In this article: Title IX compliance | Challenges
When Jo Wagstaff first came to Whitworth in the 1980s, her starting salary was $1,200 and she paid more than that in child care that year. The coach for the men's team received 15 times her pay, she said.
Wagstaff said it was not until Whitworth had an athletic director interested in gender issues that things started changing. This happened about two years after she started, she said.
When Wagstaff started coaching, the women's tennis team would have to practice on the then lower tennis courts, while the men's team always practiced on the then upper courts. She said the lower courts were in worse conditions. When she asked why, she was told that was how it had always been.
"Things like that I dealt with only for a very short period of time," Wagstaff said.
Today, Wagstaff said the athletic department focuses on making sure teams rotate through facilities and time slots to use the facilities in a fair way.
"You still hear horror stories at other institutions where women have to practice at 6 a.m. every day," Wagstaff said.
Wagstaff said Whitworth coaches are now paid on the same salary scale.
Many of these changes are partially results of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX has three prongs that can be used to measure whether schools are in compliance and treating genders equally. Schools must be following at least one of the three prongs.
Wagstaff said many colleges ignored Title IX until lawsuits started happening.
Title IX compliance
Wagstaff said Whitworth tries to comply with prongs two and three - demonstrating a history and continuing practice of program expansion for the underrepresented sex and accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex.
Wagstaff said Whitworth does not comply with the first prong which is to provide participation opportunities for women and men in proportion to their rates of enrollment as full-time undergraduate students. Women outnumber men at Whitworth 54.2 to 45.8 percent, according to the Spring 2009 Tenth Day Enrollment Report.
Whitworth added women's soccer in the late '80s and since has added softball and women's golf, she said. Wagstaff said the softball facility and soccer facility have also been built since she came to Whitworth.
Wagstaff said the university goes through a 15-point laundry list to check compliance, including measuring the square footage of locker rooms and coaches offices and making sure everyone has the equal funds for equipment.
"You don't really know if you are in compliance or not until somebody sues you," Wagstaff said. "You try to do everything you can to make sure things are fair."
Wagstaff said there has never been a Title IX lawsuit against a Division III school.
Wagstaff said the athletic department is currently working on an interest survey to find out if there is a sport women are interested in that the university currently does not offer. She said schools are advised to do the survey every five years and Whitworth has not done one for six or seven years. The survey was sent out April 24.
"That's usually how a lawsuit gets started - either a program gets cut or there is a sport people want that isn't offered," Wagstaff said.
Lacrosse may be a possible sport to add in the future, Wagstaff said. A lot of that depends on interest and financing, she said.
Head athletic trainer Melinda Larson said she thinks athletes are treated fairly.
"In my opinion I believe we treat male and female athletes equally when it comes to resources," Larson said. "I think the athletic department is fair and has good intentions."
Larson worked this year with the men's and women's soccer teams and softball. This is the first year she has not worked with a basketball team.
"Men and women are different and have to be treated differently," Larson said. "I do interact differently when I'm working with both genders of soccer team."
Female athletes are more likely to suffer knee injuries and ACL tears, Larson said. Larson said the department has done prevention programs just with women's teams. Trainers also watch for women who are more likely to have those injuries and try to do some intervention work, she said.
Challenges
One of the areas Whitworth athletics could improve, Wagstaff said, is in hiring more female head coaches.
"That's something we'll all admit to," Wagstaff said. "They are extremely hard to find."
When Whitworth has openings for those positions, people need to be proactive of going after qualified female coaches and urging them to apply, Wagstaff said.
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