Gymnastics at Southeast put in doubt by Title IX guidelines

Southeast Missouri State University's gymnasts worry they're about to take a permanent tumble. School officials and a university ad hoc committee are studying whether to eliminate the program as a way to better meet federal gender equity requirements.

The issue of gender equity has taken center stage as Southeast looks to have its athletics programs recertified by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Recertification occurs every 10 years. The process has been ongoing at SEMO since earlier this year. An Atlanta consultant who specializes in issues dealing with Title IX is scheduled to visit the Southeast campus on Monday to offer his advice.

Southeast and other schools want to stay in compliance with Title IX -- the 1972 federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs including athletics -- and avoid lawsuitsthat could create large legal costs.

Gymnastics coach Patty Stotzheim said university administrators worry that the university could be slapped with a lawsuit. Nevertheless, she said her program is unfairly being singled out among women's sports for possible elimination in order to add more women's teams.

Don Kaverman, Southeast's athletics director, said school officials haven't made a final decision on the program or adding other women's sports. He admits money is an issue in the gender equity discussion, particularly with the university burdened with state funding cuts. Southeast spends over $200,000 a year on its gymnastics program, which includes coaches salaries, scholarships for the athletes and operating expenses.

Sports spending

Southeast spends far more on men's sports than women's sports. Last school year, it spent $2.6 million on men's sports compared to $1.8 million on women's sports. Expenses for football alone totaled more than $1.2 million.

Stotzheim complained she and her gymnasts have been kept in the dark by school administrators regarding the program's future. She said it's a major distraction for the team as it prepares for the season, which begins in January.

"We are all so confused," said Jacklyn Doebbler, a gymnast and junior from Austin, Texas. Others wonder if they'll have scholarships next year.

Any changes in sports programs would only take effect in the next school year.

Stotzheim said the university wants to avoid litigation by showing the federal Office of Civil Rights that it's making strides in gender equity.

But because of the number of athletes involved in football, there remains a disparity in the number of male and female athletes at Southeast, she said.

Southeast had 156 male athletes in seven sports in the 2000-2001 school year with 75 of those in football. There were 114 women competing in nine sports with 22 of those athletes involved in track.The percentage of female students at Southeast is greater than male students, which is typical at colleges across the United States. This makes it difficult for schools to comply with Title IX on the basis of male-female student athlete ratios compared to the student body as a whole.

At colleges with football programs, the balance is always tipped toward more male athletes, which requires schools to look at meeting Title IX requirements in other ways. The law allows colleges to do this by demonstrating a history of expansion in sports offerings for women.

Southeast added women's soccer in 1999and remains committed to promoting gender equity, said Dr. Ken Dobbins, university president.

Assessing all teams

He said the university's ad hoc committee -- which he appointed in June -- is assessing all of the women's athletics programs, not just gymnastics. "I think there are just some misconceptions out there," Dobbins said.

One possibility the committee considered was to replace gymnastics -- a sport Southeast has had since 1976 -- with women's golf and junior varsity soccer. But gymnast Amy Cole of Palmyra, Ill., said it makes no sense to eliminate gymnastics and replace it with two new "cheaper" programs.

Kaverman said women's golf would be the most logical sport to add at Southeast. But Stotzheim said it wouldn't compare in numbers to gymnastics which has 18 athletes -- twice as many as golf would have.

Adding junior varsity soccer may not be the answer either. NCAA literature indicates schools can't offer junior varsity sports as a substitute for varsity sports.

Cheryl Doebbler, an Ontario, Calif., resident and mother of gymnast Jacklyn Doebbler, complained that there's too much secrecy surrounding the university's evaluation of the gymnastics program.

"It is just kind of frustrating," she said.

Stotzheim and university athletics officials say another way to demonstrate compliance with federal gender equity requirements is to show that the school is offering sports of interest to women in its region. Gymnastics, she said, suffers in such an analysis because it isn't a high school sport.

There are no high school gymnastics programs in the state of Missouri, said Cindy Gannon, Southeast's volleyball coach and senior women's administrator in the athletics department. Gannon co-chairs the eight-member committee that recommended hiring a consultant.

But while gymnastics isn't a high school sport, many girls compete in private clubs, Stotzheim said.

Cheryl Doebbler said she's counted through an Internet search more than 50 private gymnastics clubs in the university's service area stretching from St. Louis to the Bootheel.

Ultimately, Dobbins would make recommendations to the board of regents, which would have the final say. But Dobbins said that isn't likely to happen until next spring.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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