By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA athletic department announced Friday that women’s
rowing, currently a club sport, will attain varsity status for the
2001-02 school year.
The school added rowing as the main component of the Voluntary
Resolution Plan submitted to the Office for Civil Rights. UCLA and
OCR have worked together on an analysis of the athletic department
since December 1998, when the California chapter of the National
Organization for Women filed a complaint with the OCR that UCLA was
not in compliance with Title IX. Title IX stipulates equal female
participation in athletics and equal funding for women’s and
men’s sports.
“We’re pleased that they’ve resolved the
complaint and that they’re going to increase opportunities
for women athletes,” said Linda Joplin, Chair of the
California NOW Athletic Equity Committee. Joplin spearheaded the
original complaint.
That complaint, which included both UCLA and USC, stated that
the ratio of female athletes to male athletes at UCLA did not match
the ratio of female to male students at UCLA, a requirement of
Title IX. The complaint also highlighted the discrepancy between
funding for men’s and women’s sports at UCLA. For the
1997-98 school year the men’s budget was $3.16 million,
compared to $1.27 million for the women’s budget.
The recent OCR analysis found that UCLA treats its male and
female athletes equally. However, the concern was that the
percentage of female athletes was still not in proportion to the
percentage of female undergraduates enrolled at UCLA. In the
1997-98 school year, female students made up 51.9 percent of the
UCLA student body, while female athletes made up 40.1 percent of
the athlete population. Although women’s participation in
UCLA athletics has increased by 9 percent in the 97-98 school year,
the female undergraduate enrollment rate increased by 3 percent
during that same period. The female percentage in athletics still
does not match the enrollment percentage.
According to UCLA, adding rowing as a varsity sport should
equalize that ratio. The press release issued by the athletic
department stated that, “By adding rowing as an
intercollegiate sport for women, UCLA is currently addressing the
athletic interests of its female students and the increasing rate
of female enrollment.”
“Their numbers looked like they needed to do something,
and that was one reason why we filed the complaint,” Joplin
said. “The only regret is that it took two years … They
could’ve come to the same conclusion right away instead of
waiting.”
Members of the rowing team were ecstatic when UCLA senior
women’s administrator Betsy Stephenson announced the news at
a crew team meeting Thursday night.
“Everybody was screaming, everybody was really
excited,” said fourth-year student Jennifer Carey-Ruiz, who
will also compete next year.
“It was something that people had been talking about, but
we never really thought it would happen. So when they told us that
we were gonna be added it was a really big, pleasant
surprise,” she added.
The search for a head coach will take place in the next few
months. Carey-Ruiz said the process should be a three-year process.
For next year, the team will get funding. In years after that, the
team will begin recruiting and eventually be allotted
scholarships.
Carey-Ruiz added that the funding should be of great help the
rowers, who pay $480 a year to row.
“A lot of us work to pay our dues. With the funding we
wouldn’t have to pay to row anymore,” she said.
NOW has no other complaints with UCLA’s Title IX
compliance.
“Congratulations to UCLA,” Joplin said. “What
UCLA has done is agreed to a plan and the OCR has accepted their
plan as enough to bring them into compliance. They’ve done
what they needed to do.”