When all of the Ball State University coaches were given a gender equity survey in their monthly meeting on Wednesday, they were not told why they had to fill it out, they were given no prior warning about it and they were given no time to prepare.
The lack of communication within the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics left some of the coaches feeling blindsided and annoyed.
"None of us knew when we went into that head coaches meeting - we have one every second or third Wednesday of every month - we had no idea that was coming," women's tennis coach Kathy Bull said. "I know that was probably one of the biggest annoyances of all of my peers -¡- they felt like they were blindsided or they didn't have enough time to really think about some of their answers or gather some of the information that they needed."
LACK OF COMMUNICATION
The Office of Civil Rights, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education, initiated a compliance review of the athletics department on Oct. 1 after it received a complaint that said Ball State was not providing equal intercollegiate athletics opportunities to women, said Jim Bradshaw from the U.S. Department of Education press office.
A lawyer gave the Ball State coaches a survey that was unlike any Bull has ever filled out in her more than 20 years with Ball State. Even the lawyer was not sure how confidential the information was and who would see the responses - leaving coaches feeling concerned about being completely honest, Bull said.
Most of the questions were pretty easy to answer, such as what hotels does your team stay at and what restaurants does your team eat at. Other questions were more complicated, such as topics about budgets and scheduling, and it would have been nice to have documents to provide accurate information, Bull said.
However, the coaches were given no time to prepare.
"In the letter that we received from the Office of Civil Rights it said 'feel free to add extra pages of documentation if you feel like that will help your cause,'" Bull said. "Well, none of us had anything with us. So we couldn't add anything if we wanted to.
"There were some grumblings up in the hallways [among coaches] like 'Well, that's typical of the way we do things around here,' and so on and so forth. So it just kind of adds on to the last couple years of frustrations in our department."
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tom Collins and Executive Director of University Compliance Sali K. Falling both declined to comment.
The only Ball State official authorized to talk about the situation was Tony Proudfoot, the associate vice president for marketing and communications. He said it is a routine compliance review and that Ball State is cooperating. He declined to give any further comment.
Bradshaw said he could not reveal who filed the complaint because they are protected under the Federal Privacy Act. Bull said she is not sure who filed the complaint.
HISTORY OF PROBLEMS
The problem of gender equity within Ball State athletics goes back through multiple administrations, Bull said. She has worked with Collins and former athletics directors Bubba Cunningham and Andrea Seger to fix the problems.
The coaches of women's teams have even banded together to try and push the athletics department into gender equity.
"What we've found out is that if you don't stand up and say 'I don't like the way it's being done,' they - and I hate to use this word - they assume that everything is OK," Bull said.
Bull banded together with women's coaches such as Terri Laux, Tracy Roller and Michelle Salmon to tell the athletics department that women's teams don't get the same amount of money for things such as recruitment and travel.
While the women's coaches still meet every couple of weeks, its strength has been diminished by many of the key coaches leaving - including Laux, Roller and Salmon. Of the 11 women's sports at Ball State, seven of the teams have coaches who have been with the university for less than three years.
The work to improve gender equity was also hurt by administrators - whom the coaches were working with -¡- leaving within the last few years, such as Deputy Athletics Director Ken Brown, Director of Athletics Compliance and Eligibility Kyle Brennan and Associate Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator Nona Richardson.
A few years ago the women's group wanted to file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights, Bull said, but she convinced them to try and resolve the problems within house as Collins was still in his first year at Ball State. At the time Ball State still had a chance to resolve the issues internally, but that opportunity has passed now that a complaint has been filed.
"The problem with the Office of Civil Rights coming in is I don't think they have a lot of options now," Bull said. "I think they had options up until that point."
CONTINUING PROBLEMS
Ball State used to have a gender equity improvement plan, however, it ran out several years ago without completing everything that needed to be fixed, Bull said. About two years ago, the coaches were able to push the administration into getting a new four-or-five year gender equity plan.
Despite the new plan, Bull said, the problems with gender equity at Ball State have only gotten worse.
"Unfortunately, what most of us know now, is that the gap is probably wider between men's and women's athletics opposed to what the ideal of the plan was, was to close that gap," Bull said. "So that's frustrating. That means that obviously men's programs are advancing at a far faster rate than our women's programs."
The growing disparity is evident when looking at the Equity in Athletics Data Analysis -¡- a product of the Office of Postsecondary Education that tracks gender equity in college athletics, Bull said.
The problems are especially evident in salaries for head and assistant coaches and teams' operating expenses, Bull said. The university has improved equality with cars for coaches and scholarship dollars, she said.
However, the women's teams should get an equal percentage of funding as the percentage of female students at Ball State, Bull said.
The Ball State student body is more than 60 percent female. Women athletes still get 48 percent of scholarship money and women's sports account for 36.3 percent of the athletics department's expenses.
Many coaches of women's sports also make thousands less than their men's counterparts and receive thousands less for recruiting.
Bull said the coaches were told a few years ago that the men's operating budgets would be frozen to allow the women's teams to catch up. However, the football team was given $400,000 during a two-year span while the total budget for women's sports increased about $50,000 a year, Bull said.
"It's things like we feel maybe a little bit betrayed," Bull said.
The baseball team also got donations to make its locker room state of the art a couple of years ago. The sport most comparable to it, softball, doesn't really have a locker room, Bull said.
"We don't want to see anything taken away from the men," Bull said. "I've never once heard one woman coach or even a male coach of women's sports ever say that, ever in my life. We just want the same opportunities, and I'm meaning mainly in dollars and cents, that they have on their side."
While the men's and women's tennis teams have comparable facilities, Bull said, her team still is given less than the men's team. While the men's tennis team gets to fly for matches every year, Bull said her team can only fly for matches every three or four years - after it raises funds to help pay for it.
"Here's the problem: if the university and the Cardinal Varsity Club, a booster club, if they go out and they raise $13-$14 million and it really only benefits one program, somebody should be putting the breaks on and saying 'Hey, are we going to do a similar fundraiser that's going to benefit women?'" Bull said. "I'm the one who brought that up. I went into [Collins] and I said, 'Hey, now they're putting some locker rooms out there [for football].' But does it really take the women's tennis coach of 20-some years to point that out?"
KEEPING PEOPLE INFORMED
Bull said she thinks it is her responsibility as one of the most experienced Ball State coaches to inform others about gender equity.
She also speaks to people outside of the athletics department to promote equality. She said she speaks to people on campus such as people from the women's studies program. She has also worked with state Sen. Sue Errington and spoke to the Indiana House of Representatives.
However, with the amount of coaching changes recently in women's athletics, she said, it is difficult to get all of the women's coaches back together like they were a few years ago. Some of the new coaches do not know much about gender equity issues, she said. They are also still trying to establish themselves, and some might not feel secure enough to speak out against injustices.
Softball coach Craig Nicholson and swimming and diving coach Lauar Seibold-Caudill declined to comment at this time.
Bull said she is not trying to be an obstacle for the athletics department, although some people probably see her as one.
"I'm lucky that I know as much as I do, but I'm sure there's people that wish I didn't know what I know," Bull said. "What I feel like my responsibility is to keep the women's coaches informed.
"Would they rather have just a whole group of naive coaches that nobody knows? That makes you wonder sometimes too."
Bull said she thinks part of the reason Sue Parks, the former track and field coach, left for Eastern Michigan University was because she did not feel enough support from the athletics department. Bull said she has felt the same way a little bit also but she has stuck with the university because she is an eternal optimist.
"I've always believed that it was going to get corrected, that it's going to get fixed and that when I go in with a problem and I talk to somebody and they say that 'we're working on it, we're going to get it done,' I believe in that," she said.
The investigation by the Office of Civil Rights will not likely be pleasant in the beginning, Bull said, but it is meant to be positive. It will make the athletics department better in the long run, she said, something the Ball State athletes deserve.
Until then, there is still a lot of work to do, Bull said.
"I truly believe that we have a fair amount of work to do," she said. "I would believe that Tom Collins probably would agree."
A complaint was filed against the Ball State athletics department that said Ball State was not providing equal intercollegiate athletics opportunities to women in:
* equipment and supplies* the opportunity to receive coaching and the assignment and compensation of coaches* travel and per diem allowances* the provision of locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities* publicity* the recruitment of student athletes
The Ball State athletics department is being investigated to see whether the athletics department is providing equal intercollegiate athletic opportunities to members of both sexes in:
* the provision of equipment and supplies* the scheduling of games and practice time* the allocation of travel and per diem allowances* the opportunity to receive coaching and the assignment and compensation of coaches* the opportunity to receive tutoring and the assignment and compensation of tutors* the provision of locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities* the provision of medical and training facilities and services* the provision of housing and dining facilities and services* the provision of support services* the recruitment of student athletes* publicity
Possible repercussions
In almost all cases in which schools are found to have violated civil rights laws, the Office of Civil Rights works with the school to get it into compliance.
If the athletics department is found to have violated civil rights laws:*The Office of Civil Rights and Ball State would negotiate an agreement and work to get the university in compliance with the law.*The Office of Civil Rights would monitor Ball State for a few months or possibly even a few years.
If a school refuses to comply, which rarely occurs, the Office of Civil Rights can go to its last resort option and take action against the school.
If Ball State refuses to comply:*The Office of Civil Rights can refer the case to the Justice Department for litigation*Government funding could be cut off from Ball State.
Timetable*The Office of Civil Rights received a complaint that said the Ball State Department of Intercollegiate Athletics has failed to provide equal intercollegiate athletic opportunities for women.*The Office of Civil Rights initiated a compliance review on Oct. 1 to see if Ball State is providing equal intercollegiate athletics opportunities for men's and women's teams.*There is no timetable for when the investigation of the athletics department will conclude.*Investigations normally take about six months to be resolved, although compliance reviews sometimes take longer."We try to wrap up our investigations as quickly as we can while taking into account all of the relevant information, statements and evidence that we can collect to develop our findings," said Jim Bradshaw from the press office of the U.S. Department of Education, which the Office of Civil Rights is part of.
Complaints*During the 2008 fiscal year the Office of Civil Rights conducted 42 compliance reviews.*The Office of Civil Rights has received six complaints against Ball State since Oct. 1, 2005.*The only open case against Ball State is the current gender equity compliance review.*Jim Bradshaw, from the U.S. Department of Education press office, said he is not sure whether six complaints against Ball State since Oct. 1, 2005, would be considered a high number.*"I don't know how I'd categorize it," Bradshaw said. "There are schools that do have more than that. There are some schools that have less."
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