Athletics in compliance

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights has confirmed that the university’s intercollegiate athletics program has achieved Title IX compliance.

The Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has been striving to create representation for its male and female student athletes in proportion to respective undergraduate enrollments at the institution, and it recently reached that goal.

Documents submitted by the institution for the 2000-01 academic year show that women accounted for 52.44 percent (482 of 919) of the school’s student-athletes. UW–Madison undergraduate enrollment is 53.29 percent women, meaning that the institution has demonstrated compliance with the Title IX requirement that students of both genders be provided nondiscriminatory participation in intercollegiate athletics.

“The Department of Athletics has worked long and hard to provide opportunities for female student-athletes on this campus,” says Pat Richter, director of athletics.

Richter lauds the efforts of many people including current and former Athletic Department staff, coaches, Legal Services and Athletic Board members. “I am pleased that the Office of Civil Rights has recognized our efforts.”

This decision effectively closes OCR’s monitoring of UW–Madison. Institution officials have been working to comply with the Title IX requirement since a 1989 complaint was filed against the school.

Since the complaint was filed, the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has added three women’s sports: softball, lightweight rowing and ice hockey. The school has also managed team rosters, setting minimum and maximum sizes for certain sports, to meet the Title IX guidelines.

The Badgers currently offer 12 sports for women (basketball, cross country, golf, hockey, lightweight rowing, openweight rowing, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and volleyball) and 11 sports for men (basketball, cross country, football, golf, hockey, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and wrestling).