The California State University (CSU) system along with the University of California (UC) had taken an oppose position on a measure which would have required the CSU and requested the UC to complete another level of Title IX compliance at great expense to both systems. Fortunately for both higher education segments, the author, after looking at the feasibility of passing this proposal, opted to drop the measure for this session.

If Senate Bill 1578, by Senator Dean Florez, (D-26, Bakersfield) had moved however, it would have put into place a fourth reporting requirement on 21 of the 23 CSU campuses, who already comply with the federal Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) report, NCAA/EADA report and the CSU Voluntary Self-Monitoring Report regarding Equal Opportunity in Athletics for Women.

In 1993, the CSU and the California National Organization for Women (CA NOW) entered into a court-ordered consent decree in order to increase participation of female students in intercollegiate athletics on NCAA-member campuses, to increase expenditures for women’s athletic programs, and to increase grants-in-aid and scholarships for female student athletes. By 2000 it was agreed by CA NOW and the CSU that major progress had been made in each of the areas of participation, including expenditures and grants-in-aid for female athletes, and that the consent decree had been satisfied. Since that time, the Chancellor and the CSU presidents opted for voluntary self-monitoring using the CSU/CA NOW consent decree as its model.

While the CA NOW/ CSU Consent Decree served as the basis for SB 1578, the author went far beyond this agreement and proposed to put into a place a system that would have been almost unattainable. Specifically, SB 1578 proposed to:

• Require the CSU to create a systemwide Office of Gender Equity which would be answerable only to the Board of Trustees
• Require each campus to also create the position of Title IX Compliance Officer.
• Require the Chancellor’s Office to provide Title IX and gender equity training for the entire system.
• Require the CSU to report to the Attorney General’s Office on gender equity in athletics based on proportionality measures of female student enrollment with female athlete participation, grants-in-aid and expenditures.
• Require that 20 percent of the Athletic Department’s budget for a university be put into receivership if it failed to provide compliance certification to the Office of the Attorney General or is in found to be in noncompliance for two consecutive years.

Only one day prior to its first policy committee hearing the author decided to not have his measure heard in Senate Education Committee. As the measure had been double-referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee as well, this decision means that the measure will not move this year.