ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 19, 1993                   TAG: 9305190348
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO.                                LENGTH: Medium


GENDER EQUITY SPARKS DEBATE

A special NCAA committee brought out its long-awaited preliminary report on the touchy issue of gender equity on Tuesday, and immediately sparked division within its own ranks.

The report calls for equal participation of men and women athletes at all NCAA schools, based on the male-female breakdown of the student body. It's meant to be a blueprint for legislation at upcoming NCAA conventions.

Five committee representatives from major football schools immediately said they would issue a minority report, and Colorado president Judith Albino later confirmed that the language in several key areas, including proportionality, was changed without their knowledge or consent.

Other key parts call for increasing financial aid for women while keeping the current cap on men's financial aid.

About an hour after committee co-chairs James Whalen and Phyllis Howlett held a nationwide teleconference, the minority group represented by Albino held one.

The preliminary report doesn't directly address how proportionality can be achieved without draining resources from football, the biggest revenue-producer among major college sports and the only major sport women do not play.

"What it says is . . . proportions are important. . . . That should be the goal toward which each institution is moving," said Whalen, president of Ithaca College, a Division II school.

Albino noted that football and men's basketball produce the revenue that pays for almost all college athletic programs.

"Should you just shift scholarships, shift resources from those men's programs that generate revenues in order to get to some bottom line number? Or do you . . . maintain this revenue stream because it helps us to develop programs for women and as well as men?" Albino said.



 by CNB