A Title IX Supporter of Interest Surveys

Every once in a while, we find somebody who is willing to cross the quota divide. In this case, that somebody is a blogger who calls himself, Hill Rat:

In 2005 the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights offered additional clarification of the three-prong test of compliance. In this clarification, the OCR provides chapter and verse on how an institution can show they are complying with Title IX without cutting men’s sports programs. In fact, the number of men’s programs at a school and how much they spend are in no way a part of this test of compliance.

Without a doubt creating surveys discussed in the OCR clarification, sending them out, ensuring adequate participation, and compiling accurate results takes resources. Perhaps resources that are hard to come by in a small, underfunded athletic department.

There are ways to deal with the challenges raised by creating athletic participation surveys; graduate students in the social sciences are a potential untapped resource. Rather than fighting with feminists about Title IX, athletic departments should enlist their help by inviting feminist scholars to create and administer their compliance surveys. Grad students get a real project to work on, the athletic department works pro-actively to comply with Title IX, and the institution finds out if it’s truly serving all its stakeholders. Everyone wins.

Of course, up until recently, no institution had yet to follow the survey route, most likely for fear of getting hit with a law suit alleging non-compliance. Then again, with Western Illinois University breaking the seal and using a survey to demonstrate compliance, perhaps that will change.