Are the Black Colleges in Compliance With Federal Regulations Regarding Gender Equity in Athletic Competition?

Title IX of the Higher Education Act requires colleges and universities to provide equal intercollegiate athletic opportunities for men and women in substantial proportion to their enrollment. If equality has not been achieved, colleges must demonstrate that they are making progress toward achieving equality.

But JBHE research finds that the black colleges and universities on average have extremely large differences between their percentage of women athletes and the percentage of women in their student bodies. Of the 40 black colleges and universities surveyed, 39 HBCUs had a lower percentage of women athletes than the percentage of women in the student body. Only at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore did the percentage of black women among scholarship athletes exceed the percentage of black women in the entire student body. Central State University in Ohio and St. Paul’s College in Texas have only minor differences. At all of the other 37 black colleges in our survey, the percentage of black women in the student body was at least 10 percentage points higher than the percentage of black women among all African-American scholarship athletes.

At seven HBCUs, there was at least a 35 percentage point shortfall in the percentage of black women athletes compared to the percentage of women in the student bodies at these institutions. The seven HBCUs are Shaw University, Jackson State University, Clark Atlanta University, Virginia Union University, Lincoln University of Missouri, Mississippi Valley State University, and South Carolina State University.

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