June 18, 2002

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Kansas State University was named Tuesday by the National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C., as one of 30 colleges and universities which have a disparity in the funding of athletic scholarships for women.

The university received a letter from the NWLC Tuesday citing Kansas State as having a 17 percent differential between the proportion of female student-athletes and the proportion of scholarships awarded to women. Although 52 percent of K-State student-athletes are women, roughly 35 percent of the total scholarship dollars are awarded to women, according to the NWLC figures.

"We knew last fall that we clearly had some challenges in respect to our Title IX compliance," said Kansas State athletics director Tim Weiser. "We are not surprised at all by the letter we received today and have anticipated this for some time.

"We hired a consultant in February to come in and assist us in analyzing the positive and negative aspects of our status in regards to gender equity. The foremost problem we identified is the same one the NWLC discussed today."

The NWLC figures identified that 52 percent of Kansas State's student-athletes are women, compared with 49 percent of the total enrollment being female. The amount of scholarship money offered to women's athletes has grown more slowly than the participation figures, Weiser said.

"We think part of that is attributable to the fact that our participation rates are strong here," said Weiser. "The participation numbers we have in rowing, which is a six-year-old program, and equestrian, which just finished its second, are greater than we ever anticipated and above the national average for Division I institutions. Unfortunately, our scholarship numbers haven't kept pace with the participation in those sports."

Weiser said that a plan is already in place to address the scholarship differential.

"Beginning July 1, we will provide an additional five scholarships in rowing, which will bring us up to the NCAA maximum of 20," he said. "We will also go from 4.4 to 10 scholarships in equestrian this academic year, and will increase those numbers to 12 by 2003-04 and to the NCAA maximum of 15 by 2004-05. So over the next three years, our two most recently-added sports will join our other women's sports in being fully funded to the NCAA-allowable limits."

Kansas State offers seven men's and nine women's varsity sports. A recent study by the Kansas City Star noted that Kansas State was second among Big 12 Conference schools in average league finish by its women's teams in 2001-02, trailing only Texas.

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