College, HS League Take Steps Toward Compliance

Two stories about how Title IX is still improving athletic opportunities for female students were in the news this weekend:

Madison Area Technical  College will reportedly add a women's soccer team to help balance out athletic opportunities, which presently favor men despite women making up more than half of the student body.  The college is under investigation by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, in response to anonymous complaint filed last year.

And here in Massachusetts, the high school athletics conference in Middlesex County has rescheduled its basketball games to ensure equity in the number of prime times girls and boys receive.  The Middlesex League was reportedly motivated by a Lexington supporter, who explained that the League's former system of scheduling girls' games first in all double-headers constituted sex discrimination under Title IX.  Under the new schedule, girls and boys will play on different nights, with JV leading off, followed by the varsity.