Bethune-Cookman College, Coppin State College, Hampton University and South Carolina State University were among the schools accused of not providing equal opportunity for their female athletes.
The National Women's Law Center selected the 25 schools for the complaints based on a number of criteria, including how the schools allocated their athletic scholarship money and how they fared on a test of whether the percentage of women in a school's athlete population was substantially proportional to the percentage of women in its overall undergraduate population. The Center's statistics came from annual reports every college in the nation must compile under the federal Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. The most recent reports cover the 1995-96 academic year.
The U.S. Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will review the complaints within 135 days. If it finds that a school is not complying with Title IX, the school could lose all of its federal funding. Since that penalty is so severe, schools not complying with Title IX usually negotiate a settlement with OCR officials that results in enhanced opportunities for female athletes. No school ever has lost its federal funding because of non-compliance with Title IX.
Schools accused by the National Women's Law Center ofdiscriminating against female athletes: Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Fla.
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Boston University, Boston
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.
Coppin State College, Baltimore
Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Hampton University, Hampton, Va.
Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va.
Northeastern University, Boston
South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, S.C.
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Maine at Orono
University of New Hampshire, Durham, N.H.
University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.
University of Texas at El Paso
University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio
University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Okla.
Utah State University, Logan, Utah
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Wofford College, Spartanburg, S.C.
