Efforts continued this week to untangle a charge of gender discrimination from the nonrenewal of a coach’s contract and to address Assemblywoman Helen Thomson’s concerns about gender equity in the UC Davis wrestling program.

Noting the beginning of a constructive dialogue with Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, Thomson, D-Davis, announced last Friday that she was removing her request to withhold $44 million in funding for the UC Davis Sciences Laboratory Building from the 2001-02 capital budget.

Thomson’s concern over a discrimination complaint filed with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights by a UC Davis woman wrestler prompted her to advise the money be withheld until the matter could be resolved – a move, she said, she felt necessary to get the university’s attention.

"Talks have begun and a good-faith effort will be made to resolve this issue," Thomson said in last Friday’s press release. "The women wrestlers tell me this (withholding funding) was similar to the wrestling move they call the ‘fireman’s carry’ where the attacking wrestler lifts the opposing wrestler high into the air, then returns the opponent safely to the mat."

Talks confirm shared goals

Vanderhoef thanked Thomson for withdrawing her request to hold up the building’s funding. "I’m pleased at this expression of Helen’s confidence in our ability to reach agreement. It’s clear from our initial discussion that we share the same goal – to expand athletic opportunities for women – though our approaches to achieving that end differ. We are both committed to finding a mutually agreeable solution."

Thomson invited Associate Athletic Director Pam Gill-Fisher and Cross-Country Head Coach/Physical Education Program Director Sue Williams to meet with her at her home last Friday. Gill-Fisher reports the three had an "informative and cordial dialogue."

Williams was one of eight UC Davis head coaches (along with an athletics compliance officer, director of athletic advising and academic adviser) who had released a letter (see page two Forum piece) to the community the day before, expressing concern about lopsided and accusatory media coverage of this issue.

"One would think that there would be some element of trust in a program that creates legitimate athletic opportunities for women to a level that is unmatched by any other university in the nation, that such a program would be presumed innocent until proven guilty rather than vice versa," the letter stated.

"The women wrestlers tried out for the wrestling team and did not make the team based on talent," the letter continued. "They are now demanding to be placed on the team based on the fact that they are women. This flies in the face of the ethics that have guided the growth of women’s athletics in the past 25 years and is nothing other than reverse discrimination...Preferential treatment is wrong in any form."

The Office of Civil Rights notified the campus in early June that it was closing its review of a discrimination complaint brought last April by a woman wrestler who said she and three other women had been removed from the men’s wrestling team because of their gender.

Because the women have been placed on the 2000-’01 roster and the 2001-’02 pre-season wrestling roster, OCR found "there are no current allegations appropriate for resolution." An amended complaint has been filed.

Wrestling isn’t closed to women

Gill-Fisher, whose office maintains sports teams’ pre-season rosters and final squad lists for NCAA eligibility and Title IX compliance, said women will again be offered an opportunity to compete for a place on the men’s wrestling team.

"We will continue to work with any prospective female student-athlete who chooses to try out for the men’s wrestling team," Gill-Fisher said. "Creating opportunities for women will continue to be a high priority for us, and will receive considerable attention as new opportunities in women’s athletics arise nationally and at UC Davis."

Gill-Fisher said the four women – as well as nine men – were listed on wrestling coach Mike Burch’s pre-season roster but none were among the 34 names submitted by Burch last October on his final squad list. (The wrestling team, like other campus sports teams, has a cap on team size; it has gradually been reducing its players to its 30-member maximum.) Burch has charged Gill-Fisher with directing him to eliminate the women wrestlers; Gill-Fisher adamantly denies that charge.

"I’ve worked my entire (27-year) career with Title IX stamped on my forehead," Gill-Fisher said. "I am not about denying opportunity to women athletes."

UC Davis’ commitment to providing competitive opportunities to women has resulted in Sports Illustrated for Women naming UC Davis the top Division II school for women athletes the past two years.

Unlike the majority of universities offering men’s intercollegiate wrestling, UC Davis has not declared wrestling to be a "contact" sport – a declaration that would preclude women from trying out for a spot on the team and competing.

"By not declaring it a contact sport, we allow women to try out and make the team if they are talented enough to earn a spot," said Gill-Fisher.

The club-sport route is another option for "growing a team" to intercollegiate sports status, said Gill-Fisher. "We have a strong record of expanding the number of women’s intercollegiate teams by using the sports clubs as a structure to expand participation and enable competition."

The NCAA currently doesn’t recognize women’s wrestling. According to USA Wrestling, as reported in the Title IX Compliance Bulletin for College Athletics, there are only three varsity women’s wrestling programs in the United States (with a fourth expected to be added next season), but at least 12 colleges have women’s wrestling clubs.

Personnel aspect complicated issue

The issue was further complicated when Athletic Director Greg Warzecka informed Burch in late May that his current one-year contract with the university would not be renewed.

"There is no connection between his contract’s non-renewal and the issue of women participating on his team," said Warzecka. "I know that my inability to say more is frustrating to many, but privacy law and university policy just won’t allow me to discuss publicly what is a personnel matter."

Warzecka said the athletic department has initiated a national search for a head wrestling coach.