An attempt by Commissioner Tom Griffith to pass a recommendation to eliminate the proportionality quota as part of Title IX was defeated by the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics its final meeting, held Thursday, January 30 at the Hotel Washington in Washington, D.C.    This proposal was not on the list of suggested recommendations from the Philadelphia meeting. Griffith made a bold move to amend his previous proposal to seek the elimination of proportionality.     Griffith suggested an amendment to his proposal to "not use numeric formulas." Co-Chair Ted Leland gave his opinion that this is a new proposal and might not be in order to consider. Commissioners Donna DeVarona and Percy Bates said that they felt it was fair to make this proposal, and that he should be allowed to present it.    The new Griffith proposal was:"The Office of Civil Rights should not use numeric formulas to determine whether an institution is in compliance with Title IX." His new amendment was defeated, 4 for and 11 against.    However, the Commission did pass a number of recommendations to change Title IX enforcement including: the use of surveys, a reasonable variance, set roster sizes, the exclusion of counting non-recruited walkons, the exclusion of counting non-traditional students, the elimination of one "safe harbor" and a designation of time for the use of prong two.    Taken as a group, these proposals could provide the Department of Education with ways to make many substantive changes to the enforcement procedures for Title IX.    "If there is one thing that is very clear from today is that the Commission sent a strong message to the White House that the current regulations don't work," said Eric Pearson of the College Sports Council, a group working for Title IX reform. "Our work is still not done. We still need to be vigilant. We need the support of every athlete, coach and parent who cares about the athletes of the future."     The tension in the room prior to the meeting was almost like that at a major sporting event. You could feel the excitement in the air. When the entire American Univ. women's field hockey team came in, dressed in their team warm-ups, the political element of the debate was displayed in matching blue and white.    Co-Chair Ted Leland skipped the normal introductory comments to get into the work immediately. Leland and Co-Chair Cynthia Cooper decided to lump all of the proportionality ideas into one discussion, and go through them all first before and vote is taken.    One of the Commissioners was not in attendance for the first two hours, Lisa Graham Keegan, meaning that there were 14 voters, leaving the possibilities for a tie. Any tie vote will be passed on the Commission, and noted as being a tie. There was a 7-7 tie on Debbie Yow's proposal to set proportionality at 50-50, with a 2-3 percent variance.    All nine of the proposals relating to proportionality were discussed first as a group, with each author making their case for their concept and answering short questions. Then the Commission tackled each one by themselves, with a time allotted for discussion.    Co-Chairs Ted Leland and Cynthia Cooper had to often plead with the Commissioners to keep their discussions short in order to finish the meeting on time.    There were three Commissioners who consistently voted against proposals that would change the measurement of proportionality: Julie Foudy, Donna DeVarona and Cary Groth. There were some voters who supported most of the changes to proportionality, and others that switched back-and-forth based upon the specifics of the proposal.    TheMat.com presents each of the recommendations presented today, in their final form, with the vote of the Commission and some commentary about what was said during the debate:    ------------------    Recommendation 12  The Department of Education should encourage the NCAA to review its scholarships and other guidelines to determine if they adequately promote or hinder athletic participation opportunities.  APPROVED - By consensus    Comments on recommendation - Author Groth made a slight change to the wording, which were accepted and the entire recommendation approved quickly.    --------------    PROPORTIONALITY PROPOSALS    Recommendation 13 (amended)  Every institution governed by Title IX standards as one approach to meeting the standard of proportionality may allot 50 percent of their participation opportunities for men and 50 percent for women. A variance of 2 to 3 percent in compliance with this standard would then be allowed."    TIE VOTE - TIE. 7 for and 7 against. It will be forwarded to the Secretary, and noted as a recommendation not approved    Comments on Recommendation 13  - Author Debbie Yow created this idea initially with a 5-7% range. She explained that her school Maryland would not be affected as it is already in proportionality. She says that she likes 50-50 as being fair. Yow said that she thinks 5-7% is too large, and would accept a smaller variance. Yow said it was quantifiable, equitable and logical. A variance is being proposed because of non-discriminatory factors that might cause it to be hard to reach. Her key to this idea is to find an acceptable variance. When asked by Cooper what would be, she suggested something in the 2-3% range.     Graham Spanier said that this is unambiguous. It also avoids the moving target problems. He said that it feels arbitrary, and asked about schools like Air Force or mostly-women schools. Yow's response is that those schools could use prong three. Cary Groth said that these proposals would impose quotas, and that they should crunch the numbers before these are put into effect.     She said that the "minimums become the maximums." Yow challenged that comment, saying that Groth is just giving her opinion. Bates said that he opposed this concept, and received support on that from Foudy, who citied that proportionality is based upon basic civil rights concepts.Simon said that 50-50 is not based on proven data, and that she would have problems with passing this. Bowlsby liked this proposal because it gets people off undergraduate population as a base for measurement. Yow amended her proposal to have a 2-3 percent variance. Spanier suggested an amendment to soften the wording, using "may." Foudy suggested that this proposal would allow a school with 56 percent women to be as low as 47 percent, a 9% difference. Bates said he is not convinced that prong one is broken. DeVarona added she was concerned that the commission has not considered its impact. Yow suggested that 50-50 is the American way. Simon said she was not comfortable with conflicting recommendations. Slive suggested that the Secretary must present the numerical stats be included in the final decisions of the OCR to show that they won't set back progress.    -------------    Recommendation 14  The first part of the three-part test for demonstrating compliance with Title IX's participation standard should be amended to denote the current measure of proportionality as part "1(a)" and then creating a new test denoted as "1(b)" which would allow colleges and universities to establish compliance if the male/female ratio in their athletic participation is within 3 percent of that male/female ratio of athletic participation with the Office for Civil Rights region for that institution.    DEFEATED - 0 for, 14 against    Comments on recommendation 14 - Author Bob Bowlsby believes it is a thought-provoking proposal, to suggest a different comparison group. He believes that measuring athletic opportunity based upon enrollment is not logical. He said that the 3 percent variance number is not fixed, but was placed in there to allow for non-discriminatory factors. Graham Spanier suggested not using the OCR region, but replacing with an appropriate region where the school is located and recruits its students.    Bowlsby suggested that this just be passed along as a suggestion and not voted upon. Due to procedure, the motion was called to a vote and defeated unanimously.    ----------------    Recommendation 15 a  (Initial proposal)  If substantial proportionality is retained as a w