More on SHARP conference

Erin mentioned briefly that she attended the Title IX conference at the University of Michigan last week. Here is more coverage of the event and the issues discussed. We were happy to see that discussion on ways to remedy racial discrimination in athletics were often at the forefront.
Also of note for parents, coaches, students, and activists out there: the Women's Sports Foundation is collecting your pictures of inequities. Nancy Hogshead-Makar announced that people should "send photographs of physical inequities between boys’ and men’s athletics versus girls’ and women’s in facilities, equipment, uniforms and travel to TitleIXphotos@womenssportsfoundation.org."
I have a feeling people at WSF are going to be looking at a lot of photos of softball and baseball fields! (And maybe some not-so-nice locker rooms.)

Invitational in DC to focus on athletics and equity

We can tell there has been the proverbial changing of the guard in Washington in many ways including the upcoming and inaugural Title IX Holiday Invitational and Conference Classic. Part of its goal is to "celebrate the fact that the Nation’s Capitol is focusing on raising gender equity and program parity with national norms and best practices."
The conference part of the program is on Sunday, December 27. Registration for adults is $15 and only $2.50 for students with IDs. The conference is being facilitated by Phyllis Lerner, a Title IX educator and public policy expert.
The basketball tournament runs from the 28th until the 30th and features some of the best girls' basketball teams in their respective states.
According to the website, the goals of the conference and invitational are to :

Showcase: the academic and athletic accomplishments of our visiting state champions;
Increase: awareness of, interest in and access to the benefits of school based team sports from the elementary to post secondary level;
Educate: parents, players, coaches, administrators and legislators about the need for increased Title IX awareness and compliance.
Learn: about the tools and techniques used to attract and produce academic and athletic champions (national norms and best practices).
Empower: female student athletes, coaches and parents to advocate for program parity and Title IX compliance.

Conference of interest

The Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University will be holding a conference on sport and social justice in June. The Power of Sports Summit is open to scholars, activists, and those working in sport and for social justice (everyone from coaches to program coordinators/administrators) and will be held at NEU June 14 and 15. Topics to be addressed include legal issues and gender segregation but many many more (see the above link for topics and registration information). What is intriguing about this gathering is the format which will breakout groups lead by facilitators from the center. It looks to be very interactive and hopefully will draw people with a range of experiences and knowledge.

Loyola Marymount Hosts Discrimination in Sports Conference

West coast readers may appreciate news of this upcoming conference at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles called "Discrimination Issues in Sports: Race, Gender & Sexual Orientation." The program includes a wide range of panelists, including scholars, lawyers, and regulators, with connections to a diverse array of sporting practices at the professional, collegiate, and Olympic levels. Title IX will surely be invoked by those addressing sex and sexual orientation discrimination in sports offered by educational institutions; in fact, one panelist is from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

Via Sports Law Blog -- several of whom I had the pleasure to see/meet today here in NYC at the AALS conference.

Leadership conference to address Title IX at 35

Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts is hosting its annual Women in Leadership Conference on Friday, November 9. The one-day event features numerous panels. You can read a full description of them all here.
In the afternoon there is a panel entitled "Title IX at 35: The Pipeline's in Place--Now What?" The purpose of the panel is to explore the legislation's effects not just on athletics but the classroom and the composition of the contemporary American boardroom. The panelists are all female leaders and represent a variety of occupations. Of special note is Mary Mazzio, the founder and president of 50 Eggs Productions who also produced A Hero for Daisy and whose company allows us to use a still from the documentary on our page!

Hofstra Law School Hosts Panel on Title IX

From the law school's web site:

Hofstra Law School will host a panel discussion “Sticky Cultural Norms: The Transformative Potential of Title IX” on April 30 at 12:10 pm at the Law School. The discussion is sponsored by Hofstra Law School’s Institute for the Study of Gender, Law and Policy and is being held in honor of the 35th anniversary of Title IX, the law that bans sex discrimination in federally funded programs.

Presenters include Deborah Brake, University of Pittsburgh School of Law; Erin Buzuvis, Western New England School of Law; and Verna Williams, University of Cincinnati School of Law. A variety of topics will be discussed including: the feminist legacy of this historic law and whether Title IX is an example of successful law reform that has transformed women’s roles in society or whether it merely papered over sexist cultural norms that are resistant to change. The panel will be moderated by Joanna L. Grossman, Hofstra Law School Professor of Law and co-director of the Institute for the Study of Gender, Law and Policy. One CLE credit is available for this event.

Harvard Conference

The Harvard Journal of Law and Gender is hosting a conference called "Changing Cultural Norms? Title IX and Legal Activism" this Friday afternoon, April 13, from 2 pm to 5:30. Here's a description from the journal's website:

In the 35 years since Title IX was passed, it has been used in a variety of situations to increase gender equity in educational environments. We will examine how effective Title IX has been as a legal reform effort to change social and gender norms and what we can learn from these lessons as we look to future feminist legislative agendas. The conference is divided into two panels, the first focusing on Title IX’s uses in combating sexual harassment and sexual assault at schools, and the second focusing on Title IX’s effects on athletics programs and gender equity in sports. The conference is free and open to all, no registration required.

The esteemed panelists are listed here.

(Via Sports Law Blog. Thanks for the shout-out, Michael!)

Chronicle Reports on Title IX Conference

By way of addendum to Kris's roundup of coverage of the Title IX Conference in Cleveland, here's a link to an article in yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education (account/password requried).

The article reports conferencees' opinions on a number of current events related to Title IX, including the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights upcoming hearing on the interest survey policy, the JMU lawsuit, and the CSC's recent report* on the decline in participation opportunities in men's sports.

On the last issue, the both Judith Sweet, a former AD and senior official at the NCAA , and professor/AD emerita Dr. Christine Grant (the reporter erroneously calls her Ms. Grant)** object to the CSC's report for underreporting the increase in opportunties in certain men's sports, which have outpaced declines in other men's sports.

*I'd link, but their website does not appear to be working.

**On further review, it appears to be the Chronicle's policy to forgo the use of the title "Dr." altogether. The paper instead refers to doctorate-holding professors of both sexes as Ms. and Mr. accordingly. I retract and regret my suggestion that this was an error or a dis.

See You in Cleveland!

Kris and I are off to the Title IX Conference in Cleveland. I'm sure we'll have lots to blog about when we get back!

Stanford Conference

West coast readers, mark your calendars: On Saturday, April 28, Stanford University will host a conference called Title IX Today, Title IX Tomorrow.

According to the conference website,

This event will feature leading policy makers, administrators, scholars, and public officials with the ability to influence the effective implementation of Title IX in the years to come. It is designed to provoke fresh insights and promote sound practices surrounding gender equity in college athletics and beyond [including] discussion of how to assess gender equity in college athletics, how to increase opportunities for women students and coaches without diminishing them for men, and how to promote change in athletic contexts beyond the intercollegiate setting.

Billie Jean King will give the keynote address, and the agenda also includes presentations by scholars such as Vivian Acosta, Linda Jean Carpenter, Richard Lapchick, and Mary Jo Kane, as well as advocates (for and against) such as NWLC's Marica Greenberger, WSF's Donna Lopiano, and CSC's Eric Pearson. Stanford's own Tara VanDerveer and Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby are also in the lineup.

Mark Your Calendars

As far as this Title IX blogger is concerned, this is the coolest conference imaginable:

Women Rock: Celebrating 35 Years of Sport and Title IX
March 28-31
Wolstein Center, Cleveland State College

(That's right, Cleveland. Host city to the Final Four April 1 & 3).

Keynote speakers include:

• Birch Bayh, Partner, Venable, LLP; U.S. Senator (D-IL, 1963-1981); leading civil rights advocate
• Martha Burk, Recent Past Chair, National Council of Women’s Organizations
• Marcia Greenberger, Co-President, National Women’s Law Center
• Billie Jean King, Founder and Honorary Chair, Women’s Sports Foundation
• Bernice Sandler, Senior Scholar at the Women’s Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C.
  

The invited speakers list is also most impressive. Stay tuned to the website for the presenters and their topics.

See you in Cleveland!