FINAL BILL REPORT

SHB 2020

                                  C 340 L 89

BYHouse Committee on Higher Education (originally sponsored by Representatives Jacobsen, Miller, Spanel, Heavey, Wood, Belcher, Rector, Hankins, Anderson, O'Brien, R. King, Winsley, Jesernig, P. King, Pruitt, K. Wilson, Patrick, Leonard and Nutley)

Providing tuition and fee waivers for intercollegiate athletes to achieve gender equity.

House Committe on Higher Education

Rereferred House Committee on Appropriations

Senate Committee on Higher Education and Committee on Ways & Means

SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

BACKGROUND:

The passage of Title IX in 1972 was the impetus for the rapid expansion of sports programs for women, particularly in high schools.  However, by the middle to late 1970's, women athletes and coaches of women's sports programs began to file formal legal complaints under Title IX and the state's Equal Rights Amendment charging that college athletic opportunities were much more limited than opportunities available to young men.

In 1979, a discrimination lawsuit was filed against Washington State University based on Washington's Equal Rights Amendment. In Blair v. Washington State University, a superior court found the university guilty of discrimination.  The court's decree presented a series of formulas meant to ensure equitable funding of women's athletic programs.  However, football was exempted from the calculations of required scholarship and participation opportunities. On appeal, the state Supreme Court decided that football scholarships and participants could not be excluded from the formulas designed to protect against discrimination. These legal decisions, as well as the requirements of Title IX, may impact programs at all Washington colleges and universities that have an intercollegiate athletic program.

During 1988, a subcommittee of the House Higher Education and Education Committees studied the opportunities available to men and women athletes in high school and college.  The committee found that, during the 1987-88 academic year at state baccalaureate universities, women participants in intercollegiate athletic programs comprised 29 to 38 percent of the total participants.  These women athletes comprised between 29 to 31 percent of the athletes receiving financial aid, and their programs received between 26 to 36 percent of the available funding.  In contrast, young women competing in high school interscholastic competition comprised 39 percent of the participants. In Blair, Washington State University was required to provide intercollegiate athletic opportunities based on its percentage of male and female undergraduate enrollments.

The subcommittee recommended the introduction of legislation to encourage equitable intercollegiate athletic opportunities for male and female students, including a bill to create an intercollegiate athletic scholarship program for students attending state colleges and universities.

SUMMARY:

Beginning in the 1991-92 academic year, the state four-year institutions of higher education may waive up to 1 percent of their estimated tuition and fee revenue to achieve or maintain gender equity in intercollegiate athletic programs.

At any institution that has an underrepresented gender class, the waivers must first be awarded to athletes of that class, and any money saved or displaced as a result of the waivers must be used for athletic programs for those students.  If additional waivers are available, they may go to students who are not members of the underrepresented gender class, but any money saved or displaced by the waivers must be used for athletic programs for members of the underrepresented gender class.  Additional waivers may also be awarded to members of the underrepresented gender class even if no moneys are saved or displaced as a result of the waivers.

An underrepresented gender class occurs when the ratio of women to men students in intercollegiate athletics is less than approximately the ratio of women to men students enrolled as undergraduates at an institution of higher education.

Institutions granting the waivers are required to strive to accomplish the following goals:

(1)  Provide equitable intercollegiate athletic opportunities for men and women students;

(2)  Provide a variety of services related to intercollegiate athletics equitably to men and women students; and

(3)  Provide women coaches and administrators to act as role models for participants in intercollegiate athletics.

Before an institution is permitted to grant any waiver during the 1991-92 academic year, its governing board must adopt a plan to accomplish the specified goals.  The plan must be submitted to the Higher Education Coordinating Board.  Beginning in the 1992-93 academic year, the Higher Education Coordinating Board must approve the institution's plan before any waivers are granted.  Plans must ensure that, by July 1, 1994, the institution will provide athletic opportunities for women at a rate that meets or exceeds the rate at which girls participate in high school interscholastic athletics in Washington.

The Higher Education Coordinating Board is directed to report biennially, beginning in December, 1992, on institutional efforts to achieve gender equity in intercollegiate athletics.  The first report will include a recommendation on whether to extend this waiver authority to community colleges.  Before the board reports in December, 1994, it must assess the extent of institutional compliance with the requirements of this act.  The 1994 report must include a recommendation on whether to continue this waiver authority.

Nothing in the act excuses any institution from more stringent requirements imposed by law.

The act expires on June 30, 1997.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

      House 98   0

      Senate    46     0 (Senate amended)

      House             (House refused to concur)

Free Conference Committee

      Senate    46     0

      House 90   0

EFFECTIVE:July 23, 1989