The Green Phone was created so the fans could voice their
opinions. Give us a call and let us know what’s on your mind.
CALLER 1: I recently read an article about how Gavilan College was in violation of Title Nine in regards to the baseball and softball programs. My question to you is how is Gavilan not in Title Nine violation in regards to its complete sports program? Currently according to Gavilan’s Web site it fields basketball, football and baseball for men, and volleyball and softball for women. If these sports were budgeted evenly they would still be in violation with three men’s to two women’s sports, with easily more money going to the men’s programs. With football probably having double the budget of most sports, they have to be easily in violation of Title Nine. How can they get away with this? Why is there not a women’s basketball program or soccer, or some other sports? Could you please answer this question?
GREEN PHONE: We spoke to Ron Hannon, Gavilan’s director of athletics. He told us that the report of the Office of Civil Rights investigated the athletic program and found nothing more than there was a discrepancy in facilities between men’s and women’s sports. With the recent upgrades to the softball field, that has been resolved.
As far as the discrepancy of sports, Hannon says that Gavilan is always exploring the idea of adding additional programs and that if there are enough individuals interested in a specific sport, the college will add it. The best example is women’s basketball, which has been absent at Gavilan for the past two years. Hannon said that there isn’t enough interest from women athletes to field a team and pointed out that in the two previous years when there was basketball, only six women were on the team.
Incidentally, there will be women’s soccer this fall at Gavilan and it is likely there will be a men’s soccer team as well.
