Providence College Athletics
College Announces Plan to Achieve Voluntary Compliance with Title IX
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | General
October 7, 1998
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Providence College has unveiled a four-year plan to ensure equal opportunity for its men and women athletes, and to achieve voluntary compliance with the gender equity requirements of Title IX.
The college is currently involved in the self-study phase of the NCAA Peer Review and accreditation process. Part of the process calls for a gender equity plan which requires Providence College to meet the requirements of Title IX. The plan announced by the college ensures equal participation and scholarship opportunities for varsity athletics based on an undergraduate distribution goal of 57 percent female and 43 percent male.
Rev. Philip A. Smith, O.P., president of the college said, "This gender equity plan will enable Providence College to comply with Title IX on our own terms, meet NCAA certification requirements, and improve the overall competitiveness of a number of our varsity teams."
At the end of the current academic year, the college's sponsorship of baseball, golf and men's tennis will be discontinued. The college will continue sponsorship of 19 varsity sports, including 8 men's and 11 women's teams. The plan calls for a redistribution of scholarships currently allocated to these three teams to strengthen scholarship opportunities and enhance other areas for teams including women's soccer, softball, ice hockey and field hockey. The college will honor its financial commitment to all student-athletes affected by the redistribution. The plan does not call for discontinuation of any other athletic programs.
Assistant Vice President for Athletics, John M. Marinatto said, "Over the past 18 months, we vigorously pursued all options available to us. We looked at what was realistic given our gender balance and the national projections. It became apparent to us that we could not add funding to athletics and that reallocation was our only path. Aside from men's and women's basketball, which you need to remain classified as a Division I school, every other sport was reviewed in the process to achieve gender equity."
Marinatto added, "The college has made a strong statement in pursuing this plan of voluntary compliance, allowing us to redistribute every bit of the budgets from the sports discontinued and honoring its financial commitment to athletic scholarships to all athletes currently on aid at the college."
Father Smith pointed out that "The decision to drop any of our sports teams was very difficult but very necessary, given the college's limited financial resources and our desire to continue offering student-athletes the opportunity to participate at the highest level of varsity athletic competition without compromising academic priorities."
"This decision reaffirms the college's long-term commitment to Division I and major conference play," the president added. "Providence College will continue to play a national schedule with our flagship teams, will continue to be one of only three BIG EAST Conference schools with both men's and women's basketball and hockey programs, and will continue to offer varsity participation opportunities to a greater percentage of the student body than the majority of our BIG EAST counterparts."
