William & Mary Athletics

The following is the memo sent on August 25, 2022 from William & Mary Director of Athletics Brian Mann to President Katherine A. Rowe providing an update on the athletics gender equity plan.

To:                   Katherine A. Rowe, President 
From:              Brian Mann, Athletics Director 
Subject:          Implementation of the Athletics Gender Equity Plan 
Date:               August 25, 2022 
 

1. Background.  My team and I fully support the Vision 2026 university-wide goal of evolving to excel and the specific need to "to embrace change to achieve our full potential in … diversity, equity and inclusion."  In Athletics, we strive to make William & Mary welcoming to all our student-athletes and to help them meet their full potential.  On August 30, 2021, a month after I became the Athletics Director, I submitted a gender equity plan  "… to create a future for William & Mary Athletics that is equitable, financially stable and provides our student-athletes with the resources they need to excel."  The plan addressed three main areas: "(1) participation opportunities, (2) athletics scholarships and (3) treatment."   I have been impressed with the enthusiasm our team has shown in embracing those challenges and with the important progress we have made.  All of us realize that these issues require constant vigilance, and we have taken steps to make equitable treatment a priority in everything we do going forward. This memorandum summarizes the progress we made in those three areas in FY 21-22, and the steps we will be taking to build on those initiatives in FY 22-23. 

 

1. Progress in FY21-22 
   • Participation Opportunities.  
     • In September 2021 we launched a process to assess whether we are providing equitable athletics participation opportunities for men and women according to the "Prong Three" test for compliance with Title IX.  We followed the Office of Civil Rights guidelines for demonstrating "effective accommodation of interests and abilities." 
     • After reviewing those guidelines, we drafted a policy, endorsed by your Executive Leadership Team, for annual assessment of interests and abilities.  Pursuant to that Policy on Athletics Interests and Abilities we convened a Team including Peel Hawthorne (Senior Associate Athletics Director/Senior Woman Administrator), Linda Knight (Director of Campus Recreation) and Pamela Mason (W&M Title IX Coordinator/Chief Compliance Officer) to provide, with help from supporting staff, an annual assessment and report.   
     • Their assessment for FY 21-22 included an evaluation of a spring athletics interest and abilities survey of all current and admitted students and reviews of trends in W&M intramural and club sport participation, national and regional intercollegiate sports, and sports at the high school and club level in our region.   The survey of current students conducted from March 20 to April 11, 2022 had 4,238 responses from 9,432 recipients for a response rate of 45 percent.  The survey of all admitted students produced 1,565 responses from roughly 5,400 recipients, for a response rate of 29 percent. 
     • The Team's report concluded that  
       1. There is not sufficient interest and ability to sustain a new intercollegiate team or elevate a club team to intercollegiate status in 2022-23. 
       2. Therefore, no changes to William & Mary's sports offerings are required to fully and effectively accommodate the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex during 2022-23.  
   • Athletics Scholarships.  
     • Scholarships  
     • The William & Mary Athletics Advancement Team will continue to pursue additional funding for scholarships, particularly women's scholarships, through both annual and major gifts efforts. 
        
   • Equitable Treatment. 
     • The August 2021 Gender Equity Plan reviewed the eleven equitable treatment areas and identified five areas with disparities to be addressed.  I asked Peel Hawthorne to assemble a team to address each item.  Her team, including key leaders responsible for each identified area, began meeting in September 2021.   
     • I met with the team periodically throughout the year and gave you a progress report in December.      
     • As noted in their end of year report to me, significant progress has been made and work continues on the remaining action items, particularly the four requiring construction projects. We broke ground on the new Athletics Complex at Kaplan Arena on May 9, 2022.  Site preparation is ongoing, and construction will commence this fall.  The fifth action item, recruiting, requires more study. As stated in the Gender Equity plan, "…the OCR requirement in this area is that expenditures are "equivalently adequate to meet the needs of each program." An analysis is in progress and the gap will be corrected to provide an equitable balance by the next budget cycle. 

 

1. Continuing steps in FY 22-23 
   • Participation Opportunities.  Following the recommendations in the report of the Athletics Interest Team we will: 
     • Repeat the interest surveys for all current and admitted students in the spring of 2023 as specified in the university's Policy for Assessing Athletic Interests. 
     • Pay particular attention to the next release of participation data from the National Federation of State High School Associations to better understand the pandemic's effect on participation. 
     • Follow up with students who gave contact information and expressed interest in recreational, intramural and club sports to provide appropriate sport contact information through Campus Recreation.   
     • Provide information on walk-on tryouts for students who provided contact information and expressed interest in various intercollegiate teams. 
   • Athletics Scholarships.  
     • We will continue to analyze and adjust awards annually to ensure continued compliance. 
     • Athletics Advancement priorities will continue to include gifts for scholarships, particularly those designated to women's athletics scholarships, through both annual giving as well as endowments. 
        
   • Equitable Treatment. 
     • Construction of the new Athletics Complex at Kaplan Arena will continue.  That will allow us to fully address the identified deficiencies by providing improved locker rooms, upgrading the sports medicine area, and expanding and upgrading office space for women's programs.  
     • An architectural assessment was conducted for renovations and upgrades to East side locker rooms in Zable Stadium. (Currently used by men's and women's track and cross country.) We await the design proposal. The Men's and Women's locker rooms will be switched as soon as renovations are complete, after which the men's side will serve as the locker room for the visiting football team. 
     • Demolition of the building on the site for the new field for women's soccer and lacrosse was completed.  We are identifying funds for installation of the field. 
     • As the team's report to me noted, equitable treatment requires continuing attention going forward.  The individuals who had responsibility for each of the 11 areas will continue to have that responsibility.   
   • We are using equitable treatment as a central guidepost in the reconfiguration of the Kaplan Athletics Complex.  That will be true as we go through the construction transition, as we complete the first phase of construction, and in our longer-term plans for continuous improvements.  This will involve phased allocation of office and locker room space as new areas are constructed and old areas are reconfigured.