ducation was established, they were given Title IX to oversee through the Office of Civil Rights. [1] Through all of this, the goal of Title IX has been and is,“to ensure that Federal funds are not utilized for and do not support sex-based discrimination, and that individuals have equal opportunities, without regard to sex, to pursue, engage or participate in, and benefit from academic, extracurricular, research, occupational training, employment, or other educational programs or activities.” [2]Despite the 1975 regulations schools and courts still debated whether the language of Title IX itself included their athletic departments at all. At issue was the Title IX, 1681(a), phrase dealing with funding: sex-based discrimination in “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance violated Title IX.” [3] Depending on whether a party was fighting for or against gender equity compliance under Title IX in the athletics area, that party argued for, respectively, an “institution-wide” or “program-specific” view of this phrase. Supporters of the latter view argued that Title IX forbade gender discrimination only in those specific “programs or activities” receiving direct federal funding. Thus, if an athletic program did not receive any direct federal funding, the regulations and compliance guidelines of Title IX did not apply to it. As seen in Othen v. Ann Arbor School Board, 507 F. Supp. 1376 (E.D. Mich. 1981), where a student was cut from the golf team. The students dad brought suit alleging that she was cut because of her sex. They brought suit under Title IX, but it was found that the Ann Arbor School District did not receive financial aid from the government, thus they did not fall under the Title IX regulation and could not be stopped from discriminating in the Golf Team’s selection process. [4] This argument severely limited the number of a...
