CHICAGO, Ill. - The second of four scheduled Town Hall Meetings conducted by the Secretary's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics concluded Tuesday, with representatives of high schools, community colleges, and college systems with large populations of non-traditional students describing the special problems they face trying to make Title IX compliance fit the needs of their diverse student bodies.    Established by Secretary of Education Rod Paige on June 27, the Commission, co-chaired by former WNBA Houston Comets star Cynthia Cooper and Stanford University Director of Athletics Ted Leland, was convened to collect information, analyze issues, and obtain broad public input directed at improving the application of current Federal standards for measuring equal opportunity for men and women and boys and girls to participate in athletics under Title IX. The Commission must report its findings, in a written report to Secretary Paige by January 31, 2003, as to whether those standards should be revised and, if so, how; also, to recommend other steps that might be taken to improve the effectiveness of Title IX and to maintain and build upon the extraordinary progress that resulted from its passage 30 years ago. The Commission's third hearing is scheduled for October 22 in Colorado Springs, Colo.    The highlight of the panelist testimony came during the second of three sets of speakers, featuring the back-to-back presentations of Athena Yiamouyiannis, Executive Director of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sports, and Katherine Kersten, Senior Fellow for Cultural Studies at the Center for the American Experiment, based in Minneapolis, Minn. Their testimony provided the most diverging sets of views heard during the session.    Yiamouyiannis, the day's most outspoken defender of gender quotas, began her presentation with four predictable claims: 1) Female athletes are receiving neither equal treatment nor equal opportunity, and gender equity has not yet been reached; 2) The three-prong compliance test is flexible and in no way creates gender quotas; 3) Title IX has been wrongly blamed for schools' individual decisions to drop men's sports when financial, interest, or other considerations were really to blame; 4) Any remaining differences in athletic participation between men and women are the result of continuing discrimination against female athletes.    "No changes are warranted or necessary," Yiamouyiannis declared. "The three-point test, including proportionality, is the appropriate tool for measuring compliance."    But Yiamouyiannis didn't stop there. She declared that the use of any interest surveys would amount to marginalizing the interests of female athletes, and also called upon the NCAA to implement cost containment policies directed specifically at football and men's basketball, reining in the spending on those programs and using the savings to level the playing field for women or perhaps even to add other men's programs.    "I agree with the nine courts who say you can't cap women's opportunities because they're not interested," Yiamouyiannis added, adding: "Vigorous Federal enforcement of Title IX must be stepped up at every level. The nation's commitment to civil rights laws must be upheld, regardless of the needs or resources of (academic) institutions."    Then it was Kersten's turn.    In a clear, concise manner, and with almost surgical precision, Kersten proceeded to slice and dice the arguments of Yiamouyiannis and her side to ribbons, leaving them strewn in her wake.    "Title IX prohibits sex discrimination," Kersten began. "There are striking gender disparities - but guess what? They favor not boys, but girls. Girls are 67 per cent of the top-ranked students, while boys are 75 per cent of the students in special education and 90 per cent of those who are suspended from school. Girls are 57 per cent of our college students, and the number is growing, 77 per cent of those in the choir, 64 per cent in orchestra, and 61 per cent in drama. Today, there are many huge gender gaps in American education, but only one where proportionality is being applied: college athletics."    During Kersten's forceful testimony, Yiamouyiannis, sitting next to her, could be seen clearly fidgeting in her seat at the speakers' table, and the obvious discomfort among gender quota advocates sitting in the audience could be seen in their faces, hung heads, and body language.    "The proportionality test is based on the notion that men and women are equally interested in playing sports at every institution," Kersten continued. "'If only they'd cut football, they could comply with Title IX,' they say, forgetting that at many of the schools with the strongest women's programs, those programs are supported by football. The real world is that the numbers are out of balance, and men must go to bring the numbers into balance. Men's rosters are capped at numbers well below competitive levels. Proportionality is a crude benchmark. Even worse, for schools, it is a moving target. If schools don't have to cut today, they may have to do it tomorrow."    Here are some of the highlights from the panel presentations:    Panel 1 - Sue Hinrichsen, Assistant Executive Director, Illinois High School Association; Dr. Griff Powell, retired superintendent of five school districts, four in Illinois and one in New York; Washington Bush, Director of Athletics, James B. Conant High School, Hoffman Estates, Ill.; Kathleen M. McGee, Director of Athletics and Head Girls Basketball Coach, Powers Catholic High School, Flint, Mich.    Hinrichsen stated that embracing Title IX is more than simply complying with the law; it is "establishing the ethic of doing what is right." For her, it meant creating a framework where resources are distributed equitably to all. "We (the IHSA) weren't good enough," she said. "Every school should look at their own program and ask: "Are we good enough?"    While pointing out the vastly increased numbers of girls playing sports at the high school level in Illinois - though still lagging behind their male counterparts - Hinrichsen noted the small numbers of female head coaches in girls sports and the even smaller numbers of female officials, calling the atmosphere surrounding girls athletics a significant factor.    "People go where they're invited, and they stay where they're appreciated," Hinrichsen said. "Compliance with Title IX will improve the atmosphere for girls. There is still more to be done. Equity in our schools has not yet arrived."    During the public comment session, Fred Arkin, former chairman of the Illinois Wrestling Federation and a youth program volunteer for over 20 years, noted that in a September 3 memo to IHSA member schools, Hinrichsen stated that the position of the IHSA on Title IX is that the law was working as intended with no changes necessary, also calling proportionality "the teeth behind change." (IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman stated subsequently that the IHSA has not taken a position on Title IX.) "In light of this memo, written in her position as a state association staff member," Arkin said, "the credibility of Ms. Hinrichsen's entire testimony before you must be questioned."    Dr. Powell stated that his districts worked closely with parents and local youth sports organizations to determine interest and which programs to offer. "Interest and participation were the key," he said. "Not once, ever, was proportionality or meeting a quota a factor in any decision to offer sports programs."    McGee's sport, girls basketball, was involved in a recent Title IX case regarding the timing of sports seasons in Michigan. The plaintiffs claimed that the Michigan High School Athletic Association's practice of playing girls basketball in the fall and girls volleyball in the winter - the reverse of their seasons in most other states - constituted discrimination. A judge agreed and ordered the MHSAA to switch the seasons.    McGee made it clear she considered the switch unnecessary.    "Title IX is one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation ever," she said. "But it is being interpreted too br