SPORTS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, January 26, 1994
13
Virginia Tech women file lawsuit for varsity status
The Associated Press
ROANOKE, Va. — A federal class action lawsuit filed yesterday by 12 female athletes at Virginia Tech accuses the university of discriminating against women athletes by denying female sports clubs varsity status.
"There are sacrifices a true athlete must make to succeed, but being victimized by sex discrimination should not be one of them," said Kathy Jones, one of five field hockey club members joining the lawsuit.
The other plaintiffs are members of the women's softball, lacrosse and crew clubs. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke by the National Women's Law Center on behalf of all women who want to participate in varsity athletics at Virginia Tech.
Club members must pay their own way to travel to their games, are given access to equipment only after the varsity teams are finished and cannot receive athletic scholarships.
The Blacksburg, Va., school has women's varsity basketball, soccer, track, volleyball, tennis, cross country and swimming teams. But the law
suit said women made up 41 percent of Virginia Tech's enrollment and only 21 percent of varsity athletes. The lawsuit asks the court to order the university to elevate the women's clubs to intercollegiate teams.
The lawsuit alleges that Virginia Tech's athletic program violates Title IX of the Federal Amendments of 1972, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
In October, an internal review concluded that Virginia Tech spends a disproportionately small amount of resources on women's sports. At a board of visitors meeting Feb. 14, a study committee intends to present a plan to address the inequities during the next five years, Virginia Tech representative Larry Hincker said.
"We believe we have been making good progress toward gender equity. We believe the plan will address their concerns," he said of the plantiffs.
Virginia Tech in the past two years has upgraded salaries of women's sports coaches and increased spending on women's sports by $140,000. David Braine, athletic director, said
the plan would add significantly to the operating budget, but school officials declined to reveal the estimate before the board considers the plan.
Each student pays $156 a year in athletic fees, which make up 35 percent of the athletic department's revenue.
"Considering the state's desire to limit increases in tuition and fees, we may be limited in how much we can raise the athletic fee," Virginia Tech vice president Minnis Ridenhour said in a statement.
But Amy Sabrin, a Washington lawyer representing the club members, said the suit had been filed only after Virginia Tech refused to grant the women's teams varsity status in a timely manner.
The National Women's Law Center said U.S. appeals courts in Denver and Boston had ruled in favor of female athletes in similar cases, and the U.S. Supreme Court last fall refused to hear an appeal by Colorado State after it was found to have violated Title IX.
Virginia Tech has non-varsity men's clubs in hockey and rugby, but they are not mentioned in the lawsuit or by the university's study committee.
Brother's illness inspires Olympic skater
The Associated Press
American speedskater Kristen Talbot, who donated bone marrow to her brother in a potentially lifesaving procedure, has a new rallying cry as she prepares for next month's Winter Olympics: "Go, white count!"
Talbot not wishing for the ice to be extra hard at the speedskating oval in Hamar, Norway, or for the snow to be especially deep at the scenic venues dotting the picturesque Norwegian countryside.
She just wants her brother's white blood cells to continue multiplying like they have in the two weeks since the operation at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Doctors said his chances of survival without a transplant were 15 percent at best. Those odds climb as high as 80 percent with a successful transfusion.
Jason Talbot, 19, was diagnosed in December with aplastic anemia, a disease that attacks the marrow and slows or halts the production of red and white blood cells.
Jason's progress since the Jan. 11 operation has been encouraging, even if he isn't a model patient.
"The only problem they have with him," said Neoga Noga, Jason's oncologist, "is he stays up too late watching movies and he's asleep in
the morning when they come in for rounds."
Jason also may be eating a little too much pizza and too many french fries for hospital dieticians, but his appetite and his stomach's ability to deal with the greasy foods are good signs.
In a telephone hookup with his sister and more than a dozen reporters, Jason said he was getting tired of being cooped up in the hospital.
"I'm going insane, slowly," he joked.
"I just want to get out of here."
Jason said his white blood cell count peaked Monday night at 500, half the level needed for him to leave the hospital.
It had been as low as 41 after chemotherapy treatments designed to kill his white blood cells so they would not clash with the transplanted cells.
At a critical stage in his recovery, there are no signs that his body will reject Kristen's marrow. He could be out of the hospital before the Games begin Feb. 12, although he will remain in Baltimore as an outpatient.
"If I hadn't received treatment within three months, I probably would have died," said Jason, a promising short track speedskater.
"But since my transplant went as it should have, and since it seems to
have took ... my prognosis is about 365 days after the transplant I should be completely cured and won't ever have to worry about this again," he said.
Kristen, 23, of Schuylerville, N.Y. was among three siblings found to be a match for the transplant. She was considered the best candidate — even though Jason disagreed at first.
Jason tried to keep his sister from finding out about the illness. He worried the transplant would ruin the hard work she had put in to prepare for her third Olympiad.
That never was a concern she shared.
"The only thing that was important was getting Jason healthy," she said. "That's all that mattered to me."
Kristen, the last of four qualifiers at 500 meters on the U.S. women's team, will not be a medal contender in Norway. The most she is hoping for is a personal record or a top-15 finish.
"It's definitely not a backback at all," she said. "I'm right back where I should be. It's just made me want to get out and myself even more."
She said Jason's ordeal — and his recovery — had been inspirational.
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