Fair Play at Last in Collegiate Athletics : * Sportswomen Finally Get Their Equitable Share at Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine

It’s a bittersweet victory, but finally gender equity is getting its due at Orange County’s two major universities, Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine.

In a precedent-setting settlement of a bias lawsuit, Cal State Fullerton recently agreed to retain the women’s volleyball team, add a women’s soccer team by 1993 and equalize spending on men’s and women’s sports within 10 years. Because more men than women traditionally participate in college sports--primarily through football programs--the university may have to limit spending on male athletes in order to make more room for women. So be it.

Recently, UC Irvine, with an eye toward the Cal State Fullerton settlement, announced that budgetary constraints would force the university to cut men’s baseball, cross-country and track. But women’s cross-country and track would be retained. The cuts are brutally painful, but the equity goal is of paramount importance. The move will bring men’s and women’s athletics close to equity for the first time in the university’s history.

In better times, gender equity in college athletics might have been achieved simply by adding women’s programs. That unfortunately cannot be so today, when California’s college and university system faces severe cutbacks caused by a state budgetary crisis of historic proportions. Many programs, athletic and otherwise, are facing the chopping block.

But no apologies need be made for making gender equity a priority at this troubled time. After all, it has been 15 years since the state issued a directive saying women students must be given the same opportunities to participate in sports as men students, and 20 years since the passage of Title IX, a federal law requiring that women be treated the same as men in education. Indeed, the federal Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights has warned college presidents that they must take sex equity into account when dropping teams due to economic constraints.

Nor are Cal State Fullerton and UCI alone in their bias toward men’s athletics. According to a recent National Collegiate Athletic Assn. survey, women’s athletics lagged woefully behind men’s programs in financial support for recruitment, programs and coaching. The NCAA is under heavy pressure from Congress to correct the situation. There must be no excuses this time.

Cal State Fullerton and UCI either saw the handwriting on the wall or truly wanted to do the right thing--or both. In any case, their efforts to equalize athletics deserve a big cheer.