The California State University Report under the CSU/Cal-NOW Consent Decree Regarding Equal Opportunity in Athletics for Women Students Final Report - 1998-99 Introduction In 1976, the California Legislature adopted Education Code Sections 89240 through 89242. This law expressed a legislative intent concerning intercollegiate athletics, stating "that opportunities for participation in athletics be provided on as nearly an equal basis to male and female students as is practicable, and that comparable incentives and encouragements be offered to females to engage in athletics." This article of the Code further called upon the CSU Trustees to ensure that reasonable amounts of General Fund monies would be allocated to male and female students, "except that allowances may be made for differences in the costs of various athletic programs." These California statutes echoed Federal legislation (Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972) which prohibits discrimination based on sex, including in the athletics programs of educational institutions. On February 3, 1993, the California National Organization for Women (Cal-NOW), filed suit in the Superior Court, County of San Francisco, alleging that the California State University (CSU) had not successfully implemented the provisions of the 1976 California law. On October 15, 1993, the CSU and Cal-NOW indicated a desire to resolve their differences and entered into a consent degree. By entering into the consent decree, the CSU committed itself to making all possible efforts to provide additional resources for women to participate in campus intercollegiate athletic programs. The CSU began immediately to progress toward achieving equity in its campus intercollegiate athletic programs. Specifically, the decree required that: a) Not later than the 1998-99 academic year, each CSU campus which has an NCAA intercollegiate athletic program shall include women participants as a portion of all athletes in the program reported to the NCAA in a percentage that is within five percentage points of the percentage that NCAA-eligible women undergraduates are of the total NCAA-eligible undergraduates enrolled in that campus (e.g., if 50 percent of the NCAA-eligible undergraduates at a campus are women, then male participants may comprise no more than 55 percent of the athletic positions at that campus). b) Not later than the 1998-99 academic year, each CSU campus which has an NCAA intercollegiate athletic program shall provide funds, including General Fund monies, for expenditures in women's sports (including but not limited to services, recruitment, travel budget, practice and competitive scheduling, publicity, and locker rooms) as a portion of expenditures in the total NCAA intercollegiate athletic program in a percentage that is within ten percentage points of the percentage that NCAA-eligible women undergraduates are of the total NCAA-eligible undergraduates enrolled at that campus, except that allowances may be made for the differences in the cost of various athletic programs, such as, but not limited to, its football programs. c) Not later than the 1998-99 academic year each CSU campus which has an NCAA intercollegiate athletic program that offers grants-in-aid, including scholarships, shall provide such grants-in-aid for all women's athletics as a portion of the total grants-in-aid in all sports in the NCAA intercollegiate athletic program in a percentage that is within five percentage points of the percentage that NCAA-eligible women undergraduates are of the total NCAA-eligible undergraduates enrolled at the campus. If a CSU campus was unable to achieve the above criteria, it was required to prepare a report setting forth all efforts undertaken to achieve the criteria outlined above. The CSU entered into this decree because it believed firmly that women and men should have an equal opportunity to participate in athletics. The CSU's administration further believed that with strong leadership, equity could be achieved by 1998-99. This report summarizes the results of this aggressive effort which has been undertaken by CSU campuses during the past five years. In January of 1998, the CSU Presidential Monitoring Committee (which oversees the efforts of campuses to comply with the CSU/Cal-NOW consent decree) established target percentages for each campus in the areas of participation, expenditures, and grants-in-aid based on a three-year NCAA eligibility average (1995-97, see Table 1b). Since enrollment and the ratio of men and women who are academically eligible to participate in NCAA athletics fluctuate annually, the Monitoring Committee adopted the three-year average in order to facilitate campus planning efforts to meet the requirements of the decree. It was recognized by the Monitoring Committee that campuses must often make decisions about programs from one to two years in advance. In addition, the Monitoring Committee took into consideration the guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights regarding the implementation of Title IX as it pertains to intercollegiate athletics (Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, January 16, 1996). The guidelines issued by the Office for Civil Rights recognize that natural fluctuations in an institution's enrollment and participation rates may affect the percentages in any given year and that it would be unreasonable to expect an institution to fine tune its program in response to these changes. In order to address these concerns, the Monitoring Committee agreed to establish target percentages based on a three-year average of male and female NCAA eligible students as reported in the campuses' fall 1995, fall 1996, and fall 1997 eligibility reports. Through use of the three-year average, the Monitoring Committee was able to establish target figures for each campus which would enable campuses to plan in advance for the 1998-99 academic year with the goal of achieving specific target percentages in each of the three areas (participation, expenditures, and grants-in-aid). However, for purposes of determining strict compliance with the decree, the actual percentages of women and men NCAA eligible students on each campus in the fall of 1998 will be used in this report. As indicated later in the report, the majority of campuses which did not strictly comply with the decree based on this single-year data were unable to achieve compliance as a result of a significant increase in female enrollment during the past two years.