Title IX Back on Track
No longer will a lack of response indicate a lack of interest. On April 20th, Joe Biden announced that the Department of Education had rescinded the controversial student survey option in Title IX. This option allowed colleges and universities to determine student interest in women's sports based solely on a survey sent to students via the web or email. Many, including the N.C.A.A., have disapproved of the 2005 clarification to the federal gender equality law and are now excited to see Title IX back on track.
While student surveys can be useful, they also have many problems you need to overcome. Most importantly, you have to get students to respond. Unless free pizza is involved, it's difficult to get college students' participation. In response to this challenge, the 2005 clarification allowed schools to count no response as "no interest" in the proposed woman's athletic activity. But the two are not necessarily the same. There are plenty of reasons why emails go unanswered and email surveys go ignored. Check your inbox. I bet there are few emails in there you've been "meaning" to get to.
Supporters of the clarification claim that its revocation is a blow to student rights, and that if schools have to base their decisions about female athletics on other factors as well as the survey, they are in essence ignoring student opinion. It's hard to believe that schools would so blatantly attempt to usurp the interests and desires of their student population by completely ignoring what that body has to say. It is simply not in their best interest to do so. What is in their best interest is to base decisions on gender equality on more than "no response" surveys.
Title IX, while not without its controversies, has revolutionized equality for women in college athletics. The revocation of the 2005 clarification is one more step forward in the fight for gender equality on campus. Let's hear it for the ladies!
Original post: 2010-04-29 13:51:00 UTC change.org/topics/education
While student surveys can be useful, they also have many problems you need to overcome. Most importantly, you have to get students to respond. Unless free pizza is involved, it's difficult to get college students' participation. In response to this challenge, the 2005 clarification allowed schools to count no response as "no interest" in the proposed woman's athletic activity. But the two are not necessarily the same. There are plenty of reasons why emails go unanswered and email surveys go ignored. Check your inbox. I bet there are few emails in there you've been "meaning" to get to.
Supporters of the clarification claim that its revocation is a blow to student rights, and that if schools have to base their decisions about female athletics on other factors as well as the survey, they are in essence ignoring student opinion. It's hard to believe that schools would so blatantly attempt to usurp the interests and desires of their student population by completely ignoring what that body has to say. It is simply not in their best interest to do so. What is in their best interest is to base decisions on gender equality on more than "no response" surveys.
Title IX, while not without its controversies, has revolutionized equality for women in college athletics. The revocation of the 2005 clarification is one more step forward in the fight for gender equality on campus. Let's hear it for the ladies!
Original post: 2010-04-29 13:51:00 UTC change.org/topics/education
