Equity Juggles Nic Sports Roster Plan Adds Women’s Softball, Drops Track In Tightly Budgeted Gender-Equal Effort

Jim Headley has come up with a game plan that guarantees some of his athletes will win, and some will lose.

What they are winning or losing is the chance to compete at North Idaho College, where Headley is athletic director.

The school now has five men’s teams, and four women’s teams. Headley is recommending that women’s softball be added to the lineup, and both men’s and women’s track be dropped.

NIC’s board of trustees is expected to decide in January whether Headley’s plan or some other is in place by next fall. Its goal is to ensure that NIC’s athletic program gives women an equal shot at the playing fields and courts.

“No matter what we do, someone’s going to be upset,” trustee Robert Ely said last week.

The “gender equity” dilemma is common throughout the country.

The issue built up steam a year ago at NIC. Six out of 10 students at the lakeside community college were women, but women got a little more than one-third of athletic funding.

Scholarship, travel money, coaches’ salaries and tuition waivers remain heavily tipped in favor of the men.

A committee assigned to review the entire athletic program recommended that women’s softball or soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, and/ or men’s and women’s golf be added.

Committee members also said the entire athletic program couldn’t increase beyond 4.7 percent of the school’s budget.

Translation: We’ve gotta fix this gender equity problem without spending more money.

NIC has 3,644 students this fall, and only 140 or so are on varsity teams. But the complexity of the gender equity problem at even such a small college was apparent Thursday evening, when Headley presented the trustees with a series of spreadsheets.

Each sheet outlined different options, which went well beyond which sports to keep and which to drop.

Each sheet prompted avid discussion. Trustees decided they’ll schedule a public workshop to discuss the situation in depth before making a decision at January’s board meeting.

Among the issues on the table:

Track and cross country: Fifty-five students participate in track events and distance running. Half of those are women, coach Mike Bundy said Friday.

“Ours is the only gender-equal program in the athletic department. The irony of dropping that in the name of gender equity is kind of striking,” he said.

Few of the runners know about recommendations to drop one or both sports. “I’m sure as soon as word gets out, there will be all kinds of consternation,” Bundy said.

NIC board chairman Norm Gissel noted that neither sport draws much of an audience.

On the other hand, said Gissel, “cross country is one of the cheapest sports in the world. All you need is sneakers, a jersey and a road.”

Even low-income students can afford to be runners, argued trustee Jeanne Givens. She added: “I’d be very reluctant to give up women’s track while cheerleading remains” in the athletic budget.

Softball: Women’s fast-pitch softball is a popular choice to add.

It balances nicely with men’s baseball, plus “we’ve got a lot of local softball players. It’ll give more opportunity for local women,” said Steve Widmeyer, president of the Booster Club and a member-elect of the board of trustees.

Soccer: The growing popularity of soccer makes Widmeyer and others sure that NIC will have to consider adding that sport within a few years.

Right now, there are few other college teams with which to compete.

Pep band: It’s now included in the athletic rather than music department budget, and Headley is recommending it be dropped to invest that money in teams.

“That band is very good,” he said. “I hate to use the word expendable, because it isn’t, but it’s the closest thing I’ve got.”

NIC President Bob Bennett recommends moving $10,000 in athletic scholarship money to the music department to help students who will be affected if pep band is dropped.

Coaches’ salaries: Headley is recommending that basketball coaches, who have “more public interaction and responsibility,” be paid a base salary the same as those earned by teachers who have a bachelor’s degree. That’s $23,988. Other coaches would get 60 percent of that, or $14,400.

The men’s and women’s coaches would be paid the same.

“In the past, we paid them what available dollars we could scrape together and basically what the market would bear,” he said.

The decision about which teams to drop, and which to add, must be made quickly, said Bennett. Coaches must be hired, and student athletes alerted, so everyone can be prepared for next fall.

, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in Spokane edition

This sidebar appeared with the story: IT’S THE LAW Twenty-four years after it became law, many schools still don’t comply with the Title IX amendment to the Civil Rights Act, which says: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”