College wrestlers take on Title IX Lawsuit charges discrimination2001 By Gary Mihoces College wrestling advocates sued the Education Department on Wednesday, claiming it discriminates against male athletes in its application of Title IX, the law that prohibits sexual bias in education programs receiving federal funds. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, alleges that the Education Department's interpretation of the law has wrongly prompted colleges to bring their athletic programs into compliance by eliminating men's teams and scholarships. Among the regulations that have been written into the law are guidelines for determining whether schools are complying. One measure, the suit says, is whether the number of men's and women's athletes is proportionate to the male-female composition of the student body. The suit claims the president or attorney general had to approve the implementation of this gauge, part of what is known as the proportionality test. The National Wrestling Coaches Association is financing the suit. Its executive director, Mike Moyer, said about 350 college men's teams have been cut during the past decade -- more than 40 in wrestling -- as some schools have attempted to comply by achieving proportionality. Athletic administrators have said financial pressures have prevented them from adding opportunities for women without cutting opportunities for men. ''We could win on procedure without ever addressing the substance (of the law),'' said Larry Joseph, a lawyer for the plaintiffs who cited this as a reason this suit could succeed after other challenges to Title IX have failed. Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center called the suit ''just one more in a long line of attempts to cut back on Title IX. . . . The courts have been overwhelming in rejecting these legal theories.'' |