UH to invest $1.75M in women's athletics

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

The University of Hawai'i has pledged to invest an additional $1.75 million in women's sports in the next five years, increasing the Rainbow Wahine budget 49 percent by 2007 in an effort to reach gender equity.

"It is a very significant financial commitment toward achieving gender equity," said Marilyn Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano, UH assistant athletic director and senior women's administrator. By 2007, she said, we "should be just about there (in compliance)."

The updated plan, which was approved last month by Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert and passed muster during a recent NCAA peer-review committee, comes while the athletic department is also struggling with its second consecutive year of a budget deficit.

The athletic department had a $1.43 million deficit last year and is projecting a deficit of more than $1 million the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Because of the budget shortfall, some of the $275,000 due to be added this fiscal year may be pushed back and added on to next year, UH officials said.

Last year UH spent $3.6 million on 11 women's sports. More than $6.2 million was spent on seven men's sports. There was one coed sport, sailing.

UH's updated plan for achieving gender equity in sports, entitled: "Just Do It," calls for an additional $392,000 raise in funding for 2003-04 and jumps of $360,000 (2004-05), $403,000 (2005-06) and $325,000 (2006-07).

Because 55 percent of Manoa undergraduates are women, but female athletes constitute only 44 percent of the current participants, the school is required to close the gap on opportunities and money. Schools not deemed in compliance or making substantive steps toward it risk losing federal financing campus-wide under Title IX, now known as the Patsy Mink Act.

Included are plans to add at least one new sport no later than fall 2005 at $200,000 per year for the first two years.

The remainder of the money is earmarked for coaches' salaries, recruiting, upgrading assistant coaching positions and additional support staff, Moniz-Kaho'ohanohano said.

The five-member peer review team conducted its on-site inspection earlier this year as part of an NCAA-mandated certification process.

All 325 Division I members take part in the process. Certification means an institution operates its athletic program in substantial conformity with principles of membership.