Women’s Sports Review Stalls Board Of Education Still Seeks Plan That Offers Equal Footing

Members of the state Board of Education want to take another look at the best way to find enough money to balance funding for women’s athletics on a par with men’s at the three state universities and Lewis-Clark State College.

The plan presented to the board Thursday didn’t get far. Member Thomas Dillon called it “fatally flawed” and argued against it. “This is not a good way to do it,” he said.

After a 90-minute discussion on whether to allow the schools to waive in-state tuition charges for female athletes, the board voted 5-3 for more study.

The Board of Education staff will meet with financial officials from Boise State University, Idaho State University, University of Idaho and Lewis-Clark to come up with more options for reaching gender equity. The issue will come up again at the November board meeting.

Some board members also wanted to get into the entire question of funding for intercollegiate athletics.

A report presented to the board showed athletic programs cost $17.4 million to operate last year, ran up a combined deficit of $376,936 and took $3.3 million in student fees and another $4.4 million in state funds.

Other members said they wanted to limit next month’s discussion to gender equity without getting into broader questions about college sports.

The federal Title IX gender equity law requires institutions to offer scholarships and athletic opportunities to female students in about the same ratio as they make up the student body.

Idaho State, Boise State, Idaho and Lewis-Clark each are asking for a waiver of in-state fees for female athletes. Those fees are in the form of scholarships.

Athletic departments pay those fees to the university. Waiving fees would mean a savings to the athletic departments but a loss of money to the universities for such things as instruction, the operation of facilities and paying off bonds.

Dillon said that would dilute the value of the schools’ most important commodity, education, and he was dead set against it.

“A dollar is a dollar is a dollar, and it must come from other sources,” he said.

Dillon noted that the proposal discussed Thursday eventually could mean the diversion of millions of dollars from education into athletic programs.

“This is a poor way to do things,” he said.

Carole McWilliam said the schools are under a requirement to achieve gender equity. “Where else are we going to go at this point?” she asked.

Richard Bowen, Idaho State president, said ISU will have a hard time meeting the gender equity requirements.

“We have a very major Title IX problem,” he said. “We can’t solve this on our own. We need help from the board.”

Athletic Director Irv Cross told the Finance Committee meeting Wednesday night that ISU’s student body is made up of 57 percent women and 43 percent men but only 32 percent of the school’s athletes are women.

Board members reminded the presidents that when Idaho and Boise State were given permission to move from the Division I-AA Big Sky Conference to Division I Big West Conference, it was with the understanding that student fees would not be increased to pay for it and the schools would not ask for additional state funding.