The Secretary of Education's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics long awaited recommendations for Title IX will have to wait until Wednesday as the first day of the Philadelphia meeting discussed finding from the four previous hearings.  The 15-member commission met throughout the afternoon and evening on Tuesday to discuss the findings for the seven questions that were proposed by the Secretary of Education, Rod Paige in June.  The commission will begin to make its recommendations on Wednesday.      The commission spent the day on Tuesday reviewing testimony and statistics from the four previous town hall meetings to establish a set of findings for each of the seven questions proposed by Secretary Paige.  The commission will then vote on each of these findings before they will be forwarded to the Paige by the January 31, 2003 deadline.       The most contentious debate of the day centered around the findings to question one that states:  Are Title IX standards for assessing equal opportunity in athletics working to promote opportunities for male and female athletes?        This question brought about in depth discussion that was often heated at times about the three-part test for compliance.  The commission came to the finding that the only safe harbor for a school is prong one, which deals with proportionality.  The most contentious part of the debate involved prongs two and three and if they are viable for a school to be in compliance.      In what was a common theme throughout the first day of the meetings, Julie Foudy often was a disagreement with other members of the commission. Foudy believes that the commission should come to the finding all three prongs work successfully and give the schools the flexibility they need to become in compliance.  However, Penn State University President, Graham Spanier, spoke about how they heard testimony from many schools that tried to demonstrate compliance through prongs two and three and were denied.  Other members of the commission including Athletic Director, Deborah Yow and Bob Bowlsby concurred with these sentiments.  Yow spoke of how her counsel at the University of Maryland only allows her to work within the confines of prong one.      The majority of the commission felt that there is a lack of clarity and understanding on how to meet the requirements for prongs two and three to be in compliance.  These also noted that there is a lack of consistency among the regional offices of the Office of Civil Rights.  These factors are contributing factor to why prong one remains the only safe harbor.        This debate spawned into the discussion of how you measure interest versus opportunity.  While the majority of the members of the commission felt that surveys would help determine the level of interest on a college campus, Foudy believed that surveys would not accurately measure interest.  Her sentiments were echoed by Northern Illinois, Athletic Director, Cary Goth.  Goth pointed to the example of how the state of Illinois, added women's volleyball as a state championship sport and there was undeniable growth in the sport.  She did not feel that an interest survey would have shown this potential growth.  However, other comissioners felt that surveys are a strong indicator to see if interest is being met on the college campuses.  In the end, the commission came to the finding that interest surveys alone cannot be used but they are a good mechanism for measuring interest.        A full list of the findings is not available at this time however pertinent findings from the day included:      1. Men and women gained substantial benefits from athletics.   2. Lack of clarity and information on how to meet the three-part test.   3. OCR has a set of criteria for cheerleading and bowling to be counted towards participation rates.   4. Men walk on at campuses at a higher rate.   5. No consistency among regional offices of the OCR.   6. There is no written policy on what is variance within proportionality.   7. Lack of enforcement to offenders of compliance   8. Programs have been dropped due to Title IX and budget and are often a product of one another.   9. Title IX does not require men's elimination to meet proportionality but many schools feel they have to do it.   10. Olympics and Professionals enhance opportunity on the high school and college level.      Wednesday will be the most anticipated day since the start of the hearings as the commission will issue its recommendations to the seven questions proposed by Paige.  The recommendations will be the first indication of how Title IX compliance will be handled in the future.