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Show Page 7 Trial, error for Title IX -i-i r T (CPS) It's all trial and error these days as colleges and universities around the nation try to apply federal antidiscrimination laws to their own campuses. And nowhere is the confusion more evident than in the athletic provisions of the Title IX guidelines. Colleges universities were given three years to even up their men's and women's athletics departments, although the Office of Civil Rights did not set quotas or fixed percentages for salaries, . scholarships and equipment. This left the individual schools with the responsibility of interpreting the law and applying it to themselves.Many schools are reluctant to do so. With athletic budgets decreasing at many schools, and .even the big football powers losing money, much of the money for the women's programs come directly from the men's share. Although women's collegiate athletics have grown by leaps and bounds in the past year, they still amount to only a fraction of the men's departments. Kansas University At Kansas University, for instance, women's athletics New technical bldg. will be done on time Barring a strike or other un-forseen circumstances, the new technical education building should be finished by November 14th, and ready for occupancy either winter or spring quarter next year, reports Richard Daems, Project Coordinator for WSC Campus Planning. The contractor is currently right on schedule, and the building contract is "very smooth one," according to Campus Planning officials. While the new facility could be occupied piecemeal prior to the November completion date, Administration planners will have to make the final move-in decision based on the actual arrival of furnishings and equipment. Daems also pointed out that all new buildings have "bugs" to be worked out once the construction work is completed. $4,000,000 The new building is costing taxpayers $4,000,000 and will house a new photography department and darkroom facility, offices for the Dean, staff and faculty of the School of Technology, the drafting classrooms, all of the machine shop areas for plastics, metals and welding, as well as the building trades classrooms for carpentry, plumbing, electricity and related subjects. There were six firms which received only $9,300 in 1973. This year, the department was given $132,000 for their women's teams. Meanwhile the men's department received more than $2 million for their sports programs. It's the same story at hundreds of other schools. This year women's sports at Marshall University (W. Va.) make up only two or three percent of total budget of the athletic program, about $25,000. At Oklahoma State University (OSU), the women's department is receiving less than 14 percent of the $1.7 million allocated for the men's teams. .The men "are not at all interested in supporting us," OSU's women's athletic director complained. In addition to the often grudgingly given funds, women coaches and athletic directors have run into other Title IX-related problems. Many fear that equalizing the budgets for men and women will only force women into the same binds men's collegiate sports now face. Women coaches are wondering whether recruiting athletes for big scholarships will become an administrative obligation for the women's departments. "We-don't like to go out and recruit submitted bids on the new building, including Christiansen Brothers Construction, which recently completed the LDS Church office building and who is work on the new ZCMI Center in Salt Lake. The low bidder, Cannon-Papanikolas, came in at $2.5 million dollars. The second lowest, Christiansen Brothers, was only $71,000 above the low bid, and all six bidders were within 5 percent of each other, a fact which indicates an extremely good bidding process and excellent architectural work, said Project Coordinator Daems. Successful Bid The successful bid of Cannon-Papanikolas may have been due to the fact that they also are the contractor on the new library addition, stated Daems. Because of this they were probably able to use their labor force very efficiently and did not have to include a contingency fund for "surprizes" encountered in excavation work. Once the Tec Ed building is done, the new fountain and Phase Two of the front landscaping project will occupy the diggers and the fillers here on campus. Though as yet unfunded, plans for a new Allied Health Building and a new Business Center are underway in Weber's continuing growth. people with dollar bills," the University of Minnesota's women's athletic director explained. "We don't want a carbon copy of the men's program. Women's sports are for the individual." Coaches Earned Other women coaches have been warned that if big money and recruiting become a part of the women's game, coaches who don't produce victory with their teams may find themselves unemployed. OSU's women's athletics director said she thinks when women's teams are expanded to the point where they are dependent on gate receipts, the coaches will be faced with losing their jobs if they don't win. Giving money to female athletics will also force more (f5fe MONDAY, May 10 Repelling at the stadium, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Evening Movie Orgy at Dorm Quad - Little Big Man, Marx Brothers, Cartoons, refreshments and contests. TUESDAY, May 11 Tower Hour - featuring Dating Game Evening Luau: mini concert, Union Cafeteria 5:30 p.m. Free THURSDAY, May 13 Noon Union Quad Pie Fights -- Taco Eating - Ice Cream Drop FRIDAY, May 14 Moonlight madness, 7 p.m. Square dancing, food, volleyball, flash light hike - Free SATURDAY, May 15 WDay Clean up 8:30 a.m. Afternoon Renissance Fair "Once Upon a Matress" 7 p.m. UB Ballroom, special student price $2.50 per person, 6:30 p.m. dinner and show 5 S3 committment from them and intensify the intercollegiate competition among women. "Women are going to have to become more serious about their teams," Iowa State University's women's athletics director warned. It would be difficult to develop expanded programs for losing teams, she said. The only immediate action set by the Title IX guidelines for college athletic departments is an evaluation which must be made of the athletics programs by this July. The schools, are responsible for assessing their own programs and comparing them to the federal guidelines. If the schools find inequitable treatment of men and women, they must bring their programs up to the Title IX standard. in Women's athletic directors and coaches at some schools are finding this to be fraught with political problems. At a national convention for women in sport held recently, some women complained that they were certain the athletic department men were not plainning to include them in the evaluation process. Others feared that the men's department would submit its own recommendations to the administration in addition to the one done by the designated committee.The struggle for the college athletic budget will probably continue at least three more years. Meanwhile, many schools have already opened up most of their physical education classes to both sexes and in some cases merged the two departments. May 10-15 t |