UAlbany under Title IX investigation

The University at Albany is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) after a gender equity complaint was filed by former women’s tennis coach Gordon Graham, whose program was terminated last year.

Graham represents a women’s tennis support group that believes the school’s athletic department doesn’t comply with any of the three criteria set forth by the 1972 federal Title IX law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. If the OCR rules in favor of the complaint, UAlbany risks the loss of federal funding.

The Great Danes women’s tennis team reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history last spring, but it was a bittersweet development, since the athletic department had already announced that the program would be ended.

UAlbany’s conference (America East), through which the Great Danes got an automatic bid to the NCAAs, was falling apart for tennis, and athletic director Mark Benson said at the time that it would be too difficult to land in another conference. He added it wasn’t feasible or rewarding to continue the program as an independent, especially minus an automatic shot at the NCAAs that conference membership brings.

In the announcement, the athletic department promised to “reallocate existing funds into areas that will strengthen their Title IX position.”

On Thursday, the tennis support group released an outline of its complaint, a copy of the complaint as it was filed to the OCR, a letter from the OCR dated Jan. 11 agreeing to look into it, and a spreadsheet showing survey numbers measuring undergraduate enrollment and population numbers for each team from 2003 to 2015.

Those numbers were pulled from Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data supplied by UAlbany to the Department of Education.

According to Graham’s plea to the OCR, his players were “devastated” when told that the program was ending, and they want to be reinstated.

To satisfy Title IX with regard to sports, a school must provide intercollegiate opportunities for male and female students proportional to the gender ratio of the general student body; or show a history and continuing practice of program expansion that represents the needs of a particular sex; or show that a present program fully accommodates the interest level and ability of a particular sex.

Among the group’s accusations is that UAlbany counts male walk-on players who practice with the women’s basketball team toward female participation.

The outline of the complaint that was supplied to the media concluded with this statement:

“For many years the university has not offered enough opportunities for female athletes and the situation has gotten worse with the elimination of women’s tennis. This is sad for those of us who love this university. This investigation is an historic moment that could reverse years of sex discrimination and open up the door for more opportunities for female athletes at UAlbany. This process will help make the university better, and help it meet the SUNY-wide commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Benson confirmed that UAlbany had supplied the OCR with requested information, but couldn’t comment on the ongoing investigation.

He said about half of the women’s tennis budget of $365,000 had been distributed to other areas, such as elevating status and salaries for some of the people who coach women’s teams. The school is honoring the athletic scholarships of five of the players from the defunct tennis team who chose to stay at UAlbany.

“All I can say is we’re cooperating fully with the OCR, and that we’re committed to complying with Title IX for all our student-athletes,” Benson said.

Former Great Danes men’s tennis coach Bob Lewis was consulted by the women’s support group for advice on Title IX complaints.

A coach for 35 years at the school, Lewis was involved in this issue in 1994, when UAlbany dropped men’s tennis, wrestling and men’s and women’s swimming in an effort to comply with Title IX.

In his opinion, UAlbany isn’t satisfying any of the three Title IX gender equity criteria.

“What happened then is what’s happening now,” Lewis said. “I learned a lot about gender equity. The OCR didn’t get involved back then, and we got sports reinstated, although only for a year.

“The whole thing is about opportunity. They’re not being fair to these women. If they were satisfying proportionality, No. 2 and No. 3 wouldn’t matter.”

Reach Gazette Sportswriter Mike MacAdam at 395-3148 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter @Mike_MacAdam.

Categories: Sports