• What gender equity issues do you spot in the hypothetical that give you concern, given the material covered in chapter 5? What additional facts would you want to know? What steps would you take to address these concerns? As Athletic Director, what is your best recommendation for a direction to take?

CASE TO WORK WITH

You are the athletic director at a mid-level D-I university with a very successful man's

basketball team that generates net revenues of approximately $2.5 million. The

basketball coach is paid $1.5 million per yeara substantial portion of which comes

from privately raised funds. The men's basketball coach has also insisted that to remain

competitive in recruiting athletes, he needs the use of a private jet and improved practice

and training facilities for his team. With the hiring of a new coach at a nationally

competitive salary ($500,000, plus some incentives), the men's football program has

been improving, and that has had a positive economic impact. Three years ago, the

men's football team was operating at a loss of over $1 million per year, but it is now

losing only $300,000 per year. The women's basketball team produces revenue, but it

operates at a net loss of over $250,000 per year. Other men's and women's athletics

programs generate very little revenue. The net result is that the athletic program is being

run at a deficit of approximately $1 million per year. The president of the university has

been pressured by state legislators and is required by mandate from the university's board

of trustees to operate the university's athletic program with a balanced budget. The

president has communicated this mandate to you, as the athletics director, and has made

it clear that the athletics budget needs to be balanced within two years.

Currently, 61 percent of the students at the university are women and 39 percent

are men. Participation figures in intercollegiate athletics are almost reversed, with 63

percent male and 37 percent female participation in intercollegiate athletics. The football

team has 110 participants, including a number of walk-ons. The school is considering

adding women's swimming or women's softball, and its athletics conference recognizes

both sports. The university has pool facilities that can easily be converted to use for a

women's swimming team, but there is only limited interscholastic competition in

swimming in the general geographical area of the university. There is interscholastic

competition in softball in the area, but there are no facilities at the university. Building

new facilities would involve substantial costs, and the cost of operating the softball team

would be slightly higher per student-athlete than operating a swimming program. An

interest survey indicates somewhat more interest in participating in softball than

swimming on the part of women attending the university.

There has been some talk of dropping the men's track team, which would help

some in terms of proportionality, but concerns have been raised in the community that

doing so would eliminate a disproportionate number of athletes of color. Men's baseball

might also be cut, but it is quite popular with the chairperson of the university's board of

trustees, whose son plays on the team.

From time to time, some of the coaches of the women's teams have complained

that they are paid less than their male counterparts, their teams receive less academic

support (e.g., the men's basketball team takes two tutors with them on trips that exceed

two days, but no other teams are permitted to bring tutors on trips), their practice and

training facilities are not as good as those used by the men, and they are not given the

same amount of support in terms of fund-raising and media coverage.