TRCC fails Title IX test

Here's part of my story which appears in Friday's DAR:

An audit by Three Rivers Community College shows it is not currently in compliance with Title IX.

In a report to the school's Board of Trustees during its meeting Thursday, Athletic Director Gene Bess released the findings and recommendations for the future of the Raiders.

"We have confidence in the administration and the board that we'll work our way through this," Bess said Thursday night. "It's going to be fine and we'll be in compliance."

Three Rivers had a Title IX consultant look at the school's athletic program earlier this year. In her findings, Helen Grant found "several areas where TRCC is not currently in compliance with Title IX."

To do that, Three Rivers could hire more assistant coaches, the Raiders could return to the volleyball court or another sport, perhaps two, could be cut.

"It would be a great injustice to eliminate those sports," Bess said.

Jason Hoseney, vice president of Student Success at Three Rivers, said that cutting sports is a worst-case scenario for the college.

"No one at this point sees that happening in the foreseeable future, or at all really," Hoseney said. "We would have to be in absolute dire straights to cut programs like that."

The immediate emphasis, Hoseney said, is adding assistant coaches for the women's basketball and softball programs while bringing back volleyball might be in the college's long-term plans.

"It's not something we're going to be able to do in the near future but in the long-term we need to do that," Hoseney said.

When the volleyball program was cut in December 2006, Bess said at the time "... we needed three sports to have gender equity. Obviously, that wasn't looked at."

It will have to be now.

"This administration is in full support of athletics," Hoseney said. "We want all of our teams to be given all the resources necessary to be as competitive as possible.

"I think this is just a further step in that direction of making sure that we're treating each athlete fairly and we're putting our teams in position to be competitive in the region and nationally as well."

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds. Among other things, it requires a school to offer equal opportunities for both men and women to play sports, provide athletes their shares of scholarship money as well as equivalent benefits.

Enforcement of Title IX is conducted by United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ORC).

The report given to the board was produced for Three Rivers after Grant's visit to the campus Jan. 25-27.

"I don't think there was any surprises to us that understand Title IX," Bess said. "It was actually pretty positive in almost every direction."

Three Rivers currently participates in two male and two female sports -- men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball.

However, in the report, Grant says Three Rivers does not meet the three tests to determine if a school offers equal opportunities for both male and female athletes.

The story breaks down the test for Title IX compliance and breaks down the budget for each sport. Last year, athletics had a budget of $843,404 but that made up only about 4 percent of Three Rivers' total budget.

Long story short, TRCC is close but could do better in terms of Title IX. They've got a female enrollment of 62.5 percent but the percentage of female athletes is 42.4 percent.

Also, more scholarship money went to women last year than men but it's pretty close to even.

Bess gives the Board some options but with a tight budget, the short-term fix of adding assistant coaches for women's basketball and softball or taking on additional scholarships will be a tough sell. The long-term fix is adding a women's sport.

The school could cut two programs out, but the Department of Education, says cutting or capping sports is "contrary to the spirit of Title IX."

You can read about Title IX here.

I'll be away from my desk this weekend working at the annual Drag Boat Nationals at Wappapello Lake, but will answer all comments Monday.