By Tom Meagher

Journal-World Writer

Nearly 30 years ago, a band of 25 feminist students and employees occupied Kansas University's East Asian studies building for 13 hours. Dubbed the February Sisters, they demanded equal rights and services for women on campus.

Their activism was largely responsible for establishment of the Women's Studies Program and child care services on the KU campus.

But some of the inequalities that drove the women to protest still exist at KU.

Athletics director Bob Frederick acknowledges that although KU has made significant progress, in some areas it still is not compliant with Title IX, the 1972 federal law mandating equality in college academics and sports.

KU's coaching salaries, operating budgets and recruiting budgets are not evenly distributed between men's and women's sports.

Men's team head coaches receive, on average, salaries of $80,871 a year, according to KU's Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act reports. Women's team head coaches earn an average $60,270.

The disparities between average base salaries for assistant coaches is even greater. Assistant coaches on men's teams, on average, are paid $53,290 a year. Women's assistant coaches are paid an average of $26,939.

KU's so-called "big three" coaches -- football coach Terry Allen, men's basketball coach Roy Williams and women's basketball coach Marian Washington -- all receive the same base salary: $122,548.

Base salaries are, however, just the tip of the income iceberg for high-profile head coaches. Williams' income, for example, climbs to $400,000 with radio and TV money and, if you throw in his shoe contract (Nike) and his summer camp income, KU's men's basketball coach grosses about $900,000 a year.

Allen and Washington also have outside income, although not nearly as much as Williams.

Other differences

Operating expenses for women's teams also are lower at $1.02 million a year, compared with $1.36 million for men's teams operations. Men's teams spend $648,954 a year on recruiting players, whereas women's teams spend only $294,427.

It also should be pointed out that men's sports generate most of the revenue that supports athletics for men and women. Title IX has no mandate that income from sports be equal.

According to KU records, men's sports provide the majority of revenue for the athletics department, bringing in $14.6 million in 1998-1999 for programs that cost $7.7 million.

That year, women's sports made only $153,535, of which more than half came from women's basketball. It took $4.2 million to operate the various women's teams.

Frederick said the athletics department has a five-year plan for addressing the areas of Title IX law that KU still fails to meet.

"We just have to generate enough additional revenue to handle it within our budget," Frederick said. "Our plan over the next five years is to gradually increase (spending in the unequal categories) so at the end of that time, we will be substantially compliant."

The targets of the budgetary efforts: recruiting and operational budgets for women's athletic programs.

To do that, Frederick is banking on two revenue streams increasing: the Big 12 Conference television package and KU football attendance receipts.

If the revenue doesn't come through as expected, "We'll have to look at redirection of expenditures or reallocation of expenditures" to become compliant, Frederick said.

This isn't the first time KU has come up with a plan to rectify gender inequity in its athletic department. In 1994, the university unveiled a five-year plan to come into compliance with Title IX. The plan, Frederick said, had a goal of equal participation for men and women. "We did that," he said.

Some progress

Despite the remaining inequalities, KU has made strides in equalizing the resources devoted to men's and women's sports.

The percentage of male and female athletes nearly mirrors the gender percentages in the overall student population -- 49 percent men, 51 percent women.

Frederick stressed the progress made since Title IX became law by recalling the state of the Jayhawks just a few years ago.

"About seven or eight years ago, we were way behind in compliance with Title IX," Frederick said last week during a panel discussion on women in sports. "I kept justifying to myself that we can't make these changes, because we couldn't afford it. That bothered me."

After a complaint was filed in December 1992 with the Office of Civil Rights, he was forced to "do what's right," he said.

The complaint alleged the KU athletics department discriminated against women because the women's sports information director did not have an office, while her male counterpart did.

It also mentioned a lack of locker space for female athletes.

"I went to the chancellor, and I said we need to make a commitment to have a broad-based sports program for men and women," Frederick said.

In the years since then, KU has added two women's sports, soccer and rowing. It's built a new women's basketball locker room and a new competitive volleyball facility. Frederick said the university also has upgraded both the recruiting and operational budgets for women's sports.

In addition, KU offers as many scholarships as NCAA rules will allow for all of its men's and women's athletic teams, he said.

Effort appreciated

Christina Schnose, a sophomore biology student and coxswain for the KU women's rowing team, said she appreciates how far KU has come.

"I think rowing is one of the sports that has definitely grown from Title IX," she said. "It is such a large sport with so many participants. That's one of the reasons that it was added at KU, to help balance out the football team."

The rowing team has 122 members and ranks in the top 25 nationally. Yet, Schnose said, it is the only team among the top-ranked 25 without a boathouse to store its equipment. Boats and oars and other equipment are stored at Memorial Stadium.

Frederick said a boathouse is in the works, and facilities such as that for women are a priority for the department. Plans for a new strength conditioning center, a boathouse, a softball stadium and soccer and track facility are under way. He said he hoped many of those projects could be funded through the university's capital campaign.

"I think Dr. Frederick is sincere in it being an immediate need," Schnose said. "I think it's finally starting to get talked about. He just helped us purchase a new boat."

Frederick and Schnose discussed issues of women in sports in America and at KU at a Thursday night panel discussion in honor of the February Sisters. They were joined by more than 40 audience members and Mary Jo Kane of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport in Minneapolis.

Changing attitudes

"We too often forget that there was a history of women's sports before Title IX," Kane said.

Frederick, who served for five years on the NCAA's committee on women's athletics, prefaced his talk at the forum with statistics on the growth of high school girls' sports since the 1972 law. In 1971, only 294,000 high school girls played sports. In 1998, more than 2.6 million girls were on high school teams.

"The attitude here has changed," he said.

Another member of the panel, graduate student Matt Hayes, spoke on the phenomenon of the 1999 Women's World Cup soccer team.

"I think the claims of advancement have to be tempered a bit by the way women have been represented," he said.

Hayes cited commercials and television interviews to argue that the focus on the U.S. team was on their sexuality and femininity, not on their athletic achievements.

As an example, he mentioned World Cup Barbie, who came with shin guards, a water bottle and a hairbrush.

"They're not seen as athletic bodies," Hayes said. "They're seen as sexy bodies, and 'Oh yeah, they're athletic.'"

But, Kane said, despite the continued shortcomings: "I don't want advocates of women's sports to ignore the amazing progress we've made."

-- Journal-World sports writer Andrew Hartsock contributed to this report.

-- Tom Meagher's phone message number is 832-7187. His e-mail address is tmeagher@ljworld.com.