Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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UW ruled Title IX-compliant

Resolving a 12-year-old violation complaint, UW-Madison’s athletic department now officially complies with the federal Title IX law requiring schools to give men and women equal athletic opportunities.

Last year, UW said women made up 52.44 percent of the university’s student athletes. This figure demonstrates UW’s compliance with Title IX, which requires institutions to give athletic opportunities to both sexes proportionate to their undergraduate enrollments; women made up 53.29 percent of UW undergraduates last year.

Since the complaint was filed in 1989, UW has added three women’s sports: softball, lightweight rowing and hockey. Now, UW offers 12 sports for women and 11 for men. The school has also managed team rosters, setting minimum and maximum sizes for certain sports, to meet the Title IX guidelines.

“The Department of Athletics has worked long and hard to provide opportunities for female student-athletes on this campus,” UW athletics director Pat Richter said in a statement. “I am pleased that the Office of Civil Rights has recognized our efforts.”

Title IX compliance is financially important to UW because the federal government can withhold money from non-compliant universities.

“The stakes were pretty high, not just for the athletic department but for the institution,” UW associate athletics director Vince Sweeney told the Associated Press.

However, Sweeney said UW has never lost funding because of a Title IX violation.

The UW Department of Athletics announced late Tuesday night that the Office of Civil Rights had notified the school of its new compliance status. The Office had agreed last year to review an earlier finding that UW had failed to provide equal athletic opportunity to both male and female students.
UW will still have to file an annual report with the federal government to show its compliance with Title IX.

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