks this morning on the significant and damaging flaws in the 

U.S. Department of Education‘s ―Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy: 

Three-Part Test—Part Three‖1(hereafter ―2005 Clarification‖) issued without notice or 

opportunity for public comment on March 17, 2005. The 2005 Clarification conflicts with 

longstanding Department of Education policy, violates basic principles of equality under the 

law, and threatens to reverse the enormous progress women and girls have made in sports 

since the enactment of Title IX. The National Women‘s Law Center continues to call on the 

Department to rescind this harmful and unlawful Clarification.

As you know, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 19722bars sex discrimination in 

federally funded education programs and activities and requires that schools provide equal 

sports participation opportunities to their male and female students. For almost three decades, 

the Department of Education‘s regulatory policies have provided three independent ways—

the ―three-part test‖—for educational institutions to show that they are meeting this 

requirement. Specifically, a school can demonstrate compliance if it can:

 Demonstrate that intercollegiate level participation opportunities for male and female

students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their respective 

enrollment; or

 Where the members of one sex have been and are underrepresented among

intercollegiate athletes, show a history and continuing practice of program expansion 

which is demonstrably responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the 

members of that sex; or

 Where the members of one sex are underrepresented among intercollegiate athletes, 

and the institution cannot show a continuing practice of program expansion such as 

 

1

Available at http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/title9guidanceadditional.html.

2

20 U.S.C. §§ 1681-87 (1988).
Statements 51

that cited above, demonstrate that the interests and abilities of the members of that 

sex have been fully and effectively accommodated by the present program.3

Frequent attacks on the three-part test have been resoundingly rejected; the test has been 

uniformly upheld by the nine federal appellate courts to have considered it4and uniformly

applied by prior presidential administrations. In fact, in July 2003, this Department of 

Education reaffirmed its commitment to applying the test and longstanding Department 

interpretations of it, rejecting—in the wake of a massive public outcry—recommendations 

made by a Department Commission on Opportunity in Athletics that would have 

dramatically undermined women‘s rights to equal opportunity in sports.5

Despite this commitment, the Department‘s 2005 Clarification violates longstanding and

fundamental principles underlying the Department‘s regulatory policies, as well as the law 

itself. The Clarification allows schools that are not meeting either the first or the second 

prong of the three-part test to show that they are nonetheless in compliance with Title IX by 

doing nothing more than sending a ―model‖ e-mail survey to their female students asking 

about their interest in additional sports opportunities. The Department will presume that 

schools comply with Title IX if they administer this survey and find insufficient interest to 

support additional opportunities for women—even if schools get very low response rates—

unless female students can provide ―direct and very persuasive evidence‖ to the contrary. For 

the reasons I set forth below, this policy change effectively eviscerates the third prong‘s 

requirement that schools show full and effective accommodation of their female students‘ 

athletic interests.

The 2005 Clarification Violates Basic Principles of Equal Opportunity

The 2005 Clarification Impermissibly Allows Schools to Rely on Surveys Alone to Measure

Compliance.

The 2005 Clarification permits schools to rely exclusively on the results of a survey to their 

female students to evaluate whether they have satisfied their obligation to provide equal 

athletics opportunities to these students. But as courts have consistently recognized, interest 

cannot be measured apart from opportunity. ―Interest and ability rarely develop in a vacuum;

they evolve as a function of opportunity and experience.‖6 As a result, surveys are likely only 

to provide a measure of the discrimination that has limited, and continues to limit, sports

opportunities for women and girls. As the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit stated in 

 

3

United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office for Civil Rights, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972: A 

Policy Interpretation: Title IX and Intercollegiate Athletics, 44 Fed. Reg. 71,413 (December 11, 1979).

4

See Cohen v. Brown Univ., 101 F.3d 155, 173 (1st Cir. 1996); McCormick v. Sch. Dist. of Mamaroneck, 370 F.3d 275, 288 (2d Cir. 2004); 

Williams v. Sch. Dist. of Bethlehem, 998 F.2d 168, 171 (3d Cir. 1993); Pederson v. La. State Univ., 213 F.3d 858, 880 (5th Cir. 2000); 

Horner v. Ky. High Sch. Athletic Ass’n, 43 F.3d 265, 273 (6th Cir. 1994); Kelley v. Bd. of Trs., 35 F.3d 265, 270 (7th Cir. 1994); Chalenor 

v. Univ. of N.D., 291 F.3d 1042, 1046 (8th Cir. 2002); Neal v. Bd. of Trs., 198 F.3d 763, 771 (9th Cir. 1999); Roberts v. Colo. State Univ., 

998 F.2d 824, 828-29 (10th Cir. 1993); see also Nat’l Wrestling Coaches Ass’n v. U.S. Dep’t of Educ., 263 F. Supp. 2d 82, 95-96 (D.D.C. 

2003), aff‘d, 366 F.3d 930 (D.C. Cir. 2004), cert. denied, 545 U.S. 1104 (2005).

5

United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Further Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance 

Regarding Title IX Compliance (July 11, 2003).

6

Cohen v. Brown Univ., 101 F.3d at 179; see also McCormick v. Sch. Dist. of Mamaroneck, 370 F.3d at 295 (―Interest is often a function of 

experience and opportunity.‖).
52 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

its seminal decision in Cohen v. Brown University: ―[T]here exists the danger that, rather 

than providing a true measure of women‘s interest in sports, statistical evidence purporting to 

reflect women‘s interest instead provides only a measure of the very discrimination that is 

and has been the basis for women‘s lack of opportunity to participate in sports.‖7

Thus, basing women‘s future opportunities on their responses to surveys that measure their 

prior lack of exposure will only perpetuate the cycle of discrimination in sports to which they 

have been, and continue to be, subjected. It is for these reasons that Department of Education 

policies that predate the 2005 Clarification require that schools seeking to show that they 

have satisfied the interests of their female students evaluate a host of additional factors, 

including:

Requests by students and admitted students that a particular sport be added;

Requests that an existing club sport be elevated to intercollegiate team status;

Participation in particular club or intramural sports;

Interviews with students, admitted students, coaches, administrators and others

 regarding interest in particular sports;

Results of questionnaires of students and admitted students regarding interests in 

particular sports;

Participation in particular interscholastic sports by admitted students; and

Participation rates in sports in high schools, amateur athletic associations, and

 community sports leagues that operate in areas from which the school draws its 

students.8

The Department‘s decision to eliminate schools‘ obligation to consider these important 

criteria is a major disservice to female students and violates Title IX‘s fundamental purpose 

of eradicating the discrimination to which women have consistently been subject in athletics 

and in other aspects of their education.

The 2005 Clarification Impermissibly Allows Schools to Restrict Their Surveys to Enrolled 

and Admitted Students.

The 2005 Clarification explicitly authorizes schools to survey only their enrolled and

admitted students in evaluating whether they have met the requirements of the third prong of 

the three-part test. But this approach ignores the reality that students interested in a sport not 

offered by a school are unlikely to attend that school. By failing to require schools to look 

beyond their own campuses—to, for example, high school, community, and recreational 

programs in the areas from which a school typically draws its students—the Clarification 

allows schools to evade their legal obligation to look broadly at indicia of women‘s interest 

in sports. Instead, the policy rewards schools with a presumption of compliance for wearing 

 

7

Cohen v. Brown Univ., 101 F.3d at 179.

8

United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance: The ThreePart Test, Jan. 16, 1996, at 10, available at http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/clarific.html (hereinafter ―1996 Clarification‖).
Statements 53

blinders—that is, for restricting their sports offerings and then claiming that they are 

satisfying the interests of those who are content with those restricted offerings.

The Clarification also ignores the ways in which schools typically recruit for men‘s teams. 

Most colleges assess prospective players regionally or nationally and recruit them with 

scholarship offers or non-financial benefits to apply to and attend an institution. The 2005

Clarification effectively requires women to show that they can fill a new team by relying 

entirely on students within their schools‘ current student bodies—a requirement that is not 

imposed on men‘s teams.

Recognizing these realities, and as noted above, prior Department policies have long required 

schools seeking to comply with Prong Three to look beyond their campuses to identify the 

participation opportunities offered by other colleges and universities or by high schools and 

recreation leagues in areas from which the school draws its students. To do otherwise in

assessing whether women‘s interests and abilities have been fully satisfied, as authorized by 

the 2005 Clarification, vitiates the third prong of the test and perpetuates the cycle of 

discrimination. Indeed, as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has stated in rejecting an 

argument very like that embraced in the 2005 Clarification:

―The heart of this contention is that an institution with no coach, no facilities, no varsity

team, no scholarships, and no recruiting in a given sport must have on campus enough 

national-caliber athletes to field a competitive varsity team in that sport before a court can 

find sufficient interest and abilities to exist. It should go without saying that adopting this 

criteria would eliminate an effective accommodation claim by any plaintiff, at any time.‖9

The 2005 Clarification Authorizes a Deeply Flawed Survey Methodology.

My colleagues on the panel will address the methodological flaws in the survey authorized 

by the 2005 Clarification in more detail. I would like to focus on two particularly problematic 

aspects of the survey approach the Department has endorsed: the authorization to schools to 

(a) interpret a lack of response to the survey as evidence of lack of interest; and (b) presume 

that a young woman‘s self-assessment of a lack of ability to compete reflects an actual lack 

of ability.

Given the low rate of response to surveys in general, and the glitches often associated with email communications, the authorization for schools to treat a failure to respond to the survey

as a response affirmatively indicating lack of interest in additional sports opportunities is

likely to lead schools to significantly underestimate the level of interest that exists on their 

campuses. There are numerous reasons—entirely unrelated to their interest in participating in

sports—that students may fail to respond to a survey. Students may not have access to—or 

regularly use—university e-mail. Students may not receive an e-mailed survey if the e-mail 

gets caught in a spam filter, or they may delete an e-mail that looks like it might carry a 

virus. They may be too busy with other academic or extracurricular commitments to respond. 

Indeed, even if the e-mail accompanying the on-line survey states that failure to respond will 

be treated as evidence of lack of interest, students may delete the e-mail without reading this 

 

9

Pederson v. Louisiana State Univ., 213 F.3d at 878.
54 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

warning. To treat nonresponse as evidence of lack of interest is methodologically unsound 

and unfair to young women.

It also violates basic principles governing acceptable survey response rates. In one case,10 for 

example, a court rejected survey evidence used to argue compliance with Prong Three of the 

three-part test on the grounds that the survey, which achieved only a 39 percent response

rate, was not a reliable means of measuring the institution‘s compliance with Title IX. The 

court noted that NCAA guidelines warn that response rates below 60 percent ― ̳would almost 

always be cause for concern because almost half of those selected to represent your school 

did not participate in the study,‘‖ and because the results ― ̳could always be called into 

question and challenged for their representativeness.‘‖11 By authorizing schools to treat nonresponses as if they were in fact responses, however, the Clarification allows the schools to 

create the fiction that 100% of surveyed students have responded. This fiction should not be 

allowed to obscure the reality that the Clarification permits schools to deny athletics 

opportunities to women based on actual response rates that would likely be rejected by any 

court examining the evidence.

Equally troubling is the Clarification‘s authorization for schools to ―presume that a student‘s 

self-assessment of lack of ability to compete at the intercollegiate varsity level in a particular 

sport is evidence of actual lack of ability.‖12 This authorization shortchanges the significant 

number of students who do not recognize their own potential until a coach, parent or friend 

encourages them to try. Moreover, as the Clarification itself recognizes, ―a student may have 

athletic skills, gained from experience in other sports, which are fundamental to the particular 

sport in which the student has expressed an interest.‖13 A high school swimmer may, for 

example, have the skills to participate on a collegiate crew team; a former soccer player may

be able to compete in track. Under longstanding Department policies that predate the 

Clarification, schools were expected to seek the opinions of coaches and other experts in 

evaluating women‘s abilities to compete at a varsity level. But the 2005 Clarification relieves

schools of any obligation to conduct this independent assessment.

The 2005 Clarification Impermissibly Shifts the Burden to Female Students to Show Their

Interest in Equal Treatment.

Under the Department policies predating the 2005 Clarification, schools had the burden of 

showing—and the Office for Civil Rights the burden of rigorously evaluating claims—that,

despite their failure to provide equal opportunities to their female students, schools were 

nonetheless fully accommodating women‘s interests and abilities. OCR, for example, 

required that all educational institutions undertake evaluations of interest ―periodically so 

that the institution [could] identify in a timely and responsive manner any developing 

interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex‖14—and required that an institution justify 

 

10 Barrett v. West Chester Univ. of Pennsylvania., 2003 WL 22803477 (E.D. Pa. Nov. 12, 2003).

11 Id at p.9 (citing NCAA guidelines).

12 2005 Clarification at p. 10.

13 Id.

14 1996 Clarification at p. 11.
Statements 55

any assertion that students were not interested in playing sports offered in the region.15 Under 

the 2005 Clarification, however, schools that have implemented the model survey are 

presumed to have complied with Title IX, unless students produce ―direct and very 

persuasive evidence of unmet interest sufficient to sustain a varsity team.‖16 And although 

prior policies called for schools to consider sports offered in the communities from which 

they drew their students, the 2005 Clarification explicitly rejects the argument that ―evidence 

that feeder high schools for the institution offer a particular interscholastic sport‖ is sufficient 

to sustain a female athlete‘s burden.17

This shift in the burdens—forcing women to prove that they are interested in and entitled to 

equal treatment—is an inversion of basic civil rights principles. It also conflicts with a key 

purpose of Title IX—to encourage women‘s interest in sports and eliminate stereotypes that 

discourage them from participating.18 It is particularly damaging for students in high school, 

where female students are likely to have had few or no sports opportunities that would 

inform their responses to an interest survey, and where students should be encouraged to try 

many different sports, not have their future opportunities limited by what they might have 

experienced or be interested in at that time.

It is also contrary to the requirement of full accommodation of female athletes‘ interests and 

abilities. Opponents of the three-part test have argued that Prong Three should be read to 

require accommodation of the interests and abilities of female students based only on the 

relative levels of those interests in comparison to those of men. But this ―relative interests‖ 

argument ignores the fact that a school relying on Prong Three to comply with the three-part 

test is, by definition, failing to offer female students equal opportunity compared to their 

male peers. It relies on the inaccurate and impermissible stereotype that women are 

inherently less interested in participation in athletics than their male counterparts. And as the 

First Circuit has noted, the argument ―contravenes the purpose of the statute and the 

regulation‖

because it does not permit an institution or a district court to remedy a gender-based

disparity in athletics participation opportunities. Instead, this approach freezes that 

disparity by law, thereby disadvantaging further the underrepresented gender. Had 

Congress intended to entrench, rather than change, the status quo—with its historical

emphasis on men's participation opportunities to the detriment of women‘s 

opportunities—it need not have gone to all the trouble of enacting Title IX.19

The 2005 Clarification Provides for Inadequate Oversight by the Department of Education.

Adding insult to injury, the 2005 Clarification does not require that the Office for Civil

Rights monitor compliance to ensure that schools meet even the policy‘s minimal 

requirements for survey use or interpret the results accurately. In fact, the 2005 Clarification 

explicitly states that ―[w]here the Model Survey shows insufficient interest to field a varsity 

 

15 Id. at p. 10.

16 2005 Clarification at p.6.

17 Id. at p. 6, note 10.

18 Neal v. Bd. Of Trs., 198 F.3d 763, 768 & n.4 (9th Cir. 1999).

19 Cohen v. Brown Univ., 101 F.3d at 180-81.
56 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

team, OCR will not conduct a compliance review of that institution‘s implementation of the 

three-part test.‖20 In addition to drastically weakening the standards for compliance with 

Prong Three of the three-part test, therefore, the Clarification provides no mechanism for the 

Department—or anyone else, for that matter—to evaluate the impact of schools‘ use of the 

model survey; to investigate the extent to which that survey has stalled or reduced women‘s 

participation opportunities; or to assess the ways in which it is being implemented on 

campuses.

The 2005 Clarification Threatens to Perpetuate Further Discrimination Against Female

Athletes

For the reasons set forth above, the 2005 Clarification creates a major loophole through

which schools can evade their legal obligation to provide equal opportunity in athletics. This 

is deeply troubling, particularly because—despite the advances in women‘s participation in 

sports since the enactment of Title IX—women remain second-class citizens on the playing 

field.

Title IX has opened the door for millions of women and girls to participate in sports.

While fewer than 32,000 women participated in college sports prior to the enactment of Title 

IX, that number has expanded to more than 160,000 women today—over five times the preTitle IX rate. Female participation in high school athletics has increased ten fold, from fewer 

than 300,000 to close to 3 million students.

These increased sports opportunities have provided immense benefits to a new generation of 

female athletes. Playing sports promotes responsible social behavior, greater academic 

success, and increased personal skills. Compared to their non-athletic peers, athletes are less

likely to smoke or use drugs; have lower rates of sexual activity and teen pregnancy; have 

higher grades; and learn important life skills, including the ability to work with a team, 

perform under pressure, set goals, and take criticism.21

Moreover, these benefits for women have not come at the expense of men. Data show

unequivocally that men‘s opportunities to participate in sports have grown alongside those of 

women.

22 Arguments to the contrary simply cannot withstand analysis.23

What the data instead confirm is that women continue to be disadvantaged in every aspect of 

sports participation. Although women represent 53 percent of the students at Division I 

 

20 2005 Clarification at p. 7.

21 See, e.g., Carnegie Corporation, The Role of Sports in Youth Development 9 (March 1996); NFHS, The Case for High School Activities 

(2002) at p.3, p.9; The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Fact Sheet: Not Just Another Single Issue: Teen Pregnancy and 

Athletic Involvement (July 2003); The Women‘s Sports Foundation Report: Sport and Teen Pregnancy (1998) at 5-7; The President‘s 

Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Physical Activity & Sports in the Lives of Girls (Spring 1997); Black Female Athletes Show GradRate Gains, The NCAA News (June 28, 1995).

22 U.S. General Accounting Office, Report GAO 01-297, Intercollegiate Athletics: Four-Year Colleges‘ Experiences Adding and 

Discontinuing Teams, March 8, 2001.

23 The College Sports Council (CSC), which focuses on protecting men‘s athletics opportunities, recently issued a study purporting to show 

an ―alarming decline in men‘s college athletics opportunities.‖ College Sports Council Longitudinal Study of NCAA Participation Data, 

available at http://savingsports.org/presentation/. Examination of that study, however, demonstrates its numerous analytical and 

methodological flaws. See Cheslock, J. (forthcoming), Intercollegiate Athletic Participation and Title IX, East Meadow, New York: 

Women‘s Sports Foundation (2007).
Statements 57

universities, for example, they continue to receive only 44 percent of intercollegiate athletics 

participation opportunities, 34 percent of athletics operating budgets, and 33 percent of the

money spent on recruitment.24 Indeed, in Division I, for every dollar being spent on women‘s

sports, almost two dollars are spent on men‘s athletics.25 At the high school level, girls 

represent only 42 percent of varsity athletes, and case law demonstrates the pervasive 

inequities that they face when they are allowed to play. Simply put, thirty-five years after the 

enactment of Title IX, the playing field is far from level for our nation‘s young female 

athletes.

In short, the Department‘s 2005 Clarification does a major disservice to the young women of 

this country. The harms it inflicts stand to stall or even reverse the progress that women have 

made under Title IX. Moreover, the Clarification also shortchanges schools, which will be 

vulnerable to legal liability if they implement methods of measuring women‘s interests—

such as those authorized in the Clarification—that violate Title IX standards. The 

Department should rescind the Clarification and instead restate its commitment to enforcing 

the longstanding regulatory policies that truly reflect Title IX‘s goals and requirements. The 

nation‘s young women deserve no less.

 

24 National Women‘s Law Center, Debunking the Myths About Title IX and Athletics (October 2006), available at 

http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/DebunkingMyths.pdf.

25 Id.
Statements 58

Judith M. Sweet
Statements 59
60 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
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62 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
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64 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
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66 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
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Stephanie J. Monroe
68 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
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70 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
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72 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Statements 73
74 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Public Comments 75

Public Comments

During the public comment period, the Commission received correspondence and documents 

from representatives of four organizations and eight individuals. Of the organizations, the 

American Association of University Women and the Women‘s Sports Foundation were 

critical of the 2005 Additional Clarification, the Eagle Forum recommended the elimination 

of proportionality, and the Independent Women‘s Forum stated further guidance for the 

Model Survey was necessary. The National Women‘s Law Center submitted for the public 

record a report prepared by the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education which

recommended that the 2005 Additional Clarification be rescinded. Of the eight individuals 

that submitted public comments, six (Dolores Halls (Las Cruces, NM), Anne-Marie Mallon 

(Bernardston, MA), Valerie McNay (Boulder City, NV), Majorie Mead (Sun City, AZ), 

Nancy Mion (Bayport, NY), and Virginia Ralston (Germantown, TN), joined with the 

American Association of Women in urging the Commission to reconsider the 2005 

Additional Clarification. The remaining two, Don Sabo (D‘Youville College, Buffalo, NY) 

and Christine H. B. Grant (University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA) jointly critiqued the Model 

Survey methodology. 

American Association of University Women

According to Ms. Lisa Maatz, director of public policy and government relations of the 

American Association of University Women (AAUW),1the 2005 Additional Clarification 

undermined Title IX and the progress women and girls had made since its enactment 35 

years ago.2 The guidance made it easier for schools to prove compliance by allowing the use 

of a less rigorous e-mail-based survey, she said.3 By treating nonresponses as indicative of a 

lack of interest, she said, the Model Survey failed to measure interest accurately.

4 Previous 

OCR practices, she observed, took other factors into account, including the opinions of 

coaches and administrators, and participation rates in sports in area high schools or 

recreational leagues, and were therefore more accurate.5 These practices, she stated, had been 

in place through Republican and Democratic administrations and upheld by all eight of the 

federal courts that considered them. She added that the NCAA supported consideration of 

additional factors, and its Executive Committee urged the U.S. Department of Education to 

rescind the 2005 Additional Clarification and instead honor its 2003 commitment to longstanding Title IX athletics policies.6 She added the public overwhelmingly supported strong 

 

1 The American Association of University Women (AAUW) ―advocates education and equity. Since its 

founding in 1881, members have examined and taken positions on the fundamental issues of the day—

educational, social, economic, and political.‖ According to the association, commitment to its mission is 

―reflected in...public policy efforts, programs, the AAUW Leadership and Training Institute, and diversity 

initiatives.‖ AAUW, http://www.aauw.org/about/index.cfm (accessed Oct. 21, 2008). 

2 Maatz Public Comment, Tracy Sherman, ―Re: Public Comments for May 11 briefing on Title IX,‖ e-mail to 

Christopher Byrnes, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, June 5, 2007, 10:21 a.m.

3

Ibid.

4

Ibid.

5

Ibid.

6

Ibid.
76 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Title IX standards and cited results from a January 2003 USA Today/CNN poll that showed 

seven in ten adults familiar with Title IX thought that the law should be strengthened or left 

alone.7In conclusion, she strongly urged the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights reconsider the 

2005 Additional Clarification.8

Eagle Forum

According to Ms. Jessica Echard, executive director of the Eagle Forum,9institutional use of 

proportionality to seek compliance with Title IX directly led to gender quotas on college 

campuses.10 She said many institutions attained proportionality through the elimination of 

men‘s teams, which prevented women athletes from training with and learning from male 

athletes. She recommended that the proportionality test be eliminated and a survey be 

instituted to gauge interest in athletic programs in the entire student body.11 According to her, 

this would allow every student a voice in determining a school‘s sports programs and ensure 

a level and full playing field.12

The Independent Women’s Forum

Ms. Allison Kasic, director of the Independent Women‘s Forum‘s campus programs, said as 

a result of Title IX, women found over time less discrimination, more opportunities, and 

increased status on campus.

13 However, according to her, the law‘s enforcement mechanisms 

have not kept pace.14 Given budgetary and other factors, she said, schools viewed cutting 

men‘s teams and a small roster of women‘s as their only option for compliance under 

proportionality, even though this was never the intent of Title IX.15 She added that 

proportionality had a quantitative nature, while Prongs Two and Three were subjective; and 

that schools that sought compliance under either faced the threat of lawsuits from interest 

groups.16 According to her, interest surveys offered an opportunity toward measurability and 

the Model Survey was a step in the right direction.17 She observed that further guidance was 

necessary since schools were hesitant to make use of the survey fearing litigation by interest 

groups.18 The other benefit of interest surveys, she added, was that it allowed athletes a say in 

what sports would be sponsored. She concluded with the hope that the Commission would 

 

7

Ibid.

8

Ibid.

9

Jessica Echard, ―Title IX Public Comment,‖ e-mail to Sock-Foon C. MacDougall, U.S. Commission on Civil 

Rights, June 4, 2007, 11:42 a.m.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Allison Kasic, ―Re: Public Comment on Title IX,‖ e-mail to Christopher Byrnes, U.S. Commission on Civil 

Rights, June 6, 2007, 9:27 a.m.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.
Public Comments 77

encourage the U.S. Department of Education to provide further guidance on implementing 

the Model Survey.

19

Women’s Sports Foundation

The Women‘s Sports Foundation submitted a report titled ―Who‘s Playing College Sports? 

Trends in Participation,‖ along with its supplement, both dated June 2007.20 According to the 

Women‘s Sports Foundation five major findings were evident: 

 Women‘s athletic participation levels substantially increased during the late 1990s, 

but this growth slowed considerably in the early 2000s.

21

 Women‘s participation level still lags far behind men‘s.

22

 Men‘s overall athletic participation levels increased over time.

23

 While a few men‘s sports suffered substantial declines, a larger number of men‘s 

sports enjoyed increases.

24

 The only group of higher education institutions that experienced declines in men‘s 

participation levels was NCAA Division I-A schools.

25

According to the Women‘s Sports Foundation, the policy implications of these findings 

include:

 Further weakening of Title IX, as represented by the March 2005 policy clarification, 

is unjustified.

26

 Title IX does not need to be reformed to stop large overall decreases in men‘s athletic 

participation because such decreases have not occurred.

27

 The debate over Title IX should not be based on the experience of a few individual 

sports.

28

 Efforts to analyze and stem reductions in men‘s sports should focus on Division I-A 

institutions, the only set of institutions that experienced declines. Future attempts to 

 

19 Ibid.

20 J. Cheslock, ―Who‘s Playing College Sports? Trends in Participation,‖ (East Meadow, NY: Women‘s Sports 

Foundation), June 5, 2007, p. 3. The report drew on data from two samples, the first consisted of a group of 738 

NCAA colleges and universities (1995–96 and 2004–2005); the second sample consisted of 1,895 higher 

education institutions (2001–02 and 2004–05). Melanie Bennett, ―Re: Title IX Hearing Public Record,‖ e-mail

to Sock-Foon C. MacDougall, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, June, 8, 2007, 9:45 a.m.

21 Ibid., p. 3.

22 Ibid., p. 3. 

23 Ibid., p. 3. 

24 Ibid., p. 3. 

25 Ibid., p. 3. 

26 Ibid., p. 3. 

27 Ibid., p. 3. 

28 Ibid., p. 4. 
78 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

explain the declines of men‘s athletic participation at Division I-A institutions should 

consider institutional policies and practices associated with the  ̳arms race‘ in athletic 

spending.

29

National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education

The National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education30 stated that its report ―Title IX 

Athletics Policies: Issues and Data for Education Decision Makers,‖ demonstrated the 

following:

1. Female athletes are not receiving equal treatment or opportunities to participate 35 

years after the passage of Title IX. 31

2. The three-part test is flexible and lawful and reflects fundamental principles of 

equality. 32

3. Title IX has been wrongly blamed by its critics for cuts to some men‘s sports teams at 

some educational institutions. 33

4. As is demonstrated by the increase in women‘s participation in athletics since 1972, 

given the opportunity to play, women are just as interested in sports as men. 34

5. Over the last five years the gap between male and female athletic participation in high 

school grew from 1.13 million to 1.2 million opportunities. 35

6. Loss of male collegiate athletic participation opportunities is a myth. Male athletic 

participation continues to grow, and more male teams are added than are dropped. 36

Based on the above, the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education made the 

following recommendations:

1. Mandate Collection of Title IX Data for High Schools37

 

29 Ibid., p. 4. 

30 ―Title IX Athletics Policies: Issues and Data for Education Decision Makers,‖ A report from the National 

Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, updated May 10, 2007, http://www.ncwge.org (accessed Nov. 21, 

2008). Jocelyn Samuels, ―Re: Report by the National Coalition for Women and Girls,‖ e-mail to Sock-Foon C. 

MacDougall, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, June 4, 2007, 3:36 p.m. The National Coalition for Women and 

Girls in Education (NCWGE) is a nonprofit organization of more than 50 groups dedicated to improving 

educational opportunities for girls and women. See http://www.ncwge.org (accessed Jan. 23, 2009).

31 Ibid., p. ii.

32 Ibid., p. ii.

33 Ibid., p. ii.

34 Ibid., p. iii.

35 Ibid., p. iii.

36 Ibid., p. iii.

37 Ibid., p. iii.
Public Comments 79

2. Rescind the March 2005  ̳Clarification‘

38

3. Improve Education39

4. Control College Athletics Expenditures40

5. Vigilant Enforcement41

Don Sabo and Christine H. B. Grant

According to Sabo and Grant, it would be methodologically misguided for institutions to use 

the U.S. Department of Education‘s online survey method as the sole measure of compliance 

with Prong Three.

42 They pointed out that sound methodology required use of multiple 

measures to evaluate interest and ability, and highlighted several of the survey‘s 

methodological flaws.43 They provided three reasons why multiple measures were important:

1. Research showed that an individual‘s disposition and willingness to express personal 

interest in athletics was influenced by social norms, culture, gender, race, and 

ethnicity.44 For example, they said boys and men were apt to express interest in sports 

and identify as athletes because these interests were traditionally associated with 

appropriately ―masculine‖ behavior and identity.

45

2. Any failure to express interest likely reflected a lack of prior exposure, which in turn 

was the result of discriminatory limitations on women‘s opportunities. As a result, 

surveys could not measure the extent to which women would show interest and 

ability if non-discriminatory opportunities were made available to them.

46

3. Any survey of athletic interests was based on the problematic theoretical assumption 

that surveys of interest could be used to predict athletic behavior.47 They said

behavioral scientists have long observed the discrepancy between attitudes and 

behavior.

48

For these reasons, they said, the U.S. Department of Education‘s longstanding prior policies, 

including its 1996 Clarification, made clear that a survey of students was only one of many 

 

38 Ibid., p. iii.

39 Ibid., p. iv.

40 Ibid., p. iv.

41 Ibid., p. iv.

42 Don Sabo and Christine H. Grant, (June 2005), ―Limitations of the Department of Education‘s Online Survey 

Method for Measuring Athletic Interest and Ability on U.S.A. Campuses,‖ (Buffalo, NY: Center for Research 

on Physical Activity, Sport & Health, D‘Youville College), p. 1. Don Sabo, ―Re: Comment on OCR online 

survey,‖ e-mail to Christopher Byrnes, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, May 29, 2007, 9:03 a.m.

43 Ibid., p. 1.

44 Ibid., p. 2.

45 Ibid., p. 2.

46 Ibid., p. 2.

47 Ibid., p. 2.

48 Ibid., p. 2.
80 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

methods schools could use to evaluate whether they were meeting the interests and abilities 

of their female studentsfully.49

Don Sabo and Christine Grant then discussed four methodological flaws of the survey:

1. Online surveys often result in low response rates and most campuses have failed to 

attain full responses to such surveys, thus increasing the likelihood that few students 

would participate in the Model Survey.50 Exacerbating the problem was the survey 

design‘s failure to consider variation in student access to or use of e-mail, and the 

fast-growing trend among youth who rely on text messaging for interpersonal 

communication.51 Students who lack access to computers or rely mostly on text 

messaging would likely not be included in campus-based online surveys.52 Institutions 

employing the survey would risk drawing conclusions based on inadequate sample 

sizes, they said.53 The 2005 Additional Clarification, they added, provided no 

guidance on when a sufficient sampling had been achieved for the Model Survey.

54

2. The User‘s Guide for the Model Survey recommended that institutions conduct a 

census of the student population.55 They said the Department of Education was aware 

that student completion of an on-line survey was unlikely, based on previously 

mentioned reasons, and thus treated the methodology as a census, where all students 

were simply contacted and asked to go to a Web site to complete a questionnaire.56

Further, they said the 2005 Clarification specifically permitted schools to count a 

nonrespondent as someone who indicated no interest in athletics.57 By equating 

nonresponses to a lack of athletic interest, they said, the survey‘s methodological 

 

49 Ibid., p. 2.

50 Ibid., p. 4.

51 Ibid., p. 4.

52 Ibid., p. 4. 

53 Ibid., p. 4.

54 Ibid., p. 4.

55 An example would be blocking a student‘s registration until he/she completed the survey. Don Sabo and 

Christine Grant said that even if the online survey was made mandatory, students who did not want to 

participate irrespective of their interest or participation in athletics could protest the requirement by providing 

inaccurate information, such as indicating ―no interest/experience‖ on the survey. They claimed that this would 

be particularly likely since the survey would likely take more time to complete than was stated in the 2005 

Additional Clarification. The difficulty, they pointed out, was that analysts would not know the extent of the 

inaccuracy. Mr. Sabo and Ms. Grant continued that even if students were screened at the point of registration 

through verification of a campus identification, it could not be determined that the individual completing the 

registration was the targeted student, as it was not uncommon for students to have other persons register for 

them. On many campuses, they said, some students share their campus identifications and passwords even if it 

violated university policy. See Don Sabo and Christine Grant, ―Limitations of the Department of Education‘s 

Online Survey Method for Measuring Athletic Interest and Ability on U.S.A. Campuses,‖ June 2005, p. 5, 

footnote 9.

56 Ibid., p. 5.

57 Ibid., p. 5.
Public Comments 81

procedures did not meet basic scientific criteria for establishing reliable and valid 

survey results.

58

3. The Model Survey in reality relied on a sampling methodology, but the 2005 

Additional Clarification did not ensure that the sample of students on a campus that 

responded to the online survey would be representative of the student population.59

Respondents, they said, would be different from nonrespondents in ways that were 

unknown or not measured, and the resulting sample would be compromised and the 

findings rendered suspect.

60 A related methodological issue, they said, was selfselection on the part of the respondents, which would result in inferences of limited 

value.

61

4. Some students may misinterpret the purpose of the survey.62 They remarked that 

because it was titled ―Assessment of Students‘ Athletic Interests & Abilities‖ and 

those terms were undefined, some students may think it is an assessment of their 

interest in participating in intercollegiate sports, rather than in real and potential 

recreational, intramural, club, or junior varsity activities.63 They claimed that to the 

extent that these latter athletic activities were historically marginalized or 

comparatively under-funded on a campus, students‘ personal interest in participating 

in them could be dampened.64 In their view, the surveys were therefore unlikely to 

capture the full range of athletic interests that institutions should consider in 

structuring each level of their sports programs.

65

Sabo and Grant concluded by encouraging policymakers, government officials, educators, 

and researchers to evaluate fully the department‘s online survey method to further elucidate 

these and other methodological concerns.66

Dolores Halls, Anne-Marie Mallon, Majorie Mead, Valerie McNay, Nancy 

Mion, and Virginia Ralston

Halls, Mallon, Mead, McNay, Mion and Ralston said they joined with the American 

Association of University Women in urging the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to 

reconsider the U.S. Department of Education‘s 2005 Additional Clarification.67 In their view, 

 

58 Ibid., p. 5.

59 Ibid., p. 5.

60 Ibid., p. 5.

61 Ibid., pp. 5–6.

62 Ibid., p. 6.

63 Ibid., p. 6.

64 Ibid., p. 6.

65 Ibid., p. 6.

66 Ibid., p. 6.

67 Dolores Halls, ―Re: Changes to Title IX Regulations,‖ e-mail to Christopher Byrnes, U.S. Commission on 

Civil Rights, May 23, 2007, 1:30 p.m.; Anne-Marie Mallon, ―Re: Title IX and equal opportunity,‖ e-mail to 

Christopher Byrnes, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, May 28, 2007, 12:35 p.m.; Valerie McNay, ―Re: Dept. 

of Ed. needs to enforce not weaken Title IX,‖ e-mail to Christopher Byrnes, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 

May 24, 2007, 10:07 a.m.; Marjorie Mead, ―Re: Title IX— ̳Let‘s Play Fair!‘‖ e-mail to Christopher Byrnes,

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, May 28, 2007, 12:13 a.m.; Nancy Mion, ―Re: Title IX Athletics: Error in 
82 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

it undermined Title IX because e-mail surveys alone could not ascertain students‘ interest in 

athletic participation accurately.

68 Ms. Mion added that use of multiple methods yields a truer 

measure.69 McNay, Mead, Mion, and Ralston also said the 2005 Additional Clarification‘s

treatment of nonresponse as an indication of a lack of interest would likely understate its 

extent.70 Five of the six individuals said 35 years after the enactment of Title IX, female 

athletes continued to be shortchanged in recruiting, operating, and scholarship dollars, and 

playing sports.71

 

using e-mail only to survey women‘s interest in athletics,‖ e-mail to Christopher Byrnes, U.S. Commission on 

Civil Rights, May 28, 2007, 5:57 p.m.; Virginia Ralston, ―Re: Do NOT weaken Title IX,‖ e-mail to Christopher 

Byrnes, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, May 23, 2007, 12:24 p.m.

68 Ibid.

69 Nancy Mion e-mail to Christopher Byrnes, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, May 28, 2007, 5:57 p.m.

70 McNay e-mail, May 24, 2007; Mead e-mail, May 28, 2007; Mion e-mail, May 28, 2007; Ralston e-mail, May 

23, 2007.

71 Halls e-mail, May 23, 2007; Mallon e-mail, May 28, 2007; McNay e-mail, May 24, 2007; Mead e-mail, May 

28, 2007; Ralston e-mail, May 23, 2007.
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 83

Commissioner Statements

Title IX Athletics

Statement of Vice Chair Abigail Thernstrom

Much of the debate which occurred during our briefing on Title IX Athletics focused on 

the use of the Model Survey method of assessing student interest in athletics versus strict 

proportional representation of women and men in collegiate sports. The latter has for many 

years been the "legal safe harbor" for proving compliance with Title IX. A school that shows 

proportional representation of men's and women's sports teams is guaranteed freedom from 

lawsuits and intrusive government interventions. 

The Model Survey, introduced by the Department of Education in 2005, for the first 

time promised a more nuanced, manageable, and cost effective approach to demonstrating a 

school's compliance with the law. When administered properly, the Model Survey accurately 

assesses the interest and ability of the "underrepresented" sex in participating in collegiate 

sports.

However, entrenched special interests including, surprisingly, the NCAA, strongly 

opposed the use of the Model Survey. Their opposition seems to be premised on the 

condescending assumption that women are incapable of articulating their interest in 

participating in collegiate sports. 

One witnesses summed up the argument in favor of the less intrusive, less burdensome 

Model Survey as follows: "It‘s strength -- perhaps its only strength -- is that for the first time in 

a decade it reintroduces the notion that government should view women as thinking, discerning 

individuals capable of expressing and acting on their interests when judging an institution under 

Title IX".1

As a civil rights enforcement tool, proportional representation based on gender in the 

21st century is every bit as anachronistic as such policies based upon race and ethnicity. 

Collectively, these policies may have had their place 40 or 50 years ago but today we are 

privileged to live in a society where men and women of all colors and origins are free as never 

before to pursue equal opportunities and to enjoy the rewards of society based upon their efforts 

and abilities. It has been illegal in the United States to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, 

ethnicity, or national origin for over 40 years. 

As I stated during our briefing, the status of women and how they think of themselves 

has undergone decades of transformative change, and Title IX was but one of many factors 

 

1

Prepared statement of witness Jessica Gavora, Vice President of the College Sports Council, in her prepared 

statement at Draft Briefing Report page 48.
84 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

contributing to an enormous increase in women participating in athletics today.2 Witnesses 

Jocelyn Samuels, Vice President for Education and Employment for the National Women's Law 

Center, and Judith Sweet, Consultant, National Collegiate Athletic Association, both of whom 

advocate for continuing the archaic proportional representation standard, presented an image of 

women that belongs more in the 1950s, when women had a need for Title IX to confirm their 

potential as athletes.3 My point was then, and remains now, that the need has passed for the 

heavy-handed imposition of policies that protect women from exclusion. By now, women have 

the power to make their own determination of their interest in collegiate athletics as well as 

virtually all other areas of endeavor in our society.

Damage Caused by Title IX Proportional Representation:

I am also greatly concerned about testimony we received concerning the negative impact of 

Title IX upon men's collegiate athletics. It was reported that in the year preceding this briefing 

hundreds of male athletes at six colleges had their prospects for participating in collegiate 

athletics taken away due in significant part to Title IX.4

The case of James Madison University in particular stood out. In the fall of 2006 James 

Madison had a female enrollment of 61 percent. When two women's club teams requested 

varsity status, the school, with limited budget resources, was forced to achieve statistical 

proportionality by cutting ten men's teams.

5

During their testimony, the College Sports Council proposed an eminently sensible remedy to 

this absurd situation. The Council proposed that in order to return Title IX to its original, antidiscrimination purpose the implementing regulation governing Prong Three be modified to 

require that the interests of both sexes be accommodated instead of just the "underrepresented"

sex. By way of example, they said that if the Model Survey revealed that 40 percent of its 

students who are interested in athletics are women it would apportion 40 percent of its 

opportunities to women. As Ms. Gavora put it: "In this way, students who shouldn't be 

considered in a disparate impact determination of discrimination -- [such as] older students, 

students with families, students who simply lack the interest and ability to compete in sports --

would rightly be excluded."6I strongly agree with this proposal and endorse the Civil Rights 

Commission's formal recommendation on this point.

Impact on Historically Black Colleges and Universities:

I am deeply troubled by the impact that Title IX has had upon male athletes at Historically 

Black Colleges and Universities. HBCUs are an educational treasure and they graduate a large 

percentage of black degree holders in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields. In 

 

2 Briefing transcript at p. 151.

3 Briefing transcript at p. 173.

4

Jessica Gavora at transcript p. 39.

5

Ibid, p. 41. and New York Times 10/07/2006 at 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/07/sports/othersports/07madison.html

6

Ibid., pp. 41-42. Also, Gavora's prepared statement, p. 51.
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 85

the context of Title IX, a major problem at HBCUs is that female students outnumber male 

students by almost 2 to 1. The addition of sports teams would be one logical way to attract more 

male students. But HBCUs are facing what has been described as a "virtual roadblock" to that 

effort because of Title IX.

7

Howard University is a well known HBCU located in Washington, DC. In a published article, 

former Howard University wrestling coach Wade Hughes noted that seven years ago Howard 

was forced to cut men's wrestling and baseball and added women's bowling in an attempt to 

avoid running afoul of Title IX. Five years after that, in 2007, Howard still had not achieved 

proportional representation and in order to do so would have had to drop 82 more male athletes 

from their programs which would have represented 40 percent of all male athletes at the school.8

In February 2008 the College Sports Council examined U.S. Department of Education 

enrollment data at HBCUs and found that virtually all HBCUs are out of compliance with Title 

IX.9 Among other things, the Council found:

73% of the nation's 75 HBCUs that are co-educational and have athletic programs were 

out of compliance with the strict proportionality standard. 

30 of the schools out of compliance would have received an "F" from the Women's 

Sports Foundation in their latest report card on gender equity in college athletics. 

43 schools, though they didn't get an "F", are still vulnerable to lengthy and expensive 

litigation. 

Thus, among its other flaws, Title IX's proportional representation provision represents a serious 

impediment to HBCU's efforts to enroll more minority males.

As Howard's former coach Wade Hughes wrote: 

"In 2005 a model survey option was offered in the U.S. Department of Education's clarification 

for Title IX compliance. Unfortunately, to date, the NCAA is actively discouraging universities 

from using surveys to measure the interest of their students.

"I believe that if Howard and other HBCUs want to increase their male enrollment, thereby 

increasing or at the least maintaining the opportunities available for African American male 

students to participate in college athletics, they should be afforded the latitude that the survey 

option offers."

10

 

7 Wade Hughes. "Where's Title IX for Black Men?", March 12, 2008, in "The Root" at 

http://www.theroot.com/views/wheres-title-ix-black-men

8

Ibid.

9 College Sports Council, Feb 27, 2008 press release, available at 

http://savingsports.org/newsroom/display_releases.cfm?ID=22

10 Wade Hughes, op. cit.
86 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Disaster in the Wings: Expansion of Title IX into Science, Technology, Engineering and 

Math

Historically, Title IX has been applied to collegiate athletics. However, the act broadly prohibits 

sex discrimination in all federally assisted education programs and activities. The Obama 

Administration has given early signals that it intends to greatly expand the application of Title 

IX into the study of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Additionally, a bill was 

introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 24, 2009 that would direct federal 

grantmakers to show year to year progress toward proportional representation of females among 

research and educational institutions receiving such grants.11

In October 2008 then Senator Obama stated "The United States must aggressively pursue the 

innovative capacity of all people. In a globalized world, our prosperity and national security

depend on our ability to lead the world in innovation. Other nations are now challenging that 

leadership, and in responding we must call upon talent and creativity of all of our people. We 

will need to significantly increase our STEM workforce, and to do that we will need to engage 

not just women and minorities but also persons with disabilities, English language learners, and 

students from low income families."

12

The President's statement is fine, up to the point at which he pointedly excluded non-minority 

men from his otherwise exhaustive list of racial, gender and ethnic groups we need to engage in 

this quest.

Later in the same set of responses, Obama signaled his intention to use Title IX to enforce 

gender quotas upon our STEM students and workforce. In extolling the success of Title IX in 

increasing female participation in sports, he said: "If pursued with the necessary attention and 

enforcement, Title IX has the potential to make similar, striking advances in the opportunities 

that girls have in the STEM disciplines."

13

Obama's analogy between the alleged impact of Title IX on women's sports and Title IX's 

potential impact on women in the STEM disciplines is seriously flawed. Gender quotas or 

enforced proportional representation of women in collegiate sports has, by definition, resulted in 

a cap on men's participation. We received compelling testimony regarding colleges having had 

to cut men's teams in order to achieve proportional representation of women.14

Surely we do not want to advance policies which will almost certainly result in reducing men's 

participation in the STEM disciplines for the dubious goal of achieving proportional 

representation of women and other non-majority groups--especially since there is compelling 

 

11 H.R. 1144 "Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Act", 111th Congress 

1st Session.

12 Senator Obama's responses to questions from the Association for Women in Science and The Society of 

Women Engineers, Oct. 2008, LINK: 

https://www3750.ssldomain.com/awis/documents/AWISandSWEQuestionnaireObamaResponses-2.pdf

13 Ibid.

14 Briefing Transcript: Gavora at p. 90, Gavora at p. 104, Sweet at p. 153, Kirsanow at p. 169.
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 87

evidence that women are doing quite well without preferences in science fields in which men 

are actually underrepresented.

15

The key to producing more scientists in our society is not an insistence on the "proportional 

representation" of ―underrepresented‖ groups. Rather, the key lies in making sure those who 

have talent and ability in the STEM fields are able freely to pursue their interests. Let men, 

women, minorities, and other groups contribute to our nation's preeminence in the STEM 

disciplines in proportion to their interest and ability. 

Preeminence in science and technology, regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity, has proven to be 

one of our country's greatest strengths. Let us celebrate the abilities and ambitions of our college 

students without regard to their race, gender, ethnicity or national origin. Therein lies the true 

strength of the United States.

 

15 Sommers, Christina Hoff, "A Threat in Title IX," Washington Post, Tuesday, April 14, 2009, Page A17. On 

the internet at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/13/AR2009041302119.html 

QUOTE: "Title IX could make "similar striking advances" for women in science and engineering. Indeed it 

could -- but at what cost to science? The idea of imposing Title IX on the sciences began gaining momentum 

around 2002. Then, women were already earning nearly 60 percent of all bachelor's degrees and at least half of 

the PhDs in the humanities, social sciences, life sciences and education."
88 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Dissenting Statement of Commissioners Arlan Melendez & Michael Yaki

We strongly disagree with the report recommendations issued by our conservative 

colleagues. It was apparent at the briefing that they already were supportive of the Bush 

administration‘s rule change and hostile to the position of the NCAA and other groups who 

believe the rule change harmful. They now seek to add legitimacy to their views by issuing a 

one-sided report. It is ironic that our conservative colleagues admonish ―advocates for 

particular views on Title IX‖ to ―not devalue or dismiss other perspectives.‖ It seems to us 

that they have done precisely that in these findings and recommendations.

We also note that this report is outdated—the information on this topic was gathered in May 

2007. At that time, it was too soon to see how and to what extent the 2005 rule change 

regarding student interest surveys was being used by colleges and universities. Today, the 

situation is different and there is more evidence available regarding the practical 

implementation of this rule (which in the 2007 briefing was a major focus of those on both 

sides of this debate). The record for this report, however, does not incorporate such 

information from the last two years or a current assessment of how the 2005 rule change has 

affected campus‘ Title IX compliance efforts.

Under new rules passed by our conservative colleagues, all Commissioners have the

opportunity to respond to this dissenting statement.
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 89

Rebuttal Statement of Commissioners Michael Yaki and Arlan Melendez

Regarding United States Commission on Civil Rights Briefing Report

Title IX: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

November 12, 2009

SUMMARY

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, renamed in 2002 the Patsy T. Mink 

Equal Opportunity in Education Act in honor of its principal author, was enacted 

on June 23, 1972. The law states, in relevant part: "No person in the United States 

shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, 

or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving 

Federal financial assistance....‖ Title IX opened doors and created new opportunities 

for women to become lawyers, doctors, and athletes. It is the latter category that, to 

this day, has been under attack under a misguided belief that men‘s athletics have 

suffered due to the expansion of programs for women. And as the research amply 

shows, this is not only not true, but substantial disparities still exist which disfavor 

women.

Because of this, we respectfully and strongly disagree with the recommendations of 

the Commission's conservative majority in the briefing report entitled Title IX:

Accommodating Interests and Abilities. As we have unfortunately come to expect with 

recent Commission briefing reports, and as we have articulated in prior statements, 

because the process was biased, faulty, and inadequate, it was inevitable that the 

outcome is misleading.16

Further, we respectfully disagree with and rebut Vice-Chair Thernstrom‘s Statement 

highlighting the purported appropriateness of the Model Survey and the supposedlydisparate, negative impact of Title IX upon the opportunities of male students to 

participate in intercollegiate athletics. 

The central philosophical debate between the majority and the minority boils down to 

the question of whether Title IX‘s applications to athletics should exist. This is 

consistent with the majority‘s position on other landmark civil rights legislation that, 

in their opinion, has served its purpose and should be scaled back, if not eliminated. 

This is certainly the opinion of the majority on the issues of school desegregation,17

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act,18 racial and ethnic categories on the Census,19 and 

affirmative action in contracting20 and law schools.21 And the hobgoblins of 

 

16 United States Commission on Civil Rights, Briefing and Meeting Transcript, May 11, 2207, pp. 22 – 24.

17 United States Commission on Civil Rights, Becoming Less Separate? School Desegregation, Justice 

Department Enforcement, and the Pursuit of Unitary Status, September, 2007.

18 United States Commission on Civil Rights, Reauthorization of the Temporary Voting Rights Act: An 

Examination of the Act's Section 5 Preclearance Provision, Briefing Report, April, 20006.

19 United States Commission on Civil Rights, Racial Categorization in the 2010 Census, Briefing Report, 

March, 2009.

20 United States Commission on Civil Rights, Federal Procurement After Adarand, September, 2005.

21 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Affirmative Action in American Law Schools, Briefing, April, 2007.
90 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

consistency remain in place in the majority‘s report on this issue as well.22

DISCUSSION

The current controversy, and one in which we believe the new Administration should 

involve itself, concerns the Department of Education's 2005 Title IX policy guidance, 

―Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy: Three-Part Test ― Part 

Three,‖ which is attached hereto as Appendix B. This so-called ―guidance‖ issued by 

the Bush-era Department of Education late on a Friday afternoon in March, 2005, 

seriously weakens the enforcement of Title IX's protections previously set forth in the 

Department's 1996 Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance: The 

Three-Part Test, which is attached hereto as Appendix C. It thereby threatens to 

undermine the significant advances made by women and girls under the rules of this 

landmark legislation. Such dilution of the statutory protection is based upon, and 

ostensibly justified by, the notion that the problem of discrimination against women in 

the area of athletics is a thing of the past, and that, therefore, female students are no 

longer in need of protections considered by some to be unduly burdensome.23

We recognize that, despite the great strides against such discrimination facilitated by 

both Title IX and general cultural evolution, anti-female bias in access to participation 

in sports at educational institutions remains a real wrong to be righted through the 

most vigorous possible enforcement of Title IX. We also recognize that the issue at 

hand is not only access to athletic opportunities themselves, but also access to college 

scholarships, admissions to highly competitive schools, and the physical, emotional, 

and scholastic benefits that come from athletic team participation. The 2005 

clarification threatens all of this.24

 

22 It is worth noting that USCCR Chair Gerald Reynolds voted with the majority to endorse the report's 

recommendations. Six years ago, Chair Reynolds evinced quite a different view during his tenure in the 

Department of Education. On July 11, 2003, while serving as Assistant Secretary in the Department of 

Education's Office for Civil Rights, Reynolds released a letter affirming the appropriateness of the three-part 

test discussed herein and the validity of its prongs. See Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 

Further Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance Regarding Title IX Compliance, July 11, 

2003, attached hereto as Appendix A. In that letter, Reynolds stated that ―OCR believes that the three-prong test 

has provided, and will continue to provide, schools with the flexibility to provide greater athletic opportunities 

for students of both sexes.‖

23 In her October, 2009 Statement regarding the underlying Briefing Report at issue, Vice-Chair Thernstrom 

stated: ―As I stated during our briefing, the status of women and how they think of themselves has undergone 

decades of transformative change, and Title IX was but one of many factors contributing to an enormous 

increase in women participating in athletics today. [footnote deleted]. Witnesses Jocelyn Samuels, Vice 

President for Education and Employment for the National Women‘s Law Center, and Judith Sweet, Consultant, 

National Collegiate Athletic Association, both of whom support continued use of the proportional 

representation standard, presented an image of women that belongs more in the 1950s, when women had a need 

for Title IX to confirm their potential as athletes. [footnote deleted]. My point was then, and remains now, that 

the need has passed for the heavy-handed imposition of policies that protect women from exclusion. By now, 

women have the power to make their own determination of their interest in collegiate athletics as well as 

virtually all other areas of endeavor in our society.‖ (emphasis added). Statement, Vice-Chair Thernstrom, 

October, 2009.

24As Commissioner Yaki stated at the conclusion of witness testimony in May, 2007, regarding watered-down 

enforcement mechanisms, ―I support something that is much more proactive, much more affirmative in nature, 
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 91

The majority makes four recommendations for further action regarding Title IX. If 

implemented, each would subvert the good role and power of the law and waste 

opportunities to right the wrongs which continue to be done to young Americans with 

athletic talent. That Title IX has been extremely successful in gradually bridging the 

gap between the athletic opportunities for women and men is undisputed, but an 

inappropriate differential still exists. The mission of Title IX is not yet complete, and 

returning the law to its full strength through reinvigorating its enforcement 

capabilities is both necessary and appropriate. 

In this Statement, we analyze each of the majority's recommendations and offer 

recommendations geared toward resuscitation and reinforcement of Title IX's 

integrity and strength, to ensure that equality of opportunity in athletics is afforded to 

young women in this country.

Majority Recommendation #1:

―The Commission commends the Department of Education for developing the student 

interest survey and for providing a rigorous yet practical means of complying with 

Title IX. It recommends that the Department's Office for Civil Rights continue to 

encourage institutions to use the Model Survey as a method of complying with Title 

IX, rather than relying on mechanical compliance with proportional representation, 

which may result in unnecessary reduction of men's athletic opportunities.‖

Minority Recommendation #1:

Contrary to the majority, we strongly recommend that the Department of Education 

rescind the 2005 Clarification and its incorporated Model Survey. We recommend that 

the Department make clear that the governing standards for part three of the threeprong test are as detailed in the January 16, 1996 Clarification of Intercollegiate 

Athletics Policy Guidance: The Three-Part Test. Further, we recommend that the 

Department and its Office on Civil Rights issue appropriate guidelines further 

clarifying how schools can implement renewed use of the multiple factors enumerated 

in the 1996 Clarification as a means of ensuring that the athletic interests and abilities 

of the underrepresented sex are fully and effectively accommodated as required by 

law.

Rationale:

Contrary to the majority's belief, the Model Survey is not a means for ensuring 

compliance with Title IX. Rather, it is a means for diminishing the power of the 

 

and one that seeks to use the good role and power of the law and government to create a better society and not 

simply hope that some magic hand will come out and make it all better.‖ United States Commission on Civil 

Rights, Briefing and Meeting Transcript, May 11, 2007, p. 161, lines 11 – 16.
92 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

statute.25

By encouraging reliance upon the flawed Model Survey, the 2005 Clarification 

threatens to justify reversal of the enormous progress women and girls have made in 

sports since the enactment of Title IX and to perpetuate further discrimination against 

them. It weakens the longstanding Title IX compliance standards governing schools at 

both the interscholastic and intercollegiate levels and allows schools to evade their 

obligations to provide equal participation opportunities to their male and female 

students.

The Model Survey is inherently flawed, both in structure and methodology.

That the 2005 Model Survey is incapable of meeting the stated goals for its use is 

beyond serious dispute. It is far from rigorous and suffers from many substantive and 

methodological flaws.26 For example, in substance, the survey breaches a fundamental 

guideline for questionnaire construction when it uses double-barreled items.27 Further, 

at its very outset, the survey advises respondents that they can avoid completing the 

survey by indicating a lack of interest. Students who do not want to complete the 

survey, notwithstanding their interest and/or ability, are likely to respond to this 

prompt and exit the survey. This response pattern will erode representativeness, the 

overall response rate, and the accuracy of results.

Not only is the survey methodology authorized under the 2005 Clarification flawed, it 

is inconsistent with the requirements of prior Department policy. Specifically, under 

the 2005 policy, schools may e-mail the survey to all female students and interpret a 

lack of response as a lack of interest. Given the notoriously low response rates to 

surveys in general, let alone to anything sent via email, this authorization will allow 

schools to avoid adding new opportunities for women even where interest does in fact 

 

25 As Commissioner Yaki asked at the May, 2007 briefing, ―Why is the administration putting into place 

clarification and procedures that would make it easier on institutions they [sic] say to comply with Title IX, 

which advocates believe would result in a weakening of the program?‖ United States Commission on Civil 

Rights, Briefing and Meeting Transcript, May 11, 2207, p. 115, line 21.

26 See generally Sabo, Don and Grant, Christine H. , ―Limitations of the Department of Education‘s Online

Survey Method for Measuring Athletic Interest and Ability on U.S.A. Campuses,‖ (Buffalo, NY: Center for 

Research on Physical Activity, Sport & Health, D‘Youville College, June 2005, which is attached hereto as 

Appendix D. Drs. Sabo and Grant submitted this written analysis and critique of the Model Survey during the 

public comment period following the Commission's briefing hearing, and the Commission report discusses such 

statement at pp. 74 – 76.

27 A double-barreled item is one which asks the respondent if he or she agrees or disagrees with a statement 

which references multiple potential beliefs or opinions. For example, the statement, ―I love cats and dogs‖ is 

double-barreled. If someone ―strongly agrees‖ with the statement, it is unclear whether he/she loves dogs, cats, 

or both dogs and cats. In the model survey language, there is a potential blurring or lack of clear distinction 

between ―have no experience,‖ ―current participation,‖ or ―interests in future participation.‖ Further, the survey 

uses the word ―or‖ (rather than ―and‖) to instruct respondents. Therefore, at least some respondents may opt to 

―click to complete survey‖ if they had ―no experience‖ or ―have no‖ current participation or ―no interest in 

future participation.‖ The ―either-or‖ framing of the instruction, therefore, makes it possible that a student with 

no experience in sport but who is actually interested in playing a sport at the varsity level might choose to click 

and complete the survey because they fit the ―no experience‖ category. Drafting problems of this nature 

continue throughout the model survey.
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 93

exist on campus. Further, schools may presume that young women‘s self-assessment 

of lack of ability to compete at the varsity level reflects an actual lack of ability.

Young women who have played sports at the club level, or who have played sports 

other than the particular ones being considered for varsity status, may well have the 

ability to compete at a varsity level in the sport at issue. Tennis players, for example, 

may also be able to play squash, and many female athletes can become expert rowers. 

Nonetheless, under the 2005 Clarification, and contrary to the Department‘s prior 

policies, schools are relieved of any obligation to seek the opinions of coaches or 

other experts on this issue.

The Department of Education's own 2005 Clarification illustrates additional flaws 

inherent in the Model Survey when it states that ―a student‘s experience in a particular 

sport... does not necessarily reflect the student‘s ability to compete on a team at the 

higher level required of intercollegiate athletes‖ and that ―the Model Survey does not 

capture information on the level of performance... of... a particular student."28 We ask 

that, if the model survey does not seek to capture a respondent's performance, then 

why are questions regarding respondents' performance being asked? The next 

paragraph only compounds the flaws by indicating that a student's self-assessment of 

lack of ability on the model survey is accurate, stating that ―OCR will presume that a 

student‘s self-assessment of lack of ability... is evidence of actual lack of ability.‖ 

Essentially, this section suggests that if a student indicates lack of ability, that 

response will be considered accurate, but if a student indicates some ability, that 

response could be considered inaccurate. This logical inconsistency is extremely 

problematic and demonstrates that this is not a valid measure of student ability.

The 2005 Guidance overemphasizes the usefulness of data collected (or not 

collected) by administration of the Model Survey.

Not only is the survey flawed, but the 2005 Clarification allows too much weight to 

rest upon its shaky shoulders by eviscerating part three of Title IX‘s three-part 

participation test, which allows schools to demonstrate compliance if they can show 

that they are fully and effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of the 

underrepresented sex.

First, the 2005 Clarification allows schools to use surveys alone to demonstrate Title 

IX compliance. To the contrary, according to the Department's 1996 Clarification of 

Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance, a survey of student interest is only one of 

many factors that a school must evaluate to show that it is fully meeting women‘s 

interests under part three of the three-part test. Additional factors that schools must 

consider include: 1) requests by students to add a particular sport; 2) requests that an 

existing club sport be elevated to intercollegiate team status; 3) participation rates in 

club or intramural sports; 4) participation rates in sports in high schools, amateur 

athletic associations, and community sports leagues in areas from which the school 

draws its students; 5) interviews with students, coaches, and administrators regarding 

 

28 United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate 

Athletics Policy: Three-Part Test ― Part Three, March, 2008, p. 10.
94 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

interest in particular sports; and 6) participation in interscholastic sports by admitted 

students.29 The 2005 Clarification eliminates the obligation to consider these 

important criteria and gives too much power to survey results.

Second, surveys are likely only to provide a measure of the discrimination that has 

limited, and continues to limit, sports opportunities for women and girls. Courts have 

recognized that interest cannot be measured apart from opportunity,30 that women‘s 

interests in sports have been artificially limited by the discrimination to which they 

have been subjected, and that women‘s interests have grown as Title IX has opened 

new sports participation opportunities for them. As a result, basing women‘s future 

opportunities on their responses to surveys that measure their prior lack of exposure 

will only perpetuate the cycle of discrimination. Data reported as recently as October, 

2008 underscores the fact that primary- and secondary-school girls living in rural and 

urban areas are less involved in sports than same-aged boys. Further, a full 84% of 

urban female students in eleventh and twelfth grades surveyed stated that they were 

not participating in any physical education classes.31 This underscores the importance 

of both increasing pre-collegiate opportunities for female students and of reaching 

into the factors beyond a mere survey for collection of information.

Third, the 2005 Clarification conflicts with and undermines key purposes of Title IX, 

the encouragement of women's interest in sports and the elimination of stereotypes 

that discourage women from participating.32 Specifically, it allows schools to restrict 

their surveys to enrolled and admitted students, thereby permitting schools to evade 

their legal obligation to measure interest broadly. The 2005 Clarification ignores the 

reality that students interested in a sport not offered by a school are unlikely to attend 

that school. By failing to require schools to evaluate interest that exists beyond their 

own campuses, be it in high school, community, and recreational programs in the 

areas from which a school typically draws its students, current policy allows schools 

to evade their legal obligation to look broadly for interest in certain sports by women. 

Schools are rewarded with compliance findings for restricting their sports offerings 

and then claiming that they are satisfying the interests of those who are content with 

those restricted offerings. In this way, the 2005 Clarification is particularly damaging 

for female high school students, who are likely to have had few or no sports 

opportunities that would inform their responses to an interest survey, and who should 

be encouraged to try many different sports rather than having future opportunities 

prematurely limited. 

Fourth, the 2005 Clarification shifts the burden to female students to show that they 

are entitled to equal opportunity. Where schools are not providing equal participation 

opportunities for women under parts one or two of the three-part test, long-standing 

Department of Education policies make clear that schools have the burden of 

 

29 Ibid.

30 Cohen v. Brown University, 101 F.3d 155, 179-80 (1st Cir. 1996).

31 Sabo, Don, PhD, and Veliz, Phil, M.A., Women's Sports Foundation, Go Out and Play: Youth Sports in 

America, Executive Summary, Oct. 2008, p. 4. The full Executive Summary is attached hereto as Appendix E.

32 Neal v. Board of Trustees of the California State Universities, 198 F.3d 763 (9th Cir. 1999).
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 95

showing, and the Office for Civil Rights has the burden of rigorously evaluating, that 

they are nevertheless fully meeting the interests and abilities of their female students. 

The 2005 Clarification instead forces women to prove that their schools are not

satisfying their interests and that they are entitled to additional opportunities.

Contrary to the majority’s recommendation, Title IX does not require 

compliance with the proportionality prong of the three-part participation test. 

The Department of Education‘s 1979 Policy Interpretation33 establishes a three-part 

test for determining compliance with the regulatory requirement that "the selection of 

sports and levels of competition effectively accommodate the interest and abilities of 

members of both sexes."34 The test provides schools with three options for complying 

with Title IX's requirement to provide equal participation opportunities. The first 

prong, called the proportionality prong, allows a school to comply by showing that 

the percentages of male and female athletes mirror the percentages of male and 

female students enrolled.35 However, this is not the only way schools can demonstrate 

compliance with Department policies. The second prong of the test allows a school to 

comply by showing a history and continuing practice of program expansion for 

members of the underrepresented sex, even if equality of opportunities is not yet 

provided.36 The third prong allows a school to comply by showing that its current 

program fully and effectively accommodates the underrepresented sex, even if the 

school is not providing opportunities to that sex in proportion to its representation in 

the student body.

Thus, under the three-part test, while schools may, and some do, provide athletic 

opportunities to male and female athletes in proportion to their representation in the 

student body, the third part of the test explicitly states that they need not do so, or 

even try to do so, if they are otherwise fully accommodating the interests of their 

female athletes. As the First Circuit stated, the proportionality test is merely a safe 

harbor for institutions that can satisfy it.37

 

33 United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office for Civil Rights, Title IX of the 

Education Amendments of 1972; a Policy Interpretation; Title IX and Intercollegiate Athletics, 44 Fed. Reg. 

71,413 (December 11, 1979).

34 34 C.F.R. Sec. 106.41(c)(1).

35 The proportionality prong of the three-part test does not favor either men or women. Rather, its analysis is 

tied to the availability of opportunities for the underrepresented sex. While because of the unfortunate 

prevalence of sex discrimination against women in intercollegiate athletics, it is most often women who are 

underrepresented, the protection applies to men as well if they are underrepresented. Accordingly, the test is 

neutral and specifically designed to avoid existing discriminatory preferences for the overrepresented sex. See

Cohen I, 991 F.2d at 901 n.17 (noting that Title IX does not benefit only women, but rather protects the 

underrepresented sex, which could be men or women depending on the circumstances).

36 Prong two is an atypically generous and flexible standard for civil rights compliance. In no other civil rights 

remedial scheme that comes to mind are institutions considered to be in compliance with a nondiscrimination 

mandate by demonstrating only incremental progress towards nondiscrimination and equity, such as that 

allowed in this prong.

37 See Cohen v. Brown University, 991 F.2d at 897-98 (1st Cir. 1993); Neal v. Board of Trustees of The 

California State Universities, 198 F.3d 763, 771 n.7 (9th Cir. 1999) ([T]he OCR's three-part [participation] test 

gives universities two avenues other than substantial proportionality for bringing themselves into Title IX 

compliance. Cohen v. Brown University, 101 F.3d 155 (1st Cir. 1996) (―No aspect of the Title IX regime at 
96 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Moreover, the three-part test, in operation, has underscored the vitality of each of the 

three prongs. Between 1994 and 1998, of the seventy-four OCR cases involving Title 

IX‘s participation requirements, only twenty-one schools, or less than one-third, were 

found in compliance under the proportionality prong. Over two-thirds of the schools 

were found by OCR to be in compliance under part two or part three of the test.38 To 

radically modify enforcement of Title IX to satisfy the concerns of the minority who 

consistently fail to meet its requirements, whether by deliberation or neglect, is to turn 

the concept of enforcement on its head.

Appropriate Enforcement of Title IX has not reduced intercollegiate athletic 

opportunities for men.

The majority falls prey to the imagined strength of a popular myth: that vigorous 

enforcement of Title IX results in expanded athletic opportunities for female students 

at the cost of diminished numbers of teams and opportunities for men. This myth has 

been repudiated time and again, yet the majority somehow manages to play a game of 

twister with the facts. It is well-settled fact that men's opportunities have increased 

simultaneously with Title IX's facilitation of great increase in access to collegiate 

athletic opportunities for women. But in a time of diminishing budgets and financial 

pressures across all educational institutions, Title IX serves as a popular scapegoat for 

any cuts in men's collegiate sports opportunities.

Perhaps due in part to fiscal concerns, and perhaps in part due to weakened 

enforcement, the rate of women's ongoing progress toward parity of opportunity 

slowed greatly after the late 1990s into the early 2000s. Specifically, only fifteen 

percent of the 26,000-athlete increase in women's participation in a 1995 – 2005 

longitudinal study of 738 NCAA schools came between 2001 and 2005.39 The 

Government Accountability Office has found that the number of men‘s teams 

increased from 1981-82 to 1998-99.40 The same study showed that of 948 schools that 

added one or more women‘s teams between 1992 and 2000, 72% did so without 

discontinuing any other men‘s or women's teams.41 The Government Accountability 

Office further reports that while women's teams now outnumber men's teams, the 

 

issue in this case inclusive of the statute, the relevant regulation, and the pertinent agency document B mandates 

gender-based preferences or quotas, or specific timetables for implementing numerical goals. Kelley v. Board of 

Trustees, University of Illinois, 35 F.3d 265, 271 (7th Cir. 1994) ([T]he [Title IX] policy interpretation does not 

... mandate statistical balancing. Rather the policy interpretation merely creates a presumption that a school is in 

compliance with Title IX and the applicable regulation when it achieves such a statistical balance. Even if 

substantial proportionality has not been achieved, a school may establish it is in compliance by demonstrating 

either that it has a continuing practice of increasing the athletic opportunities of the underrepresented sex or that 

its existing programs effectively accommodate the interests of that sex.

38 United States General Accounting Office (GAO Report No. 01-128, Gender Equity: Men's and Women's 

Participation in Higher Education, (2000), at 40. The full report is attached hereto as Appendix F.

39 Women's Sports Foundation, Who's Playing College Sports? Trends in Participation, June, 2007, p. 3. The 

full report, which also details a shorter-term, 2001 – 2005 NCAA study with similar findings, is attached hereto 

as Appendix G.

40 United States General Accounting Office, No. 01-297, Intercollegiate Athletics; Four-Year Colleges' 

Experiences Adding and Discontinuing Teams (2001) at 13. The full report is attached hereto as Appendix H.

41 Id. at 14.
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 97

number of male athletes compared to female athletes still exceeds the differential 

expected simply from proportional enrollment.42 Further, the GAO has found that the 

most often-cited reason for ending a male team opportunity was the lack of student 

interest in the sport in question.43 Thus, while the rate of increase for women has been 

greater, given the low point from which it began, the studies show that men's athletic 

opportunities have increased both in terms of the absolute number of male athletes 

and the number of men's teams, and any decrease is not attributable to Title IX‘s 

prescriptions. 

Some of the most recent statistical evidence continues to support the fact that men‘s 

sports participation opportunities have not declined as a result of Title IX 

implementation. NCAA male sports participation has increased from 169,800 in 

1981-1982 to 240,261 in 2007-2008.44 From 1988-1989 to 2006-2007, NCAA

member institutions added 2,678 men‘s sports while dropping 2,484 during that same 

period, showing a net gain of 194.45 During the same period, NCAA member 

institutions added 3,978 women‘s sports programs and dropped 1,690—for a net gain 

of 2,288.46 Counterintuitively, despite the fact that women comprise 57 percent of the 

college student population,47 they received just 43 percent of the opportunities to play 

intercollegiate sports.48 Another fact that would seem to undermine the contentions of 

the majority: between 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, the participation of female college 

athletes at NCAA institutions increased by 3,550 students, while men‘s participation 

increased by 6,431 participants.49

Further, significant growth in certain men's sports has far outpaced relatively minor 

decreases in a small number of certain opportunities. During the NCAA's ten-year 

study ending in 2005, tennis and wrestling were the only men's sports that lost more 

than eighty participants each. During the same period, four men's sports showed sharp 

increases. Men's opportunities to participate in collegiate football alone increased by 

over 4,000.50

 

42 Cohen, 101 F.3d at 180-81.

43 Government Accountability Office. (March 2001). Intercollegiate Athletics: Four-Year Colleges' Experiences 

Adding and Discontinuing Teams, 01- 297, 4.

44 National Collegiate Athletic Association, 1982-81 – 2007-08 NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Rates Report,

2008, p. 12.

45 Women‘s Sports Foundation, Women’s Sports and Fitness Facts and Statistics, 2009, p. 34.

46 Id.

47 National Center for Education Statistics, Total undergraduate fall enrollment in degree-granting institutions, 

by attendance status, sex of student, and control of institution: 1947 through 2007, 2007, Table 188.

48 Women‘s Sports Foundation, 2008 Statistics - Gender Equity in High School and College Athletics: Most 

Recent Participation & Budget Statistics, 2008.

49 National Collegiate Athletic Association, 1982-81—2007-08 NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Rates Report,

2008, pp. 61 – 64.

50 Women's Sports Foundation, Who's Playing College Sports? Trends in Participation, p. 4.
98 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Funds for athletic programming are still not distributed equitably between the 

sexes.

Financial allocations are an integral part of any analysis of Title IX, as they obviously 

create the athletic opportunities at issue. Those in favor of diminished enforcement 

standards claim that the increases in women's programs have an obvious impact on by 

diminishing funds for men's programs. Again, the facts do not bear out these 

allegations. Historically, expenditures for men's programs have been higher than for 

women's programs. And despite the 35-plus years of Title IX‘s existence, and despite 

its many and storied successes of Title IX, this fact remains true: dollar allocations for 

women's programs have yet to achieve parity with men's programs. In the 2004-05 

school year, women‘s college athletic expenditures were on average only about 55 

cents for every dollar of men‘s college athletic expenditures.51 Although this 

represents exponential growth from 1972, when women's collegiate athletic programs 

were accorded only 2% of available budgets,52 parity is still elusive. 

Further underscoring this point, according to the 2005-2006 NCAA Gender Equity 

Report, women‘s teams receive 33 percent of recruiting dollars (or $50 million less 

than men‘s teams), 36 percent of athletic operating dollars (or $1.55 billion less), and 

45 percent of college athletic scholarship dollars (or $166 million less).53 The 2005-

2006 NCAA Gender Equity Report found that recruiting expenses for women‘s teams 

is $115,900 per institution while men‘s teams receive $247,300 per institution.54

It is important to note that defending Title IX is not inconsistent with concerns about 

the elimination of any men‘s teams or programs, just as we would be concerned about 

the elimination of any women‘s teams or programs. Elimination of men's teams, when 

it does occur, is often the result of allocation decisions made regarding the dollars 

available to men's teams and not due to allocation of dollars away from men's 

programs toward women's programs. Schools are free to structure their sports teams' 

funding as they see fit. Many schools choose to spend the bulk of their sports budgets 

for high-profile men's football and basketball teams, despite the fact that those teams 

are rarely economically self-sustaining and cost schools out-of-pocket dollars. 

Further, such programs are not necessarily run in a financially prudent manner and 

costs are not contained as tightly as they could be. Other men's sports, such as 

wrestling, are therefore at risk of being underfunded because of schools' voluntary 

priorities and not due to Title IX requirements.55 Notwithstanding the point that it is 

not ours to judge the priorities of spending within men‘s or women‘s programs, there 

is obviously more to decisions affecting allocations than whether a college can 

―afford‖ a program because of Title IX concerns, as the majority would have its 

 

51 Women‘s Sports Foundation, Who’s Playing College Sports: Money, Race and Gender, Sept., 2008, p. 15.

52 National Women‘s Law Center, Equal Opportunity for Women in Athletics: A Promise Yet to be Fulfilled, A 

Report to the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, 2002, p. 2.

53 Women‘s Sports Foundation, 2008 Statistics - Gender Equity in High School and College Athletics: Most 

Recent Participation & Budget Statistics, 2008.

54 NCAA, 2005-06 NCAA Gender Equity Report, 2008, p. 22.

55 National Women's Law Center, Title IX and Men's ―Minor‖ Sports: A False Conflict, July, 2008, attached 

hereto as Appendix I.
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 99

readers believe.

Majority Recommendation #2:

―Since female students are fully capable of expressing interest in athletics, or lack 

thereof, advocates for particular views on Title IX compliance should not devalue or 

dismiss their perspectives.‖

Minority Recommendation #2:

The Department of Education should take seriously the longitudinal, highlyprincipled work of advocates on this issue. Further, the Department should 

incorporate the data and perspectives of credible advocates into consideration for 

preparing for the withdrawal of the 2005 Clarification that we recommend.

Rationale:

We agree with the majority that female students are fully capable of expressing their 

interests or lack thereof. However, we cannot accept that such interest is accurately 

expressed through the flawed vehicle that is the Model Survey. Reliance upon this 

interest assessment tool gives the majority a distorted and minimized view of the 

unmet level of women's interest in collegiate sports participation.

As the Courts have consistently stated, interest cannot be measured apart from 

opportunity, particularly where women‘s interests in athletics have been limited by 

the discrimination to which they have been – and continue to be – subjected. As a 

result, surveys cannot measure the extent to which women would express interest if 

non-discriminatory opportunities were made available to them. And allowing schools 

to rely solely, as the 2005 Clarification does, means, by its very nature, that women‘s 

lack of opportunities will continue. The Model Survey becomes a self-fulfilling 

prophecy.

Further, research experts have found that girls may be less likely to express interest in 

sports due to social norms and cultural factors, yet they will often participate 

enthusiastically if offered the chance to play and encouraged to do so. Females 

overall do not share males' long-standing association with self-identification as 

athletes in a cultural role. This truism further erodes the reliability of surveys as a 

means of collecting accurate data on the questions at hand.56

 

56 See generally Sabo and Grant, previously noted herein as Appendix D, The authors find that females may 

under-report self-perceived ―athlete‖ status as compared to males due to cultural pressures, assumptions, and 

norms. In Latina-American culture specifically, the concept of ―Maraianisma‖ still operates to discourage girls 

and women from aiming for roles other than housewife and motherhood. On this point, see Melnick, M., Sabo, 

D. & Vanfossen, B. (1992), Educational Effects of Interscholastic Athletic Participation on African-American 

and Hispanic Youth, Journal of Adolescence, 27(106):295-308; Melnick, M., Sabo, D. & Vanfossen, B. (1992), 

Effects of Interscholastic Athletic Participation On the Social, Educational, and Career Mobility of Hispanic 

Boys and Girls, International Review of Sport Sociology, 17(1):57-75; Sabo, D., Melnick M. & Vanfossen, B. 
100 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Another flaw of the Model Survey is that, as noted above, it only assesses the interest 

of admitted or enrolled students. This also narrows the universe of interest and has the 

impact of perpetuating limited sports opportunities.57 Or, put another way, students 

with interests in programs that a school refuses to offer self-select away from that 

school.

What the majority really seems to want is for advocates for full enforcement of Title 

IX to meekly accept Model Survey data as correct and weighty, and to ignore the 

multidimensional flaws in the survey as discussed at length above. The majority 

wants its own perspective of the credibility of information garnered via the Model 

Survey to be viewed in perfect focus, and the facts gathered by others seen through a 

weakened lens.

It is ironic that the majority sees fit to implicitly accuse advocates of devaluing and 

dismissing the perspectives of those who stand to benefit from full enforcement of 

Title IX when it is the majority itself that congratulates the Department of Education's 

actions toward that same end. The advocates whom the majority chastises voice truths 

inconvenient for the majority and other defenders of the 2005 guidance. 

Our view is that the advocates to whom the majority is speaking do, in fact, value and

embrace the perspectives of those whom Title IX is designed to help. The difference 

is that, unlike the majority, the advocates receive their information from credible 

research and sources and not from a fatally-flawed survey. The Department would do 

well to listen to them.

 

(1993), The Influence of High School Athletic Participation on Post-Secondary Educational and Occupational 

Mobility: A Focus on Race and Gender, Sociology of Sport Journal (Winter, 1993). 

Additionally, due to the constraints of traditional definitions of ―femininity,‖ American females overall may set 

a higher internal standard for themselves than do males before considering, and therefore reporting, themselves 

to be athletes. Sabo and Grant here cite sources including: The President‘s Council on Physical Fitness and 

Sports Report (1997), Physical Activity & Sport in the Lives of Girls: Physical and Mental Health Dimensions 

from an Interdisciplinary Approach, Washington, D.C.: Department of Health and Human Services; Sabo, D., 

Miller, K.E., Melnick, M.J. & Heywood, L. (2004), Her Life Depends On It: Sport, Physical Activity, and the 

Health and Well-Being of American Girls, East Meadow, N.Y.: Women‘s Sports Foundation. The logical 

outcome of this cultural pressure is a diminished interest in athletics absent specific encouragement and 

opportunity. Once opportunities and social validation are offered, many women who would have declined to 

express interest in sports develop the desire to participate. Sabo and Grant cite sources including Connell, R. W. 

(2000), The Men and the Boys, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press; Messner, M. A. (2002), Taking 

the Field: Women, Men, and Sports, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press; Pollack, W. (1998), 

Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood, New York: Henry Holt and Company; Senay, E. & 

Waters, R. (2004), From Boys to Men: A Woman‘s Guide to the Health of Husbands, Partners, Sons, Fathers, 

and Brothers, New York: Scribner. 

57 ―This approach ignores the reality that students interested in a sport not offered by a school are unlikely to 

attend that school. By failing to require schools to look beyond their own campuses to, for example, the high 

schools from which they typically draw students, the clarification rewards schools with a presumption of 

compliance, that OCR will not look behind for in effect wearing blinders -- that is, for restricting their sports 

offerings and then claiming that they are satisfying the interests of those who attend the school and are therefore 

content with those restricted sports offerings.‖ Testimony of Jocelyn Samuels, Transcript, pp. 45-6.
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 101

Majority Recommendation #3:

―Prong Three regulations should be revised to take explicitly into account the interest 

of both sexes rather than just the interest of the underrepresented sex. This would help 

restore Title IX to its original goal of providing equal opportunity for individuals of 

both sexes. Accordingly, the Model Survey method should be tailored to represent the 

interests of both sexes.‖

Minority Recommendation #3:

The Department of Education should withdraw the Model Survey and the full 2005 

Guidance, as we have stated in Minority Recommendation #1 above.

Rationale:

Rather than trying to fix the broken wheel that is the Model Survey, the Department 

should junk the car that is the 2005 Guidance.

The majority recommendation to revise Prong Three regulations does not account for 

the fact that the regulations and policies already require equal participation 

opportunities for both sexes. This requirement is encapsulated in the three-part 

participation test set forth in the 1979 Policy Interpretation as described above. Part 

three of that test allows an institution to comply by showing that its current program 

fully and effectively accommodates the underrepresented sex, even if the school is not 

providing opportunities to that sex in proportion to its representation in the student 

body and cannot demonstrate that it is making steady progress under part two. The 

underrepresented sex is determined by reference to part one. Although the unfortunate 

prevalence of sex discrimination against women in athletics often dictates that is most 

often women and girls who are under-represented, the protection applies to men and 

boys as well if and when they are underrepresented. Accordingly, the test is genderneutral and specifically designed to avoid existing discriminatory preferences for the 

overrepresented sex.58

Thus, what the majority is really advocating (and which is also evident in Vice-Chair 

Thernstrom‘s statement), is that the regulations be revised to require accommodation 

of the interests and abilities of female students based only on the relative levels of 

those interests as expressed in comparison to those of men. However, this ―relative 

interests‖ argument ignores the fact that a school relying on part three to comply with 

the three-part test is, by definition, failing to offer female students equal opportunity 

compared to their male peers. The relative interests argument is also premised on the 

inaccurate and impermissible stereotype that women are inherently less interested in

participating in athletics than their male counterparts. Opponents of the three-part test 

have repeatedly made this argument over the years, and the courts have unanimously 

rejected it. As the First Circuit has stated, ―the argument contravenes the purpose of 

 

58 See Cohen, 991 F.2d at 901 n.17 (noting that Title IX does not benefit only women, but rather protects the 

underrepresented sex, which could be men or women depending on the circumstances).
102 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

the statute and the regulation because it does not permit an institution or a district 

court to remedy a gender-based disparity in athletics participation opportunities. 

Instead, this approach freezes such disparity by law and thereby further disadvantages 

the underrepresented gender. Had Congress intended to entrench, rather than change, 

the status quo of historical emphasis on men's participation opportunities to the 

detriment of women‘s opportunities, it need not have gone to the trouble of enacting

Title IX.‖59

Majority Recommendation #4:

―The NCAA should reconsider its objection to the Model Survey and not discourage 

educational institutions from using student interest surveys or urge them to avoid their 

use, since college students are adults capable of assessing their own interest in 

sports.‖

Minority Recommendation #4:

To the contrary, we believe that the NCAA should continue its challenging, focused 

work on behalf of all students who stand to benefit from full, nonpartisan 

enforcement of Title IX. The NCAA is free to form and alter its own professional 

opinion of the Model Survey based on continually-evolving sociological data. The 

NCAA remains free to advise its members according to the best of its ability and 

according to its best professional judgment.

Rationale:

The NCAA does not enforce Title IX compliance, and the United States Commission 

on Civil Rights does not set policy for the NCAA. The NCAA does not retaliate 

against institutions that make decisions about how they will comply with federal civil 

rights law. Member schools are free to act as they believe appropriate within the 

bounds of the law. The NCAA has encouraged institutions to consider the use of 

student surveys as one of many tools for evaluation of interests and abilities to

compete in varsity sports in keeping with the January 16, 1996 Clarification of 

Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance: The Three-Part Test.

We believe that the majority is correct in stating that, as adults, college students are 

capable of assessing their own interests in athletic programs and participation. 

However, students can only express their self-assessed interests accurately to the 

extent that they are given a worthwhile and trustworthy tool for voicing that 

assessment. As we have discussed at length above, the Model Survey is not that tool.

 

59Cohen, 101 F.3d at 180-181.
Commissioner Statements and Rebuttals 103

Conclusion

Title IX has been one of the most effective tools in creating equal opportunities for 

girls and women in our society. Today, young women and men have a plethora of role 

models of both sexes to look up to in academia, in business, and in athletics. Title 

IX‘s existence is partly the reason and one of the contributing factors to this 

wholesale change in our culture and society.

Yet, there still remain critics, whose voices found favor in the previous 

Administration, who believe that any government action, any pro-active legislation, 

any attempt to remedy the sexism of the past, any push to raise and break the glass 

ceilings that created real barriers to equality, are, in their opinion, unwarranted and 

unnecessary and, sometimes, unconstitutional. These critics simply ignore the stark 

facts before them: that Title IX has not diminished any real and tangible athletic 

opportunities for men; that the number of men participating in athletics has increased, 

and not diminished, under Title IX; and that the funding advantage that men‘s 

athletics have traditionally maintained over women‘s athletics continues to this day.

Far from overturning men‘s programs, Title IX has managed to accomplish exactly 

what Congress intended through its passage: the expansion of programs and 

opportunities for young women. And that is, quite simply, a good thing.

We strongly encourage the new Administration to withdraw the 2005 Guidance and 

remove the Model Survey and restore the 1996 Clarification as the threshold 

standard. We cannot countenance backsliding or condone the reversal of the important 

gains made over the past three decades. To do so would be a disservice to the 

thousands of girls and women who have found joy, inspiration, role models, increased 

self-confidence and self-esteem and for some, a career in athletics.

Speaker Biographies 105

Speaker Biographies

Daniel A. Cohen

Daniel A. Cohen is an attorney with the law firm of Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman 

LLP in Atlanta. Since 2005, he has studied the legal implications of the OCR‘s 2005 

Additional Clarification and its Model Survey. The article he co-authored regarding 

compliance with Prong Three of Title IX was published in the Vanderbilt Journal of 

Entertainment and Technology Law: ―Navigating Into the New  ̳Safe Harbor‘—Model 

Interest Surveys as a New Tool for Title IX Compliance Programs,‖ 8 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. 

L. 1 (2005). 

His work in the area of Title IX has been cited in USA Today, the NCAA News, the Chronicle 

of Higher Education, and elsewhere. He received his undergraduate degree from Duke 

University and his law degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law.

In addition to Title IX, Mr. Cohen‘s practice focuses on litigation and trial practice, including 

the areas of labor and employment, school and university law, professional malpractice, and 

business and commercial litigation.

Jessica L. Gavora

Jessica Gavora is a Washington, DC, writer with clients that include the former Speaker of 

the House, Newt Gingrich, and the College Sports Council. Previously, she was the senior 

speechwriter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Under Attorney General John 

Ashcroft, Ms. Gavora was chief speechwriter and a senior policy advisor at the Department 

of Justice. She is also the author of Tilting the Playing Field: Schools, Sports, Sex and Title 

IX, published in May 2002 by Encounter Books. 

Prior to joining the U.S. Justice Department, Ms. Gavora was a Washington-based freelance 

political speechwriter and writer. In addition to writing for a variety of governmental and 

nongovernmental clients, Ms. Gavora has written extensively on politics, culture, and public 

policy under her own byline. Her articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Los 

Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Weekly Standard, USA Today, National Review, 

Policy Review and The Women’s Quarterly. 

Ms. Gavora received her master‘s degree in American foreign policy and international 

economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 

1993. She is a graduate of Marquette University with degrees in political science and 

journalism.
106 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Jocelyn F. Samuels

Jocelyn Samuels is Vice President for Education and Employment at the National 

Women‘s Law Center, where she supervises an active litigation docket of Title IX cases.

She spearheads the Center‘s efforts to preserve Title IX athletics policies and other 

regulations to ensure that young women are treated fairly in career education programs; 

to challenge policies and practices that block women‘s access to non-traditional courses,

such as math and science; and to pursue gender equity in all aspects of education.

Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Samuels was Labor Counsel to Senator Edward M. 

Kennedy, the Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and 

Pensions. She also worked for a decade as a senior policy attorney at the Equal 

Employment Opportunity Commission, where she specialized in issues of sex and race 

discrimination. Ms. Samuels received her law degree from Columbia University, and her 

bachelor‘s degree from Middlebury College.

Judith M. Sweet

In 1975, Ms. Sweet served as Director of Athletics at the University of California, San Diego 

(UCSD), becoming one of the first women in the nation selected to direct a combined men‘s 

and women‘s intercollegiate athletics program. In 1999, she joined the faculty of the Social 

Science department at UCSD. In 2001, Ms. Sweet became the Vice President for 

Championships and Senior Woman Administrator at the National Collegiate Athletic 

Association (NCAA), where in 2003, she was promoted to Senior Vice President for 

Championships and Education Services. Ms. Sweet returned to San Diego in 2006, where she 

is presently consulting and serving as an independent contractor for the NCAA.

A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, 

Madison, where she majored in Physical Education and Mathematics, and served as president 

of the Women‘s Recreation Association and national president of the Athletic and Recreation 

Federation of College Women. She earned a Master of Science Degree from the University 

of Arizona, Tucson, and a Master‘s of Business Administration Degree from National 

University, San Diego. Prior to her faculty appointment at UC San Diego in 1973, she taught 

and coached at the University of Arizona and Tulane University.

Judy was elected to a two-year term as membership President of the NCAA in 1991 and was 

Secretary-Treasurer of the NCAA from 1989 to 1991, becoming the first woman to serve in 

each of those positions. Her other NCAA Committee service is extensive, including the 

Subcommittee to Review Minority Opportunities in Intercollegiate Athletics, NCAA 

Foundation, and Gender Equity Task Force. She has served on various local, state, and 

national committees including the Board of Directors of the National Association of College 

Women Athletics Administrators (serving as president 2000-2001), the Board of Directors of 

the National Association of College Directors of Athletics and the Board of Trustees for The 

United States Sports Academy. 
Speaker Biographies 107

David F. Black

At the time of this briefing, Mr. Black served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for 

Enforcement in the U.S. Department of Education‘s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). In this 

capacity, he was the principal advisor to the Assistant Secretary on civil rights enforcement 

to further the mission of OCR. That mission is to ensure equal access to education and to 

promote educational excellence throughout the nation through vigorous enforcement of civil 

rights. Specifically, Mr. Black worked with the Assistant Secretary to oversee the resolution 

of about 5,000 civil rights cases filed annually in 12 enforcement offices. The Office for 

Civil Rights enforces several federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in programs 

or activities that receive federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education.

Prior to this appointment, Mr. Black worked as an attorney in the area of civil rights, labor 

and employment law and litigation. He has experience representing both employees and 

employers in all aspects of labor and employment law before state and federal agencies and 

courts. He also served as a member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General‘s Corps where 

he counseled management on all facets of employment law, and worked in the areas of 

administrative and civil law, physical disability, and criminal law. 

In 1996, Mr. Black received a juris doctor, cum laude, from the University of Minnesota 

Law School where he was Note and Comment Editor of the Minnesota Journal of Global 

Trade. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, summa cum laude, from the 

University of North Dakota in 1990.
108 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Appendix A

Further Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance Regarding Title IX 

Compliance

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF 

EDUCATION

OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

400 MARYLAND AVE., S.W.

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20202-1100

THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY

July 11, 2003

Dear Colleague:

It is my pleasure to provide you with this Further Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics 

Policy Guidance Regarding Title IX Compliance.

Since its enactment in 1972, Title IX has produced significant advancement in athletic 

opportunities for women and girls across the nation. Recognizing that more remains to be 

done, the Bush Administration is firmly committed to building on this legacy and continuing 

the progress that Title IX has brought toward true equality of opportunity for male and 

female student-athletes in America.

In response to numerous requests for additional guidance on the Department of Education's 

(Department) enforcement standards since its last written guidance on Title IX in 1996, the 

Department' s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) began looking into whether additional guidance 

on Title IX requirements regarding intercollegiate athletics was needed. On June 27, 2002, 

Secretary of Education Rod Paige created the Secretary's Commission on Opportunities in 

Athletics to investigate this matter further, and to report back with recommendations on how 

to improve the application of the current standards for measuring equal opportunity to 

participate in athletics under Title IX. On February 26, 2003, the Commission presented 

Secretary Paige with its final report, "Open to All: Title IX at Thirty," and in addition, 

individual members expressed their views.

After eight months of discussion and an extensive and inclusive fact-finding process, the 

Commission found very broad support throughout the country for the goals and spirit of Title 

IX. With that in mind, OCR today issues this Further Clarification in order to strengthen Title 

IX's promise of non-discrimination in the athletic programs of our nation s schools.

Title IX establishes that: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be

excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination 

under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
Appendix A 109

In its 1979 Policy Interpretation, the Department established a three-prong test for 

compliance with Title IX, which it later amplified and clarified in its 1996 Clarification. The 

test provides that an institution is in compliance if 1) the intercollegiate- level participation 

opportunities for male and female students at the institution are "substantially proportionate" 

to their respective full- time undergraduate enrollments, 2) the institution has a "history and 

continuing practice of program expansion" for the underrepresented sex, or 3) the institution 

is "fully and effectively" accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented 

sex.

First, with respect to the three-prong test, which has worked well, OCR encourages schools 

to take advantage of its flexibility, and to consider which of the three prongs best suits their 

individual situations. All three prongs have been used successfully by schools to comply with 

Title IX, and the test offers three separate ways of assessing whether schools are providing 

equal opportunities to their male and female students to participate in athletics. If a school 

does not satisfy the "substantial proportionality" prong, it would still satisfy the three-prong 

test if it maintains a history and continuing practice of program expansion for the 

underrepresented sex, or if "the interests and abilities of the members of [the 

underrepresented] sex have been fully and effectively accommodated by the present 

program." Each of the three prongs is thus a valid, alternative way for schools to comply with 

Title IX.

The transmittal letter accompanying the 1996 Clarification issued by the Department 

described only one of these three separate prongs - substantial proportionality - as a "safe 

harbor" for Title IX compliance. This led many schools to believe, erroneously, that they 

must take measures to ensure strict proportionality between the sexes. In fact, each of the 

three prongs of the test is an equally sufficient means of complying with Title IX, and no one 

prong is favored. The Department will continue to make clear, as it did in its 1996 

Clarification, that [i]nstitutions have flexibility in providing nondiscriminatory participation 

opportunities to their students, and OCR does not require quotas. 

In order to ensure that schools have a clear understanding of their options for compliance 

with Title IX, OCR will undertake an education campaign to help educational institutions 

appreciate the flexibility of the law, to explain that each prong of the test is a viable and 

separate means of compliance, to give practical examples of the ways in which schools can 

comply, and to provide schools with technical assistance as they try to comply with Title IX.

In the 1996 Clarification, the Department provided schools with a broad range of specific 

factors, as well as illustrative examples, to help schools understand the flexibility of the 

three-prong test. OCR reincorporates those factors, as well as those illustrative examples, 

into this Further Clarification, and OCR will continue to assist schools on a case-by-case 

basis and address any questions they have about Title IX compliance. Indeed, OCR 

encourages schools to request individualized assistance from OCR as they consider ways to 

meet the requirements of Title IX. As OCR works with schools on Title IX compliance, OCR 

will share information on successful approaches with the broader scholastic community.
110 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Second, OCR hereby clarifies that nothing in Title IX requires the cutting or reduction of 

teams in order to demonstrate compliance with Title IX, and that the elimination of teams is a 

disfavored practice. Because the elimination of teams diminishes opportunities for students 

who are interested in participating in athletics instead of enhancing opportunities for students 

who have suffered from discrimination, it is contrary to the spirit of Title IX for the 

government to require or encourage an institution to eliminate athletic teams.

Therefore, in negotiating compliance agreements, OCR's policy will be to seek remedies that 

do not involve the elimination of teams.

Third, OCR hereby advises schools that it will aggressively enforce Title IX standards, 

including implementing sanctions for institutions that do not comply. At the same time, OCR 

will also work with schools to assist them in avoiding such sanctions by achieving Title IX 

compliance.

Fourth, private sponsorship of athletic teams will continue to be allowed. Of course, private 

sponsorship does not in any way change or diminish a school's obligations under Title IX.

Finally, OCR recognizes that schools will benefit from clear and consistent implementation 

of Title IX. Accordingly, OCR will ensure that its enforcement practices do not vary from 

region to region.

OCR recognizes that the question of how to comply with Title IX and to provide equal 

athletic opportunities for all students is a challenge for many academic institutions. But OCR 

believes that the three-prong test has provided, and will continue to provide, schools with the 

flexibility to provide greater athletic opportunities for students of both sexes.

OCR is strongly reaffirming today its commitment to equal opportunity for girls and boys, 

women and men. To that end, OCR is committed to continuing to work in partnership with 

educational institutions to ensure that the promise of Title IX becomes a reality for all 

students.

Thank you for your continuing interest in this subject.

Sincerely,

Gerald Reynolds

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
Appendix B 111

Appendix B

Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy: Three-Part Test, Part Three

March 17, 2005

Dear Colleague:

On behalf of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education 

(Department), and as a follow-up to OCR's commitment to providing schools with technical 

assistance on Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX), I am sending you 

this "Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy: Three-Part Test  Part 

Three" (Additional Clarification). Accompanying the Additional Clarification is a "User's 

Guide to Student Interest Surveys Under Title IX" (User's Guide) and a related technical 

report. The Additional Clarification outlines specific factors that guide OCR's analysis of the 

third option for compliance with the "three-part test," a test used to assess whether 

institutions are effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of male and female 

student athletes under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The User's Guide 

contains a model survey instrument to measure student interest in participating in 

intercollegiate varsity athletics.

As you know, OCR enforces Title IX, an anti-discrimination statute, which prohibits 

discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities by recipients of federal 

financial assistance. Specifically, OCR investigates complaints of such discrimination and 

may, at its discretion, conduct compliance reviews. The Department's regulation 

implementing Title IX, published in 1975, in part, requires recipients to provide equal 

athletic opportunity for members of both sexes and to effectively accommodate the interests 

and abilities of their male and female students to participate in intercollegiate athletics. In the 

Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Interpretation published in 1979 (Policy Interpretation), the 

Department established a three-part test that OCR will apply to determine whether an 

institution is effectively accommodating student athletic interests and abilities. An institution 

is in compliance with the three-part test if it has met any one of the following three parts of 

the test: (1) the percent of male and female athletes is substantially proportionate to the 

percent of male and female students enrolled at the school; or (2) the school has a history and 

continuing practice of expanding participation opportunities for the underrepresented sex; or 

(3) the school is fully and effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of the 

underrepresented sex.

OCR has pledged to provide further guidance on recipients' obligations under the three-part 

test, which was described only in very general terms in the Policy Interpretation, and to 

further help institutions appreciate the flexibility of the test. Based on OCR's experience 

investigating complaints and conducting compliance reviews involving the three-part test, 

OCR believes that institutions may benefit from further specific guidance on part three.
112 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Today, in response, OCR issues this Additional Clarification to explain some of the factors 

OCR will consider when investigating a recipient's program in order to make a Title IX 

compliance determination under the third compliance option of the three-part test. The 

Additional Clarification reflects OCR's many years of experience and expertise in 

administering the three-part test, which is grounded in the Department's longstanding legal 

authority under Title IX and its implementing regulation to eliminate discrimination on the 

basis of sex in education programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.

Under the third compliance option, an educational institution is in compliance with Title IX's 

mandate to provide equal athletic participation opportunities if, despite the 

underrepresentation of one sex in the intercollegiate athletics program, the institution is fully 

and effectively accommodating the athletic interests and abilities of its students who are 

underrepresented in its current varsity athletic program offerings. An institution will be found 

in compliance with part three unless there exists a sport (s) for the underrepresented sex for 

which all three of the following conditions are met: (1) unmet interest sufficient to sustain a 

varsity team in the sport(s); (2) sufficient ability to sustain an intercollegiate team in the 

sport(s); and (3) reasonable expectation of intercollegiate competition for a team in the 

sport(s) within the school's normal competitive region. Thus, schools are not required to 

accommodate the interests and abilities of all their students or fulfill every request for the 

addition or elevation of particular sports, unless all three conditions are present. In this 

analysis, the burden of proof is on OCR (in the case of an OCR investigation or compliance 

review), or on students (in the case of a complaint filed with the institution under its Title IX 

grievance procedures), to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the institution is not 

in compliance with part three.

Many institutions have used questionnaires or surveys to measure student athletic interest as 

part of their assessment under part three. To assist institutions, this Additional Clarification is 

being issued with a User's Guide prepared by the National Center for Education Statistics 

(NCES), as well as a detailed technical report prepared by the National Institute of Statistical 

Sciences (NISS). These documents were prepared after careful analysis of 132 of OCR's 

cases involving 130 colleges and universities from 1992 to 2002. They evaluate both the 

effective and problematic aspects of survey instruments. OCR intends this combined 

document to serve as a guide to facilitate compliance with part three of the three-part test.

Based on the analysis of the OCR cases and other information, the User's Guide provides a 

web-based prototype survey (the "Model Survey") that, if administered consistent with the 

recommendations in the User's Guide, institutions can rely on as an acceptable method to 

measure students' interests in participating in sports. When the Model Survey is properly 

administered to all full-time undergraduate students, or to all such students of the 

underrepresented sex, results that show insufficient interest to support an additional varsity 

team for the underrepresented sex will create a presumption of compliance with part three of 

the three-part test and the Title IX regulatory requirement to provide nondiscriminatory 

athletic participation opportunities. The presumption of compliance can only be overcome if 

OCR finds direct and very persuasive evidence of unmet interest sufficient to sustain a 

varsity team, such as the recent elimination of a viable team for the underrepresented sex or a 

recent, broad-based petition from an existing club team for elevation to varsity status. Where 
Appendix B 113

the Model Survey shows insufficient interest to field a varsity team, OCR will not exercise its 

discretion to conduct a compliance review of that institution‘s implementation of the threepart test.

Although more than two-thirds of the institutions involved in the 132 cases complied with the 

three-part test using part three, OCR believes that some institutions may be uncertain about 

the factors OCR considers under part three, and they may mistakenly believe that part three 

offers less than a completely safe harbor. Therefore, for colleges and universities seeking to 

achieve Title IX compliance using part three, OCR intends that the Additional Clarification 

and User's Guide serve to facilitate an institution's determination of whether it is in 

compliance with part three of the three-part test. A recipient may choose to use this 

information to assess its own athletic programs and then take appropriate steps to ensure that 

its athletic programs will be operated in compliance with the Title IX regulatory 

requirements.

Despite the focus on part three, OCR strongly reiterates that each part of the three-part test is 

an equally sufficient and separate method of complying with the Title IX regulatory 

requirement to provide nondiscriminatory athletic participation opportunities. In essence, 

each part of the three-part test is a safe harbor. OCR will continue to determine that a school 

has met its obligations to provide nondiscriminatory participation opportunities in athletics so 

long as OCR finds that the school has satisfied any one of the three options for compliance 

under the three-part test. Schools are also reminded that nothing in Title IX or the three-part 

test requires the cutting or reduction of opportunities for the overrepresented sex, and OCR 

has pledged to seek remedies that do not involve the elimination of opportunities.

OCR hopes the Additional Clarification and User's Guide will help reinforce the flexibility of 

the three-part test and will facilitate application of part three for those schools that choose to 

use it to ensure Title IX compliance. OCR welcomes requests for individualized technical 

assistance and is prepared to join with institutions in assisting them to address their particular 

situations.

Thank you for your continuing interest in this subject.

Sincerely,

James F. Manning

Delegated the Authority of the

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
114 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Appendix C

Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance: The Three-Part Test

January 16, 1996

Dear Colleague: 

It is my pleasure to send you the enclosed Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy 

Guidance: The Three-Part Test (the Clarification). 

As you know, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces Title IX of the Education 

Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education 

programs and activities. The regulation implementing Title IX and the Department's 

Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Interpretation published in 1979--both of which followed 

publication for notice and the receipt, review and consideration of extensive comments--

specifically address intercollegiate athletics. Since becoming Assistant Secretary, I have 

recognized the need to provide additional clarification regarding what is commonly referred 

to as the "three-part test," a test used to determine whether students of both sexes are 

provided nondiscriminatory opportunities to participate in athletics. The three-part test is 

described in the Department's 1979 Policy Interpretation. 

Accordingly, on September 20, 1995, OCR circulated to over 4500 interested parties a draft 

of the proposed Clarification, soliciting comments about whether the document provided 

sufficient clarity to assist institutions in their efforts to comply with Title IX. As indicated 

when circulating the draft of the Clarification, the objective of the Clarification is to respond 

to requests for specific guidance about the existing standards that have guided the 

enforcement of Title IX in the area of intercollegiate athletics. Further, the Clarification is 

limited to an elaboration of the "three-part test." This test, which has generated the majority 

of the questions that have been raised about Title IX compliance, is a portion of a larger 

analytical framework reflected in the 1979 Policy Interpretation. 

OCR appreciates the efforts of the more than 200 individuals who commented on the draft of 

the Clarification. In addition to providing specific comments regarding clarity, some parties 

suggested that the Clarification did not go far enough in protecting women's sports. Others, 

by contrast, suggested that the Clarification, or the Policy Interpretation itself, provided more 

protection for women's sports than intended by Title IX. However, it would not be 

appropriate to revise the 1979 Policy Interpretation, and adherence to its provisions shaped 

OCR's consideration of these comments. The Policy Interpretation has guided OCR's 

enforcement in the area of athletics for over fifteen years, enjoying the bipartisan support of 

Congress. The Policy Interpretation has also enjoyed the support of every court that has 

addressed issues of Title IX athletics. As one recent court decision recognized, the "three-part 

test" draws its "essence" from the Title IX statute. 
Appendix C 115

The draft has been revised to incorporate suggestions that OCR received regarding how to 

make the document more useful and clearer. For instance, the Clarification now has 

additional examples to illustrate how to meet part one of the three-part test and makes clear 

that the term "developing interests" under part two of the test includes interests that already 

exist at the institution. The document also clarifies that an institution can choose which part 

of the test it plans to meet. In addition, it further clarifies how Title IX requires OCR to count

participation opportunities and why Title IX does not require an institution, under part three 

of the test, to accommodate the interests and abilities of potential students. 

OCR also received requests for clarification that relate primarily to fact- or institutionspecific situations that only apply to a small number of athletes or institutions. These 

comments are more appropriately handled on an individual basis and, accordingly, OCR will 

follow-up on these comments and questions in the context of OCR's ongoing technical 

assistance efforts. 

It is important to outline several points about the final document. 

The Clarification confirms that institutions need to comply only with any one part of the 

three-part test in order to provide nondiscriminatory participation opportunities for 

individuals of both sexes. The first part of the test--substantial proportionality--focuses on the 

participation rates of men and women at an institution and affords an institution a "safe 

harbor" for establishing that it provides nondiscriminatory participation opportunities. An 

institution that does not provide substantially proportional participation opportunities for men 

and women may comply with Title IX by satisfying either part two or part three of the test. 

The second part--history and continuing practice--is an examination of an institution's good 

faith expansion of athletic opportunities through its response to developing interests of the 

underrepresented sex at that institution. The third part--fully and effectively accommodating 

interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex--centers on the inquiry of whether there are 

concrete and viable interests among the underrepresented sex that should be accommodated 

by an institution. 

In addition, the Clarification does not provide strict numerical formulas or "cookie cutter" 

answers to the issues that are inherently case- and fact-specific. Such an effort not only 

would belie the meaning of Title IX, but would at the same time deprive institutions of the 

flexibility to which they are entitled when deciding how best to comply with the law. 

Several parties who provided comments expressed opposition to the three-part test. The crux 

of the arguments made on behalf of those opposed to the three-part test is that the test does 

not really provide three different ways to comply. Opponents of the test assert, therefore, that 

the test improperly establishes arbitrary quotas. Similarly, they also argue that the three-part 

test runs counter to the intent of Title IX because it measures gender discrimination by 

underrepresentation and requires the full accommodation of only one sex. However, this 

understanding of Title IX and the three-part test is wrong. 

First, it is clear from the Clarification that there are three different avenues of compliance. 

Institutions have flexibility in providing nondiscriminatory participation opportunities to 
116 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

their students, and OCR does not require quotas. For example, if an institution chooses to and 

does comply with part three of the test, OCR will not require it to provide substantially 

proportionate participation opportunities to, or demonstrate a history and continuing practice 

of program expansion that is responsive to the developing interests of, the underrepresented 

sex. In fact, if an institution believes that its female students are less interested and able to 

play intercollegiate sports, that institution may continue to provide more athletic 

opportunities to men than to women, or even to add opportunities for men, as long as the 

recipient can show that its female students are not being denied opportunities, i.e., that 

women's interests and abilities are fully and effectively accommodated. The fact that each 

part of the three-part test considers participation rates does not mean, as some opponents of

the test have suggested, that the three parts do not provide different ways to comply with 

Title IX. 

Second, it is appropriate for parts two and three of the test to focus only on the 

underrepresented sex. Indeed, such a focus is required because Title IX, by definition, 

addresses discrimination. Notably, Title IX's athletic provisions are unique in permitting 

institutions--notwithstanding the long history of discrimination based on sex in athletics 

programs--to establish separate athletic programs on the basis of sex, thus allowing 

institutions to determine the number of athletic opportunities that are available to students of 

each sex. (By contrast, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids institutions from 

providing separate athletic programs on the basis of race or national origin.) 

OCR focuses on the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex only if the institution 

provides proportionately fewer athletic opportunities to members of one sex and has failed to 

make a good faith effort to expand its program for the underrepresented sex. Thus, the Policy 

Interpretation requires the full accommodation of the underrepresented sex only to the extent 

necessary to provide equal athletic opportunity, i.e., only where an institution has failed to

respond to the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex when it allocated a 

disproportionately large number of opportunities for athletes of the other sex. 

What is clear then--because, for example, part three of the three-part test permits evidence 

that underrepresentation is caused not by discrimination but by lack of interest--is that 

underrepresentation alone is not the measure of discrimination. Substantial proportionality 

merely provides institutions with a safe harbor. Even if this were not the case and 

proportional opportunities were the only test, the "quota" criticism would be misplaced. 

Quotas are impermissible where opportunities are required to be created without regard to 

sex. However, schools are permitted to create athletic participation opportunities based on 

sex. Where they do so unequally, that is a legitimate measure of unequal opportunity under 

Title IX. OCR has chosen to make substantial proportionality only one of three alternative 

measures. 

Several parties also suggested that, in determining the number of participation opportunities 

offered by an institution, OCR count unfilled slots, i.e., those positions on a team that an 

institution claims the team can support but which are not filled by actual athletes. OCR must, 

however, count actual athletes because participation opportunities must be real, not illusory. 

Moreover, this makes sense because, under other parts of the Policy Interpretation, OCR 
Appendix C 117

considers the quality and kind of other benefits and opportunities offered to male and female 

athletes in determining overall whether an institution provides equal athletic opportunity. In 

this context, OCR must consider actual benefits provided to real students. 

OCR also received comments that indicate that there is still confusion about the elimination 

and capping of men's teams in the context of Title IX compliance. The rules here are 

straightforward. An institution can choose to eliminate or cap teams as a way of complying 

with part one of the three-part test. However, nothing in the Clarification requires that an 

institution cap or eliminate participation opportunities for men. In fact, cutting or capping 

men's teams will not help an institution comply with part two or part three of the test because 

these tests measure an institution's positive, ongoing response to the interests and abilities of 

the underrepresented sex. Ultimately, Title IX provides institutions with flexibility and 

choice regarding how they will provide nondiscriminatory participation opportunities. 

Finally, several parties suggested that OCR provide more information regarding the specific 

elements of an appropriate assessment of student interest and ability. The Policy 

Interpretation is intended to give institutions flexibility to determine interests and abilities 

consistent with the unique circumstances and needs of an institution. We recognize, however, 

that it might be useful to share ideas on good assessment strategies. Accordingly, OCR will 

work to identify, and encourage institutions to share, good strategies that institutions have 

developed, as well as to facilitate discussions among institutions regarding potential 

assessment techniques. 

OCR recognizes that the question of how to comply with Title IX and to provide equal 

athletic opportunities for all students is a significant challenge that many institutions face 

today, especially in the face of increasing budget constraints. It has been OCR's experience, 

however, that institutions committed to maintaining their men's program have been able to do 

so--and comply with Title IX--notwithstanding limited athletic budgets. In many cases, OCR 

and these institutions have worked together to find creative solutions that ensured equal 

opportunities in intercollegiate athletics. OCR is similarly prepared to join with other 

institutions in assisting them to address their own situations. 

OCR is committed to continuing to work in partnership with colleges and universities to 

ensure that the promise of Title IX becomes a reality for all students. Thank you for your 

continuing interest in this subject. 

Sincerely,

/signed/

Norma V. Cant

Assistant Secretary

 for Civil Rights

Enclosure
118 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Jan 16, 1996

Clarification Of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance: The Three-Part 

Test

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 

20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. (Title IX), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in 

education programs and activities by recipients of federal funds. The regulation 

implementing Title IX, at 34 C.F.R. Part 106, effective July 21, 1975, contains specific 

provisions governing athletic programs, at 34 C.F.R. § 106.41, and the awarding of athletic 

scholarships, at 34 C.F.R. § 106.37(c). Further clarification of the Title IX regulatory 

requirements is provided by the Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Interpretation, issued 

December 11, 1979 (44 Fed. Reg. 71413 et seq. (1979)).1

The Title IX regulation provides that if an institution sponsors an athletic program it must 

provide equal athletic opportunities for members of both sexes. Among other factors, the 

regulation requires that an institution must effectively accommodate the athletic interests and 

abilities of students of both sexes to the extent necessary to provide equal athletic 

opportunity. 

The 1979 Policy Interpretation provides that as part of this determination OCR will apply the 

following three-part test to assess whether an institution is providing nondiscriminatory 

participation opportunities for individuals of both sexes: 

1. Whether intercollegiate level participation opportunities for male and female students 

are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments; or 

2. Where the members of one sex have been and are underrepresented among 

intercollegiate athletes, whether the institution can show a history and continuing 

practice of program expansion which is demonstrably responsive to the developing 

interests and abilities of the members of that sex; or 

3. Where the members of one sex are underrepresented among intercollegiate athletes, 

and the institution cannot show a history and continuing practice of program 

expansion, as described above, whether it can be demonstrated that the interests and 

abilities of the members of that sex have been fully and effectively accommodated by 

the present program. 

44 Fed. Reg. at 71418. 

Thus, the three-part test furnishes an institution with three individual avenues to choose from 

when determining how it will provide individuals of each sex with nondiscriminatory 

opportunities to participate in intercollegiate athletics. If an institution has met any part of the 

three-part test, OCR will determine that the institution is meeting this requirement. 
Appendix C 119

It is important to note that under the Policy Interpretation the requirement to provide 

nondiscriminatory participation opportunities is only one of many factors that OCR examines 

to determine if an institution is in compliance with the athletics provision of Title IX. OCR 

also considers the quality of competition offered to members of both sexes in order to 

determine whether an institution effectively accommodates the interests and abilities of its 

students. 

In addition, when an "overall determination of compliance" is made by OCR, 44 Fed. Reg.

71417, 71418, OCR examines the institution's program as a whole. Thus OCR considers the 

effective accommodation of interests and abilities in conjunction with equivalence in the 

availability, quality and kinds of other athletic benefits and opportunities provided male and 

female athletes to determine whether an institution provides equal athletic opportunity as 

required by Title IX. These other benefits include coaching, equipment, practice and 

competitive facilities, recruitment, scheduling of games, and publicity, among others. An 

institution's failure to provide nondiscriminatory participation opportunities usually amounts 

to a denial of equal athletic opportunity because these opportunities provide access to all 

other athletic benefits, treatment, and services.

This Clarification provides specific factors that guide an analysis of each part of the threepart test. In addition, it provides examples to demonstrate, in concrete terms, how these 

factors will be considered. These examples are intended to be illustrative, and the 

conclusions drawn in each example are based solely on the facts included in the example. 

THREE-PART TEST -- Part One: Are Participation Opportunities Substantially 

Proportionate to Enrollment?

Under part one of the three-part test (part one), where an institution provides intercollegiate 

level athletic participation opportunities for male and female students in numbers 

substantially proportionate to their respective full-time undergraduate enrollments, OCR will 

find that the institution is providing nondiscriminatory participation opportunities for 

individuals of both sexes. 

OCR's analysis begins with a determination of the number of participation opportunities 

afforded to male and female athletes in the intercollegiate athletic program. The Policy 

Interpretation defines participants as those athletes: 

a. Who are receiving the institutionally-sponsored support normally provided to athletes 

competing at the institution involved, e.g., coaching, equipment, medical and training 

room services, on a regular basis during a sport's season; and 

b. Who are participating in organized practice sessions and other team meetings and 

activities on a regular basis during a sport's season; and 

c. Who are listed on the eligibility or squad lists maintained for each sport, or 

d. Who, because of injury, cannot meet a, b, or c above but continue to receive financial 

aid on the basis of athletic ability.

44 Fed. Reg. at 71415. 
120 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

OCR uses this definition of participant to determine the number of participation opportunities 

provided by an institution for purposes of the three-part test.

Under this definition, OCR considers a sport's season to commence on the date of a team's 

first intercollegiate competitive event and to conclude on the date of the team's final 

intercollegiate competitive event. As a general rule, all athletes who are listed on a team's 

squad or eligibility list and are on the team as of the team's first competitive event are 

counted as participants by OCR. In determining the number of participation opportunities for 

the purposes of the interests and abilities analysis, an athlete who participates in more than 

one sport will be counted as a participant in each sport in which he or she participates. 

In determining participation opportunities, OCR includes, among others, those athletes who 

do not receive scholarships (e.g., walk-ons), those athletes who compete on teams sponsored 

by the institution even though the team may be required to raise some or all of its operating 

funds, and those athletes who practice but may not compete. OCR's investigations reveal that 

these athletes receive numerous benefits and services, such as training and practice time, 

coaching, tutoring services, locker room facilities, and equipment, as well as important nontangible benefits derived from being a member of an intercollegiate athletic team. Because 

these are significant benefits, and because receipt of these benefits does not depend on their 

cost to the institution or whether the athlete competes, it is necessary to count all athletes 

who receive such benefits when determining the number of athletic opportunities provided to 

men and women.

OCR's analysis next determines whether athletic opportunities are substantially 

proportionate. The Title IX regulation allows institutions to operate separate athletic 

programs for men and women. Accordingly, the regulation allows an institution to control 

the respective number of participation opportunities offered to men and women. Thus, it 

could be argued that to satisfy part one there should be no difference between the 

participation rate in an institution's intercollegiate athletic program and its full-time 

undergraduate student enrollment.

However, because in some circumstances it may be unreasonable to expect an institution to 

achieve exact proportionality--for instance, because of natural fluctuations in enrollment and 

participation rates or because it would be unreasonable to expect an institution to add athletic 

opportunities in light of the small number of students that would have to be accommodated to 

achieve exact proportionality--the Policy Interpretation examines whether participation 

opportunities are "substantially" proportionate to enrollment rates. Because this 

determination depends on the institution's specific circumstances and the size of its athletic 

program, OCR makes this determination on a case-by-case basis, rather than through use of a 

statistical test.

As an example of a determination under part one: If an institution's enrollment is 52 percent 

male and 48 percent female and 52 percent of the participants in the athletic program are 

male and 48 percent female, then the institution would clearly satisfy part one. However, 

OCR recognizes that natural fluctuations in an institution's enrollment and/or participation 

rates may affect the percentages in a subsequent year. For instance, if the institution's 
Appendix C 121

admissions the following year resulted in an enrollment rate of 51 percent males and 49 

percent females, while the participation rates of males and females in the athletic program 

remained constant, the institution would continue to satisfy part one because it would be 

unreasonable to expect the institution to fine tune its program in response to this change in 

enrollment. 

As another example, over the past five years an institution has had a consistent enrollment 

rate for women of 50 percent. During this time period, it has been expanding its program for 

women in order to reach proportionality. In the year that the institution reaches its goal--i.e., 

50 percent of the participants in its athletic program are female--its enrollment rate for 

women increases to 52 percent. Under these circumstances, the institution would satisfy part 

one. 

OCR would also consider opportunities to be substantially proportionate when the number of 

opportunities that would be required to achieve proportionality would not be sufficient to 

sustain a viable team, i.e., a team for which there is a sufficient number of interested and able 

students and enough available competition to sustain an intercollegiate team. As a frame of 

reference in assessing this situation, OCR may consider the average size of teams offered for 

the underrepresented sex, a number which would vary by institution.

For instance, Institution A is a university with a total of 600 athletes. While women make up 

52 percent of the university's enrollment, they only represent 47 percent of its athletes. If the 

university provided women with 52 percent of athletic opportunities, approximately 62 

additional women would be able to participate. Because this is a significant number of 

unaccommodated women, it is likely that a viable sport could be added. If so, Institution A 

has not met part one. 

As another example, at Institution B women also make up 52 percent of the university's 

enrollment and represent 47 percent of Institution B's athletes. Institution B's athletic 

program consists of only 60 participants. If the University provided women with 52 percent 

of athletic opportunities, approximately 6 additional women would be able to participate. 

Since 6 participants are unlikely to support a viable team, Institution B would meet part one. 

THREE-PART TEST -- Part Two: Is there a History and Continuing Practice of 

Program Expansion for the Underrepresented Sex?

Under part two of the three-part test (part two), an institution can show that it has a history 

and continuing practice of program expansion which is demonstrably responsive to the 

developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex. In effect, part two looks at an 

institution's past and continuing remedial efforts to provide nondiscriminatory participation 

opportunities through program expansion.2

OCR will review the entire history of the athletic program, focusing on the participation 

opportunities provided for the underrepresented sex. First, OCR will assess whether past 

actions of the institution have expanded participation opportunities for the underrepresented 

sex in a manner that was demonstrably responsive to their developing interests and abilities. 
122 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Developing interests include interests that already exist at the institution.3 There are no fixed 

intervals of time within which an institution must have added participation opportunities. 

Neither is a particular number of sports dispositive. Rather, the focus is on whether the 

program expansion was responsive to developing interests and abilities of the 

underrepresented sex. In addition, the institution must demonstrate a continuing (i.e., present) 

practice of program expansion as warranted by developing interests and abilities. 

OCR will consider the following factors, among others, as evidence that may indicate a 

history of program expansion that is demonstrably responsive to the developing interests and 

abilities of the underrepresented sex: 

an institution's record of adding intercollegiate teams, or upgrading teams to 

intercollegiate status, for the underrepresented sex; 

an institution's record of increasing the numbers of participants in intercollegiate 

athletics who are members of the underrepresented sex; and 

an institution's affirmative responses to requests by students or others for addition or 

elevation of sports. 

OCR will consider the following factors, among others, as evidence that may indicate a 

continuing practice of program expansion that is demonstrably responsive to the developing 

interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex: 

an institution's current implementation of a nondiscriminatory policy or procedure for 

requesting the addition of sports (including the elevation of club or intramural teams) 

and the effective communication of the policy or procedure to students; and 

an institution's current implementation of a plan of program expansion that is 

responsive to developing interests and abilities. 

OCR would also find persuasive an institution's efforts to monitor developing interests and 

abilities of the underrepresented sex, for example, by conducting periodic nondiscriminatory 

assessments of developing interests and abilities and taking timely actions in response to the 

results. 

In the event that an institution eliminated any team for the underrepresented sex, OCR would 

evaluate the circumstances surrounding this action in assessing whether the institution could 

satisfy part two of the test. However, OCR will not find a history and continuing practice of 

program expansion where an institution increases the proportional participation opportunities 

for the underrepresented sex by reducing opportunities for the overrepresented sex alone or 

by reducing participation opportunities for the overrepresented sex to a proportionately 

greater degree than for the underrepresented sex. This is because part two considers an 

institution's good faith remedial efforts through actual program expansion. It is only 

necessary to examine part two if one sex is overrepresented in the athletic program. Cuts in 

the program for the underrepresented sex, even when coupled with cuts in the program for 

the overrepresented sex, cannot be considered remedial because they burden members of the 

sex already disadvantaged by the present program. However, an institution that has 

eliminated some participation opportunities for the underrepresented sex can still meet part 
Appendix C 123

two if, overall, it can show a history and continuing practice of program expansion for that 

sex. 

In addition, OCR will not find that an institution satisfies part two where it established teams 

for the underrepresented sex only at the initiation of its program for the underrepresented sex 

or where it merely promises to expand its program for the underrepresented sex at some time 

in the future. 

The following examples are intended to illustrate the principles discussed above. 

At the inception of its women's program in the mid-1970s, Institution C established seven 

teams for women. In 1984 it added a women's varsity team at the request of students and 

coaches. In 1990 it upgraded a women's club sport to varsity team status based on a request 

by the club members and an NCAA survey that showed a significant increase in girls high 

school participation in that sport. Institution C is currently implementing a plan to add a 

varsity women's team in the spring of 1996 that has been identified by a regional study as an 

emerging women's sport in the region. The addition of these teams resulted in an increased 

percentage of women participating in varsity athletics at the institution. Based on these facts, 

OCR would find Institution C in compliance with part two because it has a history of 

program expansion and is continuing to expand its program for women to meet their 

developing interests and abilities. 

By 1980, Institution D established seven teams for women. Institution D added a women's 

varsity team in 1983 based on the requests of students and coaches. In 1991 it added a 

women's varsity team after an NCAA survey showed a significant increase in girls' high 

school participation in that sport. In 1993 Institution D eliminated a viable women's team and 

a viable men's team in an effort to reduce its athletic budget. It has taken no action relating to 

the underrepresented sex since 1993. Based on these facts, OCR would not find Institution D 

in compliance with part two. Institution D cannot show a continuing practice of program 

expansion that is responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented 

sex where its only action since 1991 with regard to the underrepresented sex was to eliminate 

a team for which there was interest, ability and available competition. 

In the mid-1970s, Institution E established five teams for women. In 1979 it added a women's 

varsity team. In 1984 it upgraded a women's club sport with twenty-five participants to 

varsity team status. At that time it eliminated a women's varsity team that had eight members. 

In 1987 and 1989 Institution E added women's varsity teams that were identified by a 

significant number of its enrolled and incoming female students when surveyed regarding 

their athletic interests and abilities. During this time it also increased the size of an existing 

women's team to provide opportunities for women who expressed interest in playing that 

sport. Within the past year, it added a women's varsity team based on a nationwide survey of 

the most popular girls high school teams. Based on the addition of these teams, the 

percentage of women participating in varsity athletics at the institution has increased. Based 

on these facts, OCR would find Institution E in compliance with part two because it has a 

history of program expansion and the elimination of the team in 1984 took place within the 
124 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

context of continuing program expansion for the underrepresented sex that is responsive to 

their developing interests. 

Institution F started its women's program in the early 1970s with four teams. It did not add to 

its women's program until 1987 when, based on requests of students and coaches, it upgraded 

a women's club sport to varsity team status and expanded the size of several existing 

women's teams to accommodate significant expressed interest by students. In 1990 it 

surveyed its enrolled and incoming female students; based on that survey and a survey of the 

most popular sports played by women in the region, Institution F agreed to add three new 

women's teams by 1997. It added a women's team in 1991 and 1994. Institution F is 

implementing a plan to add a women's team by the spring of 1997. Based on these facts, 

OCR would find Institution F in compliance with part two. Institution F's program history 

since 1987 shows that it is committed to program expansion for the underrepresented sex and 

it is continuing to expand its women's program in light of women's developing interests and 

abilities. 

THREE-PART TEST -- Part Three: Is the Institution Fully and Effectively 

Accommodating the Interests and Abilities of the Underrepresented Sex?

Under part three of the three-part test (part three) OCR determines whether an institution is 

fully and effectively accommodating the interests and abilities of its students who are 

members of the underrepresented sex -- including students who are admitted to the institution 

though not yet enrolled. Title IX provides that at recipient must provide equal athletic 

opportunity to its students. Accordingly, the Policy Interpretation does not require an 

institution to accommodate the interests and abilities of potential students.4

While disproportionately high athletic participation rates by an institution's students of the 

overrepresented sex (as compared to their enrollment rates) may indicate that an institution is 

not providing equal athletic opportunities to its students of the underrepresented sex, an 

institution can satisfy part three where there is evidence that the imbalance does not reflect 

discrimination, i.e., where it can be demonstrated that, notwithstanding disproportionately 

low participation rates by the institution's students of the underrepresented sex, the interests 

and abilities of these students are, in fact, being fully and effectively accommodated. 

In making this determination, OCR will consider whether there is (a) unmet interest in a 

particular sport; (b) sufficient ability to sustain a team in the sport; and (c) a reasonable 

expectation of competition for the team. If all three conditions are present OCR will find that 

an institution has not fully and effectively accommodated the interests and abilities of the 

underrepresented sex. 

If an institution has recently eliminated a viable team from the intercollegiate program, OCR 

will find that there is sufficient interest, ability, and available competition to sustain an 

intercollegiate team in that sport unless an institution can provide strong evidence that 

interest, ability, or available competition no longer exists. 

a) Is there sufficient unmet interest to support an intercollegiate team?
Appendix C 125

OCR will determine whether there is sufficient unmet interest among the institution's 

students who are members of the underrepresented sex to sustain an intercollegiate team. 

OCR will look for interest by the underrepresented sex as expressed through the following 

indicators, among others: 

requests by students and admitted students that a particular sport be added; 

requests that an existing club sport be elevated to intercollegiate team status; 

participation in particular club or intramural sports; 

interviews with students, admitted students, coaches, administrators and others 

regarding interest in particular sports; 

results of questionnaires of students and admitted students regarding interests in 

particular sports; and 

participation in particular in interscholastic sports by admitted students. 

In addition, OCR will look at participation rates in sports in high schools, amateur athletic 

associations, and community sports leagues that operate in areas from which the institution 

draws its students in order to ascertain likely interest and ability of its students and admitted 

students in particular sport(s).5For example, where OCR's investigation finds that a 

substantial number of high schools from the relevant region offer a particular sport which the 

institution does not offer for the underrepresented sex, OCR will ask the institution to 

provide a basis for any assertion that its students and admitted students are not interested in 

playing that sport. OCR may also interview students, admitted students, coaches, and others 

regarding interest in that sport. 

An institution may evaluate its athletic program to assess the athletic interest of its students 

of the underrepresented sex using nondiscriminatory methods of its choosing. Accordingly, 

institutions have flexibility in choosing a nondiscriminatory method of determining athletic 

interests and abilities provided they meet certain requirements. See 44 Fed. Reg. at 71417. 

These assessments may use straightforward and inexpensive techniques, such as a student 

questionnaire or an open forum, to identify students' interests and abilities. Thus, while OCR 

expects that an institution's assessment should reach a wide audience of students and should 

be open-ended regarding the sports students can express interest in, OCR does not require 

elaborate scientific validation of assessments. 

An institution's evaluation of interest should be done periodically so that the institution can 

identify in a timely and responsive manner any developing interests and abilities of the 

underrepresented sex. The evaluation should also take into account sports played in the high 

schools and communities from which the institution draws its students both as an indication 

of possible interest on campus and to permit the institution to plan to meet the interests of 

admitted students of the underrepresented sex. 

b) Is there sufficient ability to sustain an intercollegiate team?

Second, OCR will determine whether there is sufficient ability among interested students of 

the underrepresented sex to sustain an intercollegiate team. OCR will examine indications of 

ability such as: 
126 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

the athletic experience and accomplishments--in interscholastic, club or intramural 

competition--of students and admitted students interested in playing the sport; 

opinions of coaches, administrators, and athletes at the institution regarding whether 

interested students and admitted students have the potential to sustain a varsity team; 

and 

if the team has previously competed at the club or intramural level, whether the 

competitive experience of the team indicates that it has the potential to sustain an 

intercollegiate team. 

Neither a poor competitive record nor the inability of interested students or admitted students 

to play at the same level of competition engaged in by the institution's other athletes is 

conclusive evidence of lack of ability. It is sufficient that interested students and admitted 

students have the potential to sustain an intercollegiate team. 

c) Is there a reasonable expectation of competition for the team?

Finally, OCR determines whether there is a reasonable expectation of intercollegiate 

competition for a particular sport in the institution's normal competitive region. In evaluating 

available competition, OCR will look at available competitive opportunities in the 

geographic area in which the institution's athletes primarily compete, including: 

competitive opportunities offered by other schools against which the institution 

competes; and 

competitive opportunities offered by other schools in the institution's geographic area, 

including those offered by schools against which the institution does not now 

compete. 

Under the Policy Interpretation, the institution may also be required to actively encourage the 

development of intercollegiate competition for a sport for members of the underrepresented 

sex when overall athletic opportunities within its competitive region have been historically 

limited for members of that sex. 

CONCLUSION

This discussion clarifies that institutions have three distinct ways to provide individuals of 

each sex with nondiscriminatory participation opportunities. The three-part test gives 

institutions flexibility and control over their athletics programs. For instance, the test allows 

institutions to respond to different levels of interest by its male and female students. 

Moreover, nothing in the three-part test requires an institution to eliminate participation 

opportunities for men. 

At the same time, this flexibility must be used by institutions consistent with Title IX's 

requirement that they not discriminate on the basis of sex. OCR recognizes that institutions 

face challenges in providing nondiscriminatory participation opportunities for their students 

and will continue to assist institutions in finding ways to meet these challenges. 
Appendix C 127

1. The Policy Interpretation is designed for intercollegiate athletics. However, its 

general principles, and those of this Clarification, often will apply to elementary and 

secondary interscholastic athletic programs, which are also covered by the regulation. 

See 44 Fed. Reg. 71413. 

2. Part two focuses on whether an institution has expanded the number of intercollegiate 

participation opportunities provided to the underrepresented sex. Improvements in the 

quality of competition, and of other athletic benefits, provided to women athletes, 

while not considered under the three-part test, can be considered by OCR in making 

an overall determination of compliance with the athletics provision of Title IX. 

3. However, under this part of the test an institution is not required, as it is under part 

three, to accommodate all interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex. 

Moreover, under part two an institution has flexibility in choosing which teams it 

adds for the underrepresented sex, as long as it can show overall a history and 

continuing practice of program expansion for members of that sex. 

4. However, OCR does examine an institution's recruitment practices under another part 

of the Policy Interpretation. See 44 Fed. Reg. 71417. Accordingly, where an 

institution recruits potential student athletes for its men's teams, it must ensure that 

women's teams are provided with substantially equal opportunities to recruit potential 

student athletes. 

5. While these indications of interest may be helpful to OCR in ascertaining likely 

interest on campus, particularly in the absence of more direct indicia, an institution is 

expected to meet the actual interests and abilities of its students and admitted 

students. 
128 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Appendix D
Appendix D 129
130 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix D 131
132 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix D 133
134 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix E 135

Appendix E

Go Out and Play

Youth Sports in America

Executive Summary

October 2008

Women‘s Sports Foundation
136 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix E 137
138 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix E 139
140 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix F 141

Appendix F

GAO Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee

on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, Committee 

on Government Reform, House of Representatives

GENDER EQUITY

Men’s and Women’s Participation in Higher Education

December 2000

Result in Brief1

Since Title IX‘s enactment in 1972, women‘s participation in higher education academic 

programs has increased significantly, whether measured by the proportion of students 

enrolled in higher education who are women, numbers of women enrolled in higher 

education, or the proportion of women who have received degrees in certain fields of study in 

which men were the predominant degree recipients.2In 1950, about one-quarter of 

undergraduate students were women. Women‘s share of undergraduate enrollment increased 

to 43 percent in 1971 and 56 percent in 1997. Women‘s participation in a number of 

predominantly male fields such as business, law, and medicine has also increased greatly 

although changes in other male fields, such as engineering and physical science, have been 

smaller. In some predominantly female fields, including elementary education and nursing, 

there have been increases in the proportion of men receiving degrees. In late 1995-96, firstyear college men and women were about as likely to receive financial aid and received about 

the same average amounts of grant and loan aid. Men continue to outnumber women on 

faculties in predominantly male fields at colleges and universities.

Women‘s participation in intercollegiate sports at 4-year colleges and universities has 

increased while men‘s participation has dropped slightly, although they still participate at a 

higher rate than do women. From Title IX‘s enactment to the 1997-98 school year, the 

number of women in intercollegiate sports grew from an estimated 30,000 (1.7 percent of full 

time enrolled undergraduate women) to 157,000 (5.5 percent of full-time undergraduate 

women). Over the same period, the number of men participating fell from about 248,000 (9.5 

percent of full-time undergraduate men). On average, in the 1998-99 school year, NCAA 

member schools spent more per male intercollegiate sports participant than female 

participant in recruiting, coaches‘ salaries, and operations. However, they spent more on 

athletic scholarships for women than for men. Men continue to hold the majority of athletic 

director positions in intercollegiate athletics.

Because various factors such as other civil rights laws and changing societal attitudes have 

also contributed to changes in women‘s roles, it is difficult to isolate Title IX‘s specific 

 

1

Summary was extracted from the entitled GAO report, pp 4-5. Report accessed at 

<http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01128.pdf>.

2 We defined predominantly male field of study as those in which, in school year 1971-72, (1) women earned 

fewer than 25 percent of the degrees awarded and (2) at least 50,000 bachelor or 1,000 first professional degrees 

were awarded. The 25 percent figure is based on the Department of Labor‘s definition of nontraditional 

occupations.
142 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

effects. We found widespread agreement, however, among representatives from the higher 

education community and Title IX observers, regardless of their perspective on current Title 

IX policy, that Title IX has contributed to increased opportunities and participation for 

women in the classroom and on the playing field. There was no agreement, however, on 

whether the law has contributed to the decline in the number of men involved in 

intercollegiate sports. Although Education has not terminated its funding for any 

postsecondary institution for a violation of Title IX, federal enforcement has had an effect 

through other means. Education‘s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which has the lead 

enforcement responsibility for most Title IX issues, has instead enforced Title IX through a 

variety of methods, including complaint investigations, compliance reviews, and the issuance 

of policy guidance. OCR‘s approach to enforcement emphasizes collaboration and 

negotiation, consistent with statutory requirements to attempt to secure compliance by 

voluntary means. In addition, private lawsuits have played an important role in Title IX 

enforcement.
Appendix G 143 Appendix G
144 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 145
146 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 147
148 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 149
150 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 151
152 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 153
154 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 155
156 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 157
158 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 159
160 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 161
162 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 163
164 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 165
166 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 167
168 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 169
170 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix G 171
172 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities
Appendix H 173

Appendix H

Guide to Developing Student Interest 

Surveys Under Title IX

March 2005 

U.S. Department of Education

Institute of Educational Sciences

NCES 2005-173
174 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

U.S. Department of Education 

Margaret Sp ellin gs 

Secret ary 

Institute of Education Sciences

Grover J. Whit ehurst 

Direct or

Direct or National Center for Education Statistics

Grover J. Whit ehurst 

Act ing Com m issioner 

The Nat ional Cen t er f or Ed ucat ion St at ist ics (NCES) is t he p rim ary f ed eral ent it y f or collect in g, 

analyzing, and rep ort in g d at a relat ed t o ed ucat ion in t he Un it ed St at es and ot her nat ions. It f ulf ills 

a congression al m and at e t o collect , collat e, analyze, an d rep ort f ull an d com p let e st at ist ics o n t he 

cond it ion of ed ucat ion in t h e Unit ed St at es; co nd uct an d p ub lish rep o rt s and sp ecialized an alyses 

of t he m ean ing and signif icance of such st at ist ics; assist st at e and local ed ucat ion agencies in 

im p roving t heir st at ist ical syst em s; an d review an d rep ort on ed ucat ion act ivit ies in f oreign 

count ries. NCES act ivit ies are d esigned t o ad d ress high p riorit y ed ucat ion d at a need s;p rovid e 

consist ent ,reliab le, com p let e, an d accurat e ind icat ors of ed ucat ion st at us and t rend s; an d rep ort 

t im ely, usef U.S. Dep art m ent of Ed ucat ion, t he Congress, t h e st at es, ot her ed ucat ion p olicym akers, ul, and high q ualit y d at a t o t he 

p ract it ioners, d at a users, an d t he general p ub lic. 

We st rive t o m ake our p rod uct s availab le in a variet y of f orm at s an d in language t hat is ap p rop riat e 

t o a variet y of aud iences. You, as our cust om er, are t he b est jud ge of our success in com m un icat in g 

inf orm at ion ef f ect ively. If you have any com m ent s or suggest ion s ab out t his or any ot her NCES 

p rod uct or rep o rt , w e w ould like t o hear f rom you. Please d irect yo ur com m ent s t o: 

Nat ion al Cent er f or Ed ucat ion 

St at ist ics Inst it ut e of Ed ucat ion 

Sciences U.S. Dep art m ent of 

Ed ucat ion 1990 K St reet 

NW Washin gt on, DC 20006-

5651 March 2005 

The NCES Wo rld Wid e Web Hom e Page ad d ress is ht t p ://nces.ed .gov. The 

NCES World Wid e Web Elect ronic Cat alog is ht t p ://nces.ed .gov/p ub search . 

Suggested Citation 

U.S. Dep art m ent of Ed ucat ion, Nat ional Cent er f or Ed ucat ion St at ist ics. (2005).User’s Guid e t o 

Develop ing St ud ent Int erest Surveys Und er Tit le IX (NCES 2005-173).Washingt on, DC: Nat ion al 

Cent er f o r Ed ucat ion St at ist ics. 
Appendix H 175

Table of Contents 

Introduction to Title IX..........................................................................................................1 

The Three-Part Test .................................................................................................................1 

The Title IX Commission and the Assistant Secretary‘s letter................................................2 

Background on This User’s Guide .......................................................................................2 

The OCR Case Files................................................................................................................3 

Findings on institutional differences and similarities ..............................................................3 

Current Survey Practices.......................................................................................................5 

How to Conduct a Survey of Student Interest...................................................................9 

Problem formulation ..............................................................................................................9 

Target population..................................................................................................................10 

Census versus sample ...........................................................................................................10 

Periodicity..............................................................................................................................11 

Excluding students.................................................................................................................11 

Confidentiality ......................................................................................................................11 

Nonresponse..........................................................................................................................12 

The prototype........................................................................................................................13 

List of Screens 

Screen 1: Initial screen of the prototype data collection instrument, containing the 

purposes of the survey, a confidentiality statement, and an explanation of the 

structure of the instrument..............................................................................................15 

Screen 2: Second screen of the prototype data collection instrument, in which 

respondents provide four items of demographic and student status information. 

This example shows a respondent who is 20 years old, female, a junior, and 

a full-time student ..........................................................................................................16 

Screen 3: Third screen of the prototype data collection instrument, on which 

respondents with no experience, current participation, or interest in future 

participation can so indicate and complete the process..................................................17 

Screen 4: Fourth screen of the prototype data collection instrument, which is 

reached only by respondents who wish to enter information concerning 

athletic experience, interests, and abilities.....................................................................18 

Screen 5: Fifth screen of the prototype data collection instrument, which is 

reached only by respondents who wish to enter information concerning 

athletic experience, interests, and abilities. Here, respondents select the 

sports for which they wish to provide information. The list is illustrative, 
176 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

consisting of the 23 sports in which the NCAA conducts championships 

and 7 ―emerging sports.‖ The respondent illustrated here has chosen 

basketball, lacrosse, and volleyball, which appear in screen 6. ...................................19 

Screen 6: Sixth screen of the prototype instrument, on which respondents enter 

information concerning experience, current participation, interest in future 

participation, and ability only for those sports selected on screen 5 ............................20 

Screen 7: Seventh and potentially final screen of the prototype data collection 

instrument, which offers respondents the opportunity to provide comments 

or other feedback, or to request being contacted by the athletic department. 

Only respondents who check the box are taken to screen 8 .........................................21 

Screen 8: Eighth and final screen of the data collection instrument, reached 

only by respondents who expressed interest and ability in specific sports, to 

ask whether they wish to be contacted by the athletic department and if so, to 

provide contact information..........................................................................................22 

Technical Details ..............................................................................................................23 

Additional Steps ...............................................................................................................24 
Appendix H 177

USER’S GUIDE 

TO DEVELOPING 

STUDENT INTEREST SURVEYS UNDER TITLE IX 

The purpose of this report, prepared by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 

for the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, is to provide a guide for 

conducting a survey of student interest in order to satisfy Part 3 the Three-Part Test 

established in the 1979 Policy Interpretation of the intercollegiate athletic provisions of Title 

IX of the Higher Education Act of 1972.

Introduction to Title IX 

Title IX (20 U.S.C. §§ 1681-1688), enacted in 1972, addresses issues of gender 

discrimination in colleges and universities. Specifically, it states that 

―...no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from 

participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination 

under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial 

assistance...‖ (20 U.S.C. § 1681 (a)). 

In 1975, the former U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issued regulations 

implementing Title IX (34 CFR Part 106). The regulations pertaining to athletics require 

that a recipient which sponsors interscholastic, intercollegiate, club, or intramural athletics 

shall provide equal athletic opportunity for members of both sexes (34 CFR 106.41(c)). 

Enforcement of Title IX is primarily the responsibility of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) 

of the U.S. Department of Education. Courts, however, have resolved some cases. The 

associated body of case law has addressed legal issues ranging from the standing of plaintiffs 

to whether Title IX violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the 

U.S. Constitution. 

The Three-Part Test 

Postsecondary educational institutions may be required to demonstrate compliance with 

Title IX in response to either specific complaints or OCR‘s compliance reviews. 

The 1979 Policy Interpretation of Title IX established, among other things, three means by 

which institutions can demonstrate compliance with the interests and abilities factor, which 

is one of the factors for determining equivalence in athletic benefits and opportunities. 

Collectively, these are known as the ―Three-Part Test‖ or, alternatively, as the ―Three-Prong 

Test.‖ An institution may demonstrate compliance in any one of the following ways (44 Fed. 

Reg. 71,418 Dec. 11, 1979): 

1. Demonstrate that intercollegiate level participation opportunities for male and 

female students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their 

respective enrollments; or 
178 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

2. Where the members of one sex have been and are underrepresented among 

intercollegiate athletes, show a history and continuing practice of program expansion 

which is demonstrably responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the members 

of that sex; or 

3. Where the members of one sex are underrepresented among intercollegiate athletes, 

and the institution cannot show a continuing practice of program expansion such as that 

cited above [in Part 2], demonstrate that the interests and abilities of the members of that 

sex have been fully and effectively accommodated by the present program. 

The Title IX Commission and the Assistant Secretary’s letter 

On June 27, 2002, then Secretary of Education Rod Paige created the Commission on 

Opportunity in Athletics to investigate whether further guidance on Title IX requirements 

regarding intercollegiate athletics was needed. On February 26, 2003, the 15-member 

Commission issued its final report entitled ―Open to All‖: Title IX at Thirty. 

In response to the Commission‘s report, on July 11, 2003, OCR issued a Dear Colleague 

letter providing further clarification on the intercollegiate athletics policy guidance regarding 

Title IX compliance. The letter reaffirmed that each of the three parts was a valid means of 

compliance and that ―institutions have flexibility in providing nondiscriminatory 

participation opportunities to their students, and OCR does not require quotas.‖ Further, OCR 

encouraged schools to request individualized assistance from OCR to meet the requirements 

of Title IX. OCR also indicated that it would share information on successful approaches 

with the broader scholastic community. 

Background on This User’s Guide 

Pursuant to the July 11, 2003 clarification letter, OCR desired assistance in providing 

technical guidance to schools on meeting the requirements of Title IX. At OCR‘s request, 

NCES produced this guide and commissioned a related technical report by the National 

Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS). The intent of this report is to provide guidance on 

conducting a survey of student interest with respect to Part 3 of the Three-Part Test. 

To lay the foundation for the guide, NISS conducted an historical analysis of the use of 

surveys for Part 3 within the legal and regulatory context of OCR. The history of the use of 

surveys to comply with Title IX provides a context for identifying good existing practices as 

well as desirable improvements. To conduct this analysis, OCR provided files to NCES of 

the 132 cases of possible noncompliance with Title IX that OCR investigated during the 

period of 1992–2002. These cases involved 130 colleges and universities in 43 states. Such 

cases either resulted from complaints or arose from compliance reviews conducted by OCR; 

all were resolved. 

In order to ascertain the unique needs of institutions attempting to demonstrate Title IX 

compliance using Part 3, the files were examined with two general questions in mind. The 

first was the degree to which the institutions in the OCR Title IX compliance case files, and 

the subset of those institutions that used Part 3, were similar to the universe of postsecondary 

institutions that offer intercollegiate sports programs. To the extent that the 
Appendix H 179

institutions in the OCR case files are similar to the larger universe of institutions, it is 

easier to generalize from their history. 

The second question was with regard to the specific survey practices that were used by those 

institutions that employed a survey. For instance, what kind of data collection process was 

used? How did institutions ask about student interest in various sports? How was nonresponse 

handled? NISS examined the survey instruments that have been employed to date and 

considered the technical challenges to conducting a survey that will be both easy to 

implement and adequate to ascertaining whether the interests and abilities of the 

underrepresented sex have been effectively accommodated. 

Once the analyses were conducted, it was possible to develop suggestions for an improved 

process for conducting a Part 3 interest survey. The next sections of this report summarize 

the analysis of the OCR case files. The final section of this report provides guidance on how 

to conduct a Part 3 interest survey. It includes procedures that represent the best of the 

practices found in the OCR case files and further improvements. The practices that are 

recommended in this guide do not, in some particulars, meet the standards that would govern 

the collection and analysis of data by a federal statistical agency such as NCES. The goal was 

to identify and provide guidance on ways to improve practice within the context of 

compliance with Part 3 of the Three-Part Test. 

This User‘s Guide draws extensively from a technical report, Title IX Data Collection: 

Technical Manual for Developing the User‘s Guide (Karr, A.F., and Sanil, A.P., 2005), that is 

provided as a companion to this User‘s Guide. The technical report was prepared for NCES 

by the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, a highly respected independent research 

institute. This User‘s Guide presents the information in the technical report that is most 

relevant to the practical concerns of institutions considering the use of a survey to comply 

with Title IX. 

The OCR Case Files 

Findings on institutional differences and similarities 

There were 130 unique institutions in the OCR case files (―OCR institutions‖). The cases 

were initiated and resolved during the years from 1992 to 2002. Of these, 95 were the subject 

of a complaint and 35 were the subject of an OCR-initiated compliance review. 

About two-thirds of the 130 OCR institutions opted to use Part 3 (n = 86) rather than Parts 1 

or 2 (n = 44) to comply with Title IX. There were so few attempts to comply using Part 2 (n 

= 8) that separate analysis of Part 2 cases was not conducted. About three-fourths of the 86 

institutions that achieved compliance using Part 3 did so by means of a student interest 

survey (n = 67). The remainder achieved compliance with Part 3 in some other manner (n = 

19). 

In order to gain a sense of how representative the 130 OCR institutions are, they were 

compared to a base population of 1,723 institutions that include every institution that is a 

member of at least one of the intercollegiate athletic organizations: the National 
180 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate 

Athletics (NAIA), and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). 

The comparisons were made using 14 different characteristics. These are divided into three 

groups. The first group, Institutional Characteristics, consists of Sector, Geographical 

Region, Urbanicity, Carnegie Classification, Selectivity, In-State Cost, and Out-of-State 

Cost. The second group, Student Body Demographics, consists of Enrollment, Percent 

Female, Percent Black, and Percent Out-of-State. The third group, Athletic Program 

Characteristics, contains Association Membership, Football, and Number of Sports. 

Complete details describing the full set of characteristics and a complete set of tables 

displaying the results summarized here are given in the accompanying technical report. 

Although the OCR cases consist of institutions of all types located in 43 states, there are 

some differences between them and the comparison population. OCR cases tend to involve 

large state colleges and universities (including doctoral universities) that are highly involved 

in intercollegiate sports. More specifically, relative to the comparison institutions, they are 

more likely to have football as one of their conference membership sports, are more likely 

to participate in all four major conference sports (i.e., baseball, football, basketball, and 

track), and are more likely to belong only to the NCAA than to one of the smaller sports 

associations. In addition, they are more likely to be located in the Southeast and the Far 

West than are the comparison institutions. 

The OCR institutions that used Part 3 to achieve compliance, compared to Part 1 and Part 2 

users, are more likely to be public, 2-year institutions and to have a greater percentage of 

female students and Black students. They are also more likely to be small, less expensive, and 

located in the Southeast. In contrast, they are less likely to be doctoral universities, belong to 

the NCAA, participate in conference sports, and to have out-of-state students than those 

institutions that opted to use Parts 1 or 2. 

About three-fourths of the institutions that achieved compliance using Part 3 did so by 

means of a student interest survey (n = 67).

1

The differences among institutions using Part 3 

that employed an interest survey and those that did not are few and are detailed in the 

technical report. 

Finally, there is some evidence that use of Part 3 and the use of surveys to achieve Part 3 

compliance have increased over time. 

In summary, the OCR institutions tend to be those that educate large numbers of 

undergraduates. However, the OCR institutions that used Part 3, including those that used a 

student interest survey, tend to be smaller institutions that are not as involved at the

______________________

1

Following the completion of the NISS analysis, OCR provided documentation showing that 

10 of the 29 institutions identified as not having surveys in the NISS report had, in fact, used 

a survey. However, copies of the survey instruments used were not available for analysis. 

The numbers in this guide have been adjusted to reflect the change in these 10 cases. 
Appendix H 181

most competitive levels of intercollegiate athletics. We have no way of ascertaining why 

institutions that use Part 3 differ from those that do not. There is no reason, however, from a 

statistical and measurement perspective, for student interest surveys to be more appropriate 

for one type of institution than another.

Current Survey Practices 

In this section, we summarize the information obtained from the 52 OCR files containing 

survey instruments.

2

This information was used as the foundation for the guidance we 

provide in the last section on how to conduct a Part 3 interest survey. 

The 52 instruments were classified along 20 categorical dimensions. 

The first set of dimensions consists of the following properties of the survey itself: 

Whether the case is the result of a complaint against the institution or routine monitoring 

activities of OCR.

The target population, which may consist of the entire body, only females, or some other 

group. This the group whose interests and abilities the survey purports to describe.

The sampling mechanism, which indicates whether there is explicit selection of a subset of 

the target population or whether the survey is meant to be a census, that is, completed by 

all students. 

The degree of proactivity in conducting the survey. This is the extent to which the 

institution exerted effort or absence of specific response rate. 

The second set of dimensions consists largely of characteristics of the survey instrument. Most of 

these are the presence or absence of specific kinds of questions:

Age: are respondents asked their age?

Class: are respondents asked which class (i.e., freshman,...) they are a member of?

Gender: are respondents asked their gender?

Spectator interest: are respondents asked about their interest as spectators, either in person 

or via television or radio, off athletic events?

Attitudes about athletics: are respondents asked explicitly about their attitudes regarding 

athletics in general or intercollegiate athletics?

Opinion about the institution‘s athletic programs: are respondents asked explicitly for 

opinions regarding whether the institution‘s athletic programs address their personal needs 

(as opposed to implicit questions associated with whether their personal interests and 

abilities are satisfied)?

Identifying information: are respondents asked for information 

Recruiting: are respondents asked whether they had been recruited as athletes by a 

postsecondary institution?

________________________________________

2

There were a total of 15 OCR case files that did not contain an instrument despite being recorded 

as having carried out a survey.
182 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

The third set of dimensions is the global characteristics of the instrument: 

Caveats and benefits: are questions regarding intercollegiate athletics accompanied by a 

statement of the potential disadvantages (for example, time spent in practice or missed 

classes) and advantages (for example, financial aid)? 

Reasons for the survey: are respondents told why the survey is being conducted? 

Statement of confidentiality: are respondents promised explicitly that their responses 

will be kept confidential? 

The final set of dimensions concerns how athletic interest, experience, and ability are 

represented in the survey instrument. 

• For interest, representation of sports (i.e., type of sports activity) 

• For interest, number of levels (i.e., amount of interest) 

• For experience, representation of sports 

• For experience, number of levels. 

In examining these surveys, it was found that close to two-thirds (44 of the 67) were 

administered in response to a complaint being filed. Detailed data were available on threefourths of these surveys (52 of the 67). Of the institutions with available surveys, a majority 

included the entire student body in its purview rather than some other group (e.g., campus 

visitors or applicants for admission). Also noteworthy is that a majority of these surveys 

included all students rather than just women, as might be expected from the language in Part 

3 of the Three-Part Test, which refers only to the interests of the underrepresented sex as 

being relevant to compliance. Nearly two-thirds of these surveys used a census approach, 

which attempted to ascertain the responses of all students rather than those of only a sample 

of students. 

As best as could be determined, few if any institutions made an effort to obtain high 

response rates. The typical institution simply distributed the questionnaires in a central 

place. Only a few provided incentives for students to complete the survey or provided any 

indication that they attempted to contact nonrespondents in order to induce them to 

complete the survey. 

A majority of institutions included questions on student age, class (freshman, sophomore, 

etc.), and gender. More than three-fourths did not ask respondents to provide identifying 

information. 

Most did not ask about student interest as athletic spectators, or their attitude towards 

intercollegiate athletics in general. Less than one-half of the surveys included a question 

about their institution‘s athletic program, and less than 20 percent (10 of 52) of survey 

instruments contained direct questions about whether interests as spectators are being met. 

One example of a direct question about interests being met is the following: 
Appendix H 183

―Are your desires for participation in [recreational, intramural, intercollegiate, 

club] sports met at XXX?‖ 

Less than one-third of the 52 institutions explicitly asked respondents to rate their athletic 

abilities. Many institutions asked about previous high school experience or previous 

collegiate experience as a surrogate for asking about athletic ability. 

Only a few institutions asked students whether or not they had been recruited as athletes. 

Less than one-third reported that students were told the purpose of the survey. Less than 20 

percent of surveys promised student confidentiality to potential respondents. 

Given the purpose of the study, every survey contained some question or questions 

concerning student interest. There are two separate issues: (1) how were individual sports 

represented, and (2) how many levels of interest were offered to respondents as part of the 

question wording. 

The most substantive of the differences among the survey instruments are in how they 

operationalize these concepts. These differences are of two kinds. The first is how sports are 

represented, which occurs in the instruments three ways: 

By fixed entries (e.g., archery, baseball, basketball, ...) in the ―Sport‖ column. 

By blank entries in the ―Sport‖ column, in which respondents are asked to write in the 

names of sports for which they wish to provide information. 

By blank entries in the ―Sport‖ column, into which respondents are to place numerical 

codes for sports of interest, which are listed somewhere in the instrument. 

Nearly two-thirds of surveys provided fixed entries for individual sports as a way of 

representing them in the questionnaire. 

The second difference is the number of levels provided to respondents as response categories, 

which ranges from one (―some interest‖) to ten levels. The dominant practice is to offer 

simply one (non-zero) level of interest for respondents, treating this as a yes/no question. In 

contrast to the limited variation in questions about interest, questions about previous 

experience varied widely. There was no predominant pattern of question wording and type, 

even though every survey contained questions about previous experience. Similarly, the 

number of levels of experience varied widely, suggesting an absence of a standardized format 

for response. 

Several (15 of 52), albeit a minority, of the instruments contained statements of caveats and 

benefits associated with participation in intercollegiate athletics. The following statement 

appeared in several of the instruments: 

―Intercollegiate athletics usually requires athletes to devote 20 hours of practice 

each week during the season. The athlete is expected to follow an individual 

regimen of training during the off-season. Many intercollegiate athletes receive 

financial awards that cover all or a portion of school expenses. Athletes are 
184 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

required to travel and occasionally miss classes. They are given access to 

academic support services, including tutoring, counseling and study tables.‖ 

It is inherent in Part 3 surveys that questions of interest and ability need to be asked of 

respondents with respect to many different sports. A number of surveys struggled with this 

problem unsuccessfully, in that they did not use a format that both maximized the 

possibilities of obtaining correct information and facilitated responses because it was easy 

to use. Some of the questionable procedures include insufficient definition of the number 

of levels of interest, unnecessary forced-choice response categories, and insufficient space 

for free-form responses. In addition, surveys that use only free-form responses may lead to 

underreporting of levels of interest in sports that do not immediately occur to respondents 

as they are filling out the questionnaire. 

Many questions included on these surveys appeared to be irrelevant to the purpose of Title 

IX, including questions about race and ethnicity and student living arrangements. 

Eliminating superfluous questions would improve these survey instruments. 

A major problem with these surveys is that response rates reported by the OCR institutions 

are typically low. One-half of these institutions reported the data needed to compute their 

survey response rates; the range varied from 8 percent to 70 percent. Coupled with the 

problem of low response rates is the lack of attention to questions of nonresponse bias. 

While it is a reasonable conjecture that most student nonresponse is due to the lack of 

interest in athletics on the part of those students, there is no evidence that any institution 

sought to test this view or, alternatively, that they informed students that nonresponse 

would be interpreted as lack of interest. 

On a positive note, while some of the question wording is awkward, there was little or no 

attempt to slant the responses on the part of the 52 survey institutions by biasing question 

wording. 

In order to see whether student athletic interest surveys have been done more generally, an 

Internet search for additional survey instruments identified a number of institutions that 

reported such surveys, including five for which survey instruments were obtained. They are 

similar to the surveys conducted by the OCR institutions in that they were used to survey the 

student body rather than applicants, they tend to be complete censuses rather than based on 

samples, they use questions about experience as surrogates for questions of ability, they do 

not take steps to deal with any nonresponse problem they may have faced, and they include a 

question on gender. 

A major difference between these five surveys and the instruments used by the OCR 

institutions is that four of the five were conducted using the Web. In part, this reflects the 

evolution of survey technology, since these surveys were conducted between the years 2000 

and 2004, while the surveys conducted by OCR institutions were carried out between 1992 

and 2002 at the latest. However, the additional surveys failed to exploit the full potential of 

Web interactivity and of Web technology that excuses respondents from unnecessary 

responses and can help guarantee respondents‘ confidentiality. 
Appendix H 185

In summary, the 52 surveys conducted by OCR institutions and the five Internet surveys 

exhibit a mixture of strengths and weakness. Lack of explicit bias is one of the great 

strengths of these instruments, as is the tendency of more recent surveys to explicitly use the 

Web for their data collection process. One weakness of many of these instruments is that 

their representation of interest, ability, and experience across many sports is often confused 

and unnecessarily complex, while another weakness is the inclusion of irrelevant information 

on the questionnaire. The most serious problem, though, is the inattention to low response 

rates. A complete discussion and summary of these issues is contained in the technical 

report. 

How to Conduct a Survey of Student Interest 

A survey instrument and data collection process that improves on current practice by utilizing 

the newest Internet technologies and adopting procedures that will generate high response 

rates is presented below. It avoids many of the problems found in the examination of current 

practice and seeks to simplify the process for institutions that might wish to comply with Part 

3 of the Three-Part Test by means of a student interest survey. 

The technical requirements of such a survey, which is designed to measure whether the 

―interests and abilities of the members of that underrepresented sex have been fully and 

effectively accommodated by the present program,‖ indicate that certain choices will make 

it easier to conform to legal requirements as well as the technical requirements of surveys. 

All of the criteria for doing so are set out in the technical report. 

Problem formulation 

In order to simplify the presentation, attention is restricted to a single sport not currently 

offered at the varsity level for women. We assume that women are the underrepresented sex. 

An institution employing Part 3 is attempting to determine, using data collected from a 

student survey, whether the interests and abilities of women have been fully and effectively 

accommodated by the present program. 

An operational formulation of the problem is as follows: There are a minimal number of team 

members necessary to ―field‖ a team in the given sport. The institution must specify this 

number. It depends on the sport and possibly contextual factors. For instance, a basketball 

team cannot play with fewer than five players, but this is not the minimal number of players 

needed for basketball. Instead, the minimal number is presumably in the range 10–15. NCAA 

or other association rules may provide other bounds for the number of players, but prevailing 

values in the conference to which the institution belongs are also relevant. 

There is, conceptually, some number of women students who possess the interest and 

ability to compete in the sport at the varsity level. If that number were known with 

certainty, then determination of compliance by OCR would be straightforward: 

• If the number of women with interest and ability is equal to or greater than the 

minimum number of players required to field a team, then the institution must take 

additional steps that could lead to offering the sport at the varsity level. 
186 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

• If the number of women with interest and ability is less than the minimum number of 

players required to field a team, then the institution does not have to take steps to offer 

that sport. 

It is the ―known with certainty‖ qualification in this formulation that creates challenges for a 

survey. In particular, it raises questions about the target population to be surveyed, whether a 

census or sample is to be used, how frequently the survey should be conducted, and most 

importantly, how to deal with the problem of students not responding to the survey and the 

possible bias introduced by such nonresponse. 

Target population 

The ideal implementation of this kind of survey should fix the population to be surveyed to 

be the entire undergraduate student body. Even though compliance with Title IX for 

intercollegiate athletics is restricted to accommodating the interests of full-time 

undergraduates of the underrepresented sex, a survey of the entire undergraduate population 

can provide institutions with evidence related to the degree to which unmet demand differs 

for males versus females and full-time versus part-time students; it avoids the suggestion that 

the institution is concerned only with the needs of the underrepresented sex and eliminates 

the need to restrict access to the survey to only a subset of the undergraduate body. Even 

though the entire undergraduate student body is surveyed, the determination of the number 

with interest and ability for purposes of compliance with Part 3 should be restricted to fulltime students of the underrepresented sex. 

An alternative to surveying the entire student population is to survey a catchment 

population consisting of both the entire student population and potential applicants. 

However, the use of a catchment population is very problematic. The size of the catchment 

area is dependent on the student population served by a specific institution. The catchment 

area might be local for a rural community college, national for a small state college, and 

international for large 4-year and doctoral institutions. Even if definable, such a large target 

population is almost surely unreachable in any meaningful way and thus is not 

recommended here. 

Census versus sample 

There are two alternative possibilities for selecting cases. The first would be to conduct a 

census whereby all undergraduates are asked to provide information regarding whether their 

interests and abilities are accommodated by the present program. The second possibility 

would be to conduct a sample survey: only a subset of students is asked to provide 

information regarding whether the present program accommodates their interests and 

abilities. 

While a census is a larger scale undertaking than a sample survey, it is superior in almost 

every respect for Part 3 interest surveys. Using a census avoids several difficult issues 

associated with sample surveys: selection of the sampling mechanism, selection of the 

sample size, and calculation of sampling error. In fact, a majority of the OCR institutions 

using a survey attempted to conduct a census. For those OCR cases not using a census 

approach, a few institutions selected a random sample while others used a non-random 
Appendix H 187

purposive sample of what the institution took to be an interested population, such as students 

in physical education classes. For technical reasons, if an institution intends to select a 

sample, it is necessary to select an extremely large sample in order to get a precise estimate 

of interested students of the underrepresented sex. Further, even with technically 

sophisticated sampling and analysis procedures, the compliance implications of sample 

estimates are unclear. For instance, how is an institution to handle the margin of error in a 

sample survey that generates an estimate of 15 interested and able women (with a margin of 

error of + 3) in a sport that requires 18 people to form a team? In contrast, the implications of 

a census in which 15 women identify interest and ability in a sport that requires 18 are clear –

the institution has determined that there are an insufficient number of interested females on 

campus to field that sport. Thus, the recommended data collection strategy is to conduct a 

census (i.e., to survey all students) rather than to select a sample of respondents. 

Periodicity 

How frequently should a survey of student interests be conducted? Since most cases of survey 

use in the OCR files were in response to complaints being filed, there is little case history to 

indicate how frequently an institution acting proactively should administer a survey. A survey 

of the entire undergraduate student body that generates high response rates and demonstrates 

that the interests of the underrepresented sex are fully accommodated might serve for several 

years if the demographics of the undergraduate population at the institution are stable and if 

there are no complaints from the underrepresented sex with regard to a lack of athletic 

opportunities. In contrast, an institution with rapidly changing demographics, or whose 

previous survey detected levels of student interest and ability in particular sports that were 

close to the minimum number of players required to field a team, or an institution receiving 

complaints with regard to unmet needs should consider more frequent surveys. 

Excluding students 

With respect to varsity participation, part-time students and members of the overrepresented 

sex should not be included in the calculation of the number of students in the 

underrepresented sex who have interest and ability. Should institutions exclude seniors from 

the calculation of this number if the survey is conducted at a point in time when it is too late 

for the seniors who have completed the survey to participate in the sport in which they have 

expressed interest and ability? The inclusion of seniors in the calculation of this number is 

recommended, particularly for those institutions that do not plan to implement an annual 

survey. The inclusion of seniors provides the best estimate for future years of the number of 

students in the underrepresented sex who have the interest and ability, and acknowledges the 

reality that creating a new sports team at the intercollegiate level may be a multiyear process. 

Confidentiality 

When asking for any personal or potentially individually identifiable data, protecting the 

respondents‘ confidentiality is essential to obtaining high quality data and to achieving 

acceptable response rates. The recommendation to use e-mail and the Internet to improve on 

current practices may seem to some as increasing the risks of violating confidentiality. 

However, by utilizing the newest Internet technologies, there are readily available 
188 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

alternatives (such as one-way hashed keys) that make it possible to track who has responded, 

while at the same time protecting the confidentiality of their responses. One such alternative 

would be to embed an encrypted ID within the link to the URL of the data collection 

instrument. The encrypted ID would be severed from the response itself and used in the 

database file containing respondents‘ e-mail addresses to mark that a response had been 

received. The software would then use the encrypted ID to record that a person has 

responded without being able to link to that person‘s response. This strategy allows an 

institution to track responses, conduct nonresponse follow-up and to protect against multiple 

responses by a single individual. For example, the institution could use the database with 

encrypted IDs and e-mail address (but no individual responses to survey items) to send email messages to nonrespondents. 

Nonresponse 

The final issue is the question of nonresponse. Most OCR institutions that included surveys 

either did not report their response rates or reported them as low. None explicitly considered 

any kind of nonresponse bias analysis to determine whether those students who did not 

respond to the survey differed in interests and abilities from those who responded. 

In general, institutions have treated nonresponse as indicating no interest in future sports 

participation. This assumption is defensible if all students have been given an easy 

opportunity to respond to the survey, the purpose of the survey has been made clear, and 

students have been informed that the institution will take nonresponse as an indication of 

lack of interest. 

The procedures for conducting an analysis of nonresponse bias and generating statistically 

valid adjustments to the original data based on such an analysis are complicated and beyond 

the capacity of some institutions. Thus we conclude that the best method for dealing with 

nonresponse is to generate high enough response rates that nonresponse can safely be ignored 

for the purposes of Title IX compliance. A web-based survey instrument, which is described 

in detail below, can accomplish that goal, either by being made mandatory or by being 

provided in a context in which most students will complete it. For instance, a web-based 

survey that students have to complete or actively by-pass to access the web screens that allow 

them to register for courses is likely to produce very high response rates. Another possibility 

is for institutions to send an e-mail to all students that describes the purpose of the survey, 

includes a link to the web-based survey, and includes a disclaimer that states that if a student 

does not respond to the survey, the institution will understand that the student is not interested 

in additional athletic participation. Although rates of nonresponse may be high with this 

procedure, nonresponse is interpretable as a lack of interest. 

In addition, a data collection instrument suitable for gathering information regarding whether 

―interests and abilities of the members of the underrepresented sex have been fully and 

effectively accommodated by the present program‖ with minimal respondent effort is best 

implemented on the Web. This allows effective implementation of skips and other selection 

devices through which a respondent can go to a list of sports and choose those that the 

respondent wishes to respond to in detail. 
Appendix H 189

The prototype 

Our proposed survey instrument, a prototype, consists of eight screens. Not all 

respondents need to proceed through all eight screens. 

Screen 1 introduces the survey and informs respondents of the purposes of the census, 

provides an explicit confidentiality statement, and provides an explanation of the structure

of the instrument. 

Screen 2 requests four items of demographic information—age, year in school, gender, and 

whether the student is full-time. The dropdown boxes and radio buttons constrain responses 

to those allowed by the institution conducting the census. 

Screen 3 explains the next set of questions—on athletic experience, participation, and 

ability. It allows respondents with no interest in future participation in athletics to so 

indicate and complete the instrument without having to view any of the other screens. 

Screen 4 of the proposed instrument is reached only by respondents who wish to enter 

information concerning athletic experience, interests, and abilities. It lists the responses that 

will be allowed when the information is requested (on screen 6), and contains a neutral 

statement of the burdens and benefits associated with participation in intercollegiate 

athletics. A more sophisticated version of the instrument might contain hyperlinks to 

definitions of various terms. 

Screen 5 allows respondents who wish to enter information concerning athletic 

experience, interests, and abilities to select the sports for which they wish to provide 

information. The purpose of this is to reduce the size and complexity of screen 6, on 

which the information is actually entered. Only those sports selected on screen 5 are listed 

on screen 6. The NCAA administers championships in 23 sports for its member 

institutions. In addition, it recognizes 7 ―emerging sports‖ that are intended to provide 

additional athletics opportunities to female student-athletes. The number of intercollegiate 

sports sanctioned by the NAIA and NJCAA is smaller. We recommend listing all the 

NCAA championship and ―emerging sports‖ on screen 5. 

Screen 6 is where actual information regarding experience, current participation, interest in 

future participation, and self-assessed ability is entered. These four categories appear sideby-side, which is sensible conceptually and psychometrically but was not done in any of the 

57 survey instruments in the OCR case files. The allowable responses, which are constrained 

by radio buttons that also prevent multiple responses, are as follows: 

For experience at the high school level, ―Recreational,‖ ―Intramural,‖ ―Club,‖ ―Junior 

Varsity‖ and ―Varsity.‖ 

For current participation, ―Recreational,‖ ―Intramural,‖ ―Club‖ and ―Varsity.‖ 

For interest in future participation at the institution: ―Recreational,‖ ―Intramural,‖ 

―Club‖ and ―Varsity.‖ 

For ability: ―Yes, I have the ability‖ and ―No, I would need to develop the ability.‖ 
190 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

The reason for inclusion of four separate categories is that a determination of interest and 

ability is related to the pattern of response across these categories. For example, to determine 

the number of students of the underrepresented sex with interest and ability in a varsity sport, 

the students to be counted could be those who express an interest in future participation at the 

varsity level, indicate that they have the ability to do so, and have current or high school 

experience beyond the recreational level. 

Although not shown in screen 6, hyperlinks could be used to provide access to definitions of 

these terms (or any other terms, for example, sports with which not all respondents may be 

familiar). Placing the definitions in a separate window avoids impeding the flow of the survey 

instrument. 

Screen 7 offers respondents the opportunity for comments or other feedback, asks them to 

click a button to record their responses, and thanks them for participating. 

Screen 8 is a pop-up screen that appears only for full-time students of the underrepresented 

sex who have expressed an interest and ability to participate at a higher level. It lists the 

sport(s) in which the student has indicated an ability and interest in future participation, and 

asks the student to provide contact information if the student wishes to be contacted by the 

athletics department or some other organization in the university with respect to her interests. 

The student can exit this screen without providing the requested information by indicating 

that she does not wish to be contacted. 

This prototype web-based data collection instrument has the following properties: 

Simplicity; 

Explicit explanation of reasons for the data collection; 

Explicit confidentiality statement; 

Opportunity for global ―no interest or ability‖ response; 

Opportunity to filter sports for which detail is provided; 

Nonprejudicial wording of items; 

Inclusion of all of experience, current participation, interest in future participation, and 

ability; and 

Fixed-form responses. 
Appendix H 191

Screen 1: Initial screen of the prototype data collection instrument, containing the purposes of the 

survey, a confidentiality statement, and an explanation of the structure of the instrument. 

SOURCE: NISS-produced prototype. 
192 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Screen 2: Second screen of the prototype data collection instrument, in which respondents provide 

four items of demographic and student status information. This example shows a respondent who is 

20 years old, female, a junior, and a full-time student. 

SOURCE: NISS-produced prototype. 
Appendix H 193

Screen 3: Third screen of the prototype data collection instrument, on which respondents with no 

experience, current participation, or interest in future participation can so indicate and complete the 

process.

SOURCE: NISS-produced prototype. 
194 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Screen 4: Fourth screen of the prototype data collection instrument, which is reached only by 

respondents who wish to enter information concerning athletic experience, interests, and abilities. 

SOURCE: NISS-produced prototype. 
Appendix H 195

Screen 5: Fifth screen of the prototype data collection instrument, which is reached only by 

respondents who wish to enter information concerning athletic experience, interests, and abilities. 

Here, respondents select the sports for which they wish to provide information. The list is illustrative, 

consisting of the 23 sports in which the NCAA conducts championships and 7 “emerging sports.” The 

respondent illustrated here has chosen basketball, lacrosse, and volleyball, which appear in screen 6.

SOURCE: NISS-produced prototype. 
196 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Screen 6: Sixth screen of the prototype instrument, on which respondents enter information 

concerning experience, current participation, interest in future participation, and ability only for 

those sports selected on screen 5. 

SOURCE: NISS-produced prototype. 
Appendix H 197

Screen 7: Seventh and potentially final screen of the prototype data collection instrument, which 

offers respondents the opportunity to provide comments or other feedback, or to request being 

contacted by the athletic department. Only respondents who check the box are taken to screen 8. 

SOURCE: NISS-produced prototype. 
198 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Screen 8: Eighth and final screen of the data collection instrument, reached only by respondents who 

expressed interest and ability in specific sports, to ask whether they wish to be contacted by the 

athletic department and if so, to provide contact information. 

SOURCE: NISS-produced prototype. 
Appendix H 199

Technical Details 

The above screens are static HTML prototypes. There are at least two paths to create the 

software for a full-blown implementation. 

The first of these is commercial tools for web surveys. The extent to which commercial 

products support functionality such as confidentiality-preserving nonresponse follow-up is 

not clear. They may also involve significant hardware and software overheads that are really 

not necessary in the setting of this chapter. 

The second path is to create CGI or Java or Visual Basic scripts that 

Allow movement from each screen to the next, including dynamic generation of all 

screens other than the initial one in screen 1; and 

Record responses (see additional discussion below). 

Implementation of these scripts, together with appropriate security and support, would be a 

straightforward programming task. 

The screens and scripts would be customized with such items as 

• The institution‘s name; 

• Details of wording, with defaults provided that can be edited as necessary; 

• The list of sports on screen 5; and 

• The sport-dependent responses on screen 6. 

Storage of responses is straightforward. Other than the free-form text response on screen 7, 

the instrument generates only a small number of data items for each respondent: 

Four items of demographic information from screen 2; 

One Yes/No global ―no athletic interest, current participation, or interest in future 

participation‖ from screen 3; 

K Yes/No responses for each sport from screen 5, where K is the number of sports 

listed there; and 

At most 4K categorical responses from screen 6, one each for experience, current 

participation, interest in participation in the future, and ability. 

The total number of items is 5K + 5. To illustrate, for the 30 sports shown in the example in 

figure 5, the survey generates 155 items. 

There are, of course, constraints on the item values. First, the instrument itself permits only 

predefined responses to all items (other than on screen 7). This guarantees that responses are 

interpretable and analyzable. Second, if the value of the global Yes/No response on screen 3 

is ―No,‖ then the remaining 5K responses are empty. Similarly if the screen 5 response for a 

sport is ―No,‖ meaning that it is not listed on screen 6, then its four items associated with 

screen 6 are empty. 
200 Title IX Athletics: Accommodating Interests and Abilities

Finally, the software could store the data in a comma-separated-variable (CSV) file, with one 

(5K + 5) item line for each response. Since no identifying information is stored, 

confidentiality of responses is guaranteed. The CSV data file can then be read and 

manipulated by tools ranging from Microsoft Excel to more powerful statistical packages 

such as SAS, SPSS, STATA, or S-Plus. 

The results from screen 8, the pop-up for students meeting the criteria of interest and 

ability, can be sent directly to a designated e-mail address without being stored in the 

CSV file, thereby insuring that the analytic file contains no personally identifiable 

information. 

Once the data are collected, analysis is quite straightforward. The numbers are simply 

tabulated and compared to the levels of interest needed to field various varsity teams in 

particular sports. If the number is less than the minimum, no additional effort is necessary, 

and if the number is equal to or greater, then the institution must take additional steps that 

could lead to offering particular sports at the varsity level. 

Additional Steps 

The purpose of this guide is limited to providing guidance on conducting and interpreting an 

interest survey. However, institutions should be aware that although findings from a survey 

can indicate that there are unmet interests and there may be sufficient numbers and ability to 

field a new sport, additional steps would be necessary before such a sport could be offered. 

We provide here a brief example of what an institution might do next with survey results. For 

intercollegiate athletics, OCR enforcement of Title IX is generally related to interest, ability, 

and competitive opportunity with the institution‘s competitive region (or sports conference). 

Within this context, suppose an institution in which women were the underrepresented sex 

conducted a survey that disclosed that the number of women expressing both interest and 

ability to play lacrosse at the varsity level was greater than the number of women necessary 

to field a lacrosse team. If there is competitive opportunity for women‘s lacrosse by virtue of 

it being a varsity sport within the institution‘s conference, or failing that, a varsity sport at 

other colleges within the institution‘s competitive region, a next step might be for the 

institution to call a meeting of women students to see if there is enough interest to field a 

team. A desirable practice in obtaining attendance at the meeting would involve both direct 

contact with those women who had self-identified and provided contact information through 

the survey, as well as advertising the meeting through flyers or announcements in the campus 

paper. Given sufficient turnout, coaches could then conduct tryouts to evaluate the ability of 

prospective athletes. An evaluation of ability through a tryout would take precedence over a 

student‘s self-appraisal of ability on a survey. Details and authoritative guidance are provided 

in OCR‘s own policy guidelines that are distributed with this guide.