As UC Berkeley is set to announce Thursday whether the campus will cut five sports teams, The New York Times reported Tuesday that UC Berkeley may be required to reinstate the five teams to avoid violating Title IX regulations, though the campus remains adamant that it is in compliance with the law.
According to The New York Times, the campus is currently not in line with any of the three prongs of Title IX compliance test. The three prongs require all universities that receive federal funding to either have the male to female athlete ratio represent the male to female ratio of the campus population, demonstrate a consistent history of expanding women’s athletics on campus or have full and effective accommodation of the interest and ability of women in sports.
Though the campus claims to adhere to the law, The New York Times article states the campus is not compliant with any of the three criteria.
“Just 40 percent of the 965 participants on the university’s varsity teams were women in the 2009-10 academic year; its overall student enrollment was 53 percent female,” the article stated.
However, the most current number of student athletes, as released by the campus in September, was in fact 814 individuals. Campus officials said the numbers in The New York Times article were outdated and that the article was speculative.
Campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof said in an e-mail it was necessary to understand that the campus fully analyzed the Title IX consequences in the initial scope of the decision to cut the five teams – baseball, men’s rugby, men’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse and women’s gymnastics – back in September.
“Once the campus completes its continuing review of philanthropic commitments provided to the ‘Save Cal Sports’ endeavor and determines the extent of its success, a final determination will be made about the future scope of the program,” he said in the e-mail.
Mogulof added that once the decision regarding the possible reinstatement of the athletics teams is announced Thursday, the campus will provide information and answer questions about how the campus will continue to fully comply with Title IX.
The campus plans to announce its decision on whether or not it will reinstate the athletics teams Thursday by noon.
Jack Wang of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.