Although coeducation was just beginning at the College when the landmark Title IX was passed 25 years ago, Dartmouth has progressed to one of the best in the nation in gender equity in athletics, according to USA Today.
The College ranked number one of all NCAA Division I-AA schools in its ratio of female athletes to the total female student population, according to a USA Today analysis published on Tuesday.
In the 1995-1996 academic year, women made up 48 percent of Dartmouth's student body and 47 percent of College athletes.
This one-percent difference made Dartmouth one of the only seven Division I-AA schools which met the "proportionality test," a means of complying with Title IX.
The Title IX regulations state "the percentage of female athletes must exceed or be within five points of the percentage of female undergraduates," according to the study.
Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 prohibits institutions receiving federal funding from discriminating on the basis of gender in any of their programs or activities.
College Director of Athletics Dick Jaeger said Dartmouth's percentage of women athletes is high because the College has "worked hard" to achieve a high-caliber program of female athletics.
He said the Dartmouth College Athletic Department has increased female participation by elevating such sports as women's volleyball and softball to varsity status and by increasing opportunities for women in sports such as rowing.
DCAD has worked to provide as many opportunities as possible for women through its coaches and other methods of support, he said.
Jaeger stressed the College's work is not over just because the numbers match Title IX requirements. "We can always do better," he said.
The College has been actively seeking to meet Title IX requirements for about six years, Jaeger said. The numbers have improved over time, but such figures largely depend on "how many men and women go out for teams" each season, he said.
Jaeger said the participation figures show tremendous progress for an institution that coeducated so recently.
Women's field hockey Coach Julie Dayton said overall, the College treats both types of teams equally.
She said Dartmouth is the first place she has felt like a "first-class citizen" as a person involved in female athletics.
Women's basketball Coach Chris Wielgus said the reason Dartmouth has such a significant proportion of female athletes is the "concerted effort" made by the College to make equity a reality.
The College was striving for gender equity in athletics before it was a "media buzzword," Wielgus said. She added she intends to use the College's status as a leader in athletic gender equity as a recruiting tool.
Women's cross country team captain Maribel Sanchez '96 wrote in an e-mail message that men and women athletes "get equally credited for their work and effort."
But women's rowing captain Rosalie Kerr '97 Kerr said there is a disparity between the focus on individual female athletes and women's teams.
"Women's athletes are recognized as individuals and given credit for their contributions to the community much as male athletes are, but sometimes there is a disparity in what you hear about the teams," she said.
For example, Kerr said the women's soccer team's Ivy League title in 1993 was announced "on the little bulletin board next to the soccer office," while the 1996 football team's Ivy League title was announced so that "everyone knew."
But she said the problem has improved over the past few years.
Lehigh University, the University of Massachusetts, Harvard University, Lafayette College, Montana State University and California Polytechnic State University were the only other schools to pass the Title IX proportionality test, according to USA Today.
The study was released as part of a USA Today series on the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Title IX regulation on gender equality in school athletics.
