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UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

The Maryland women's softball team was born three years ago as part of the athletic department's five-year gender equity plan. Armed with a scant five scholarships, Coach Gina LaMandre set about building a team that would have to compete with the likes of Florida State, which has the NCAA-maximum 12 scholarships.

This spring, LaMandre's charges stunned the Atlantic Coast Conference by storming through the league tournament, upsetting the Seminoles and claiming a share of the title.

"Imagine what they could do with 12 scholarships," Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow marveled.

In two years, Yow and the rest of the ACC will find out. By the end of the 1998-99 school year, all of Maryland's 11 women's teams will be funded to NCAA scholarship maximums, as the gender equity plan Yow developed when she became athletic director in 1994 is completed.

At that point, Yow says, women will make up 48 percent of Maryland's athletes, which will match the percentage of women in the undergraduate student population. Women also will receive 48 percent of the athletic scholarships. When the plan began in 1994, women received 37.5 percent of athletic scholarships.

Maryland's gender equity plan was sparked, in part, by a Title IX complaint filed by a graduate student in 1989 with the Office of Civil Rights. The OCR analyzed Maryland's athletic department, and Maryland officials made assurances in 1992 that it would boost funding for its women's sports.

When Maryland revamped its men's basketball locker room in 1995, it did the same for the women's locker room. Not everything is identical, however, nor does it need to beto comply with the law. For instance, the men's lacrosse recruiting budget is larger than the women's lacrosse recruiting budget in part because women's coach Cindy Timchal has won two national championships and finds it less difficult to woo top talent.

Despite also trying to pare the remaining $5.7 million of the $6.8 accumulated operating debt she inherited, Yow says she will not cut men's sports to achieve gender equity. Thus, she has developed new revenue sources. One of her most controversial moves was to agree to relocate last fall's football game against Florida State from Byrd Stadium to Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami in exchange for $1 million from independent promoters.

Yow said it was a "one-time" deal, and she has since rejected two similar offers.

Yow said she regrets that some men's sports, such as baseball and tennis, will remain only partially funded at the turn of the century. But she said, "We're already reaping the benefits" of funding women's sports.

"Most people don't realize this," Yow said, "but we went six years without winning any ACC tournaments in any sport. This year, we've won four, and three of those are women's: volleyball, softball and lacrosse. The other was men's soccer."

© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company

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