UC Davis supports an outstanding program in women’s sports.
UC Davis sponsors 14 women’s varsity sports, significantly more than the national average of 8.4 women’s sports per college or university, according to a national study.
Sports Illustrated for Women named UC Davis as the best Division II school for women athletes in 1999 and 2000, and UC Davis has produced three National Collegiate Athletic Association Women of the Year since that program began in 1991.
A total of 11 UC Davis women’s teams have participated in, or been represented at, 59 NCAA Division II championships and one NCAA Division I championship since 1995. Between 1995 and 2005, UC Davis female student-athletes received a total of 253 All-American awards.
UC Davis created a Title IX workgroup to address gender equity issues many years before other universities took steps to carry out the mandate of Title IX. Intercollegiate Athletics uses a Plan for Equity in Athletics to ensure fair distribution of resources and staffing.
The campus has demonstrated a history and continuing practice of expanding its women’s varsity sports program. In the past 12 years, the following five sports have been added: women’s indoor track and field (1994); rowing, lacrosse and water polo (1995); and golf (2005).
Currently, UC Davis sponsors 14 varsity teams for women in: basketball, cross country, gymnastics, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming, diving, tennis, outdoor track, indoor track, golf and volleyball. All are NCAA sports.
In 2002, then-Assemblymember Helen Thomson named Pam Gill-Fisher, who was the senior associate athletic director of Intercollegiate Athletics at the time — and one of the defendants — the 8th Assembly District Woman of the Year for her many contributions to women’s sports.
The campus has never had a women’s wrestling team.
Women’s wrestling was identified as having “unofficial status “during the years that Burch was the head coach. Fewer than 10 women ever expressed an interest in wrestling during the years that Burch was coach. Those who did participate never wrestled for UC Davis in a dual meet, and they wrestled unattached when they participated in the Aggie Open tournament.
Women’s wrestling is not a sport sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and it is not sponsored by the Pac-10 or Big West Conference, to which UC Davis belongs.
UC Davis has a process for establishing new sports clubs or teams.
The process includes submission of a detailed report outlining available competition, interested student athletes and proposals for establishment of the team. The proposals may be submitted by an existing club sport or any interested person.
The federal Office for Civil Rights found no retaliation against Burch or discrimination against women wrestlers.
In response to the complaint of retaliation filed by Burch and the complaint of discrimination filed on behalf of the women wrestlers, the Office for Civil Rights conducted investigations. In October 2001, the civil rights office found that Burch’s claims were without merit and that UC Davis had not discriminated against any women wrestlers.
As part of the office’s discrimination investigation, the campus entered into a Voluntary Resolution Plan. The plan clarified that the coach of the wrestling team would select team members based on those student athletes who demonstrated the highest skill and competitive ability in their weight class. This is the standard approach used by coaches of varsity sports to select team members. Burch had allowed women who did not have the skills required to earn a place on the varsity team to participate with the team nonetheless. This, in turn, caused a situation where males who also did not have the required skills and were not allotted a place on the team were treated differently than the women.
The coach who replaced Burch requires all potential team members to compete for slots on the roster. Two women who tried out for the wrestling team in the fall of 2001 were defeated in a wrestle-off, a practice long used in collegiate wrestling to determine which student-athletes will be on the team. Males who were defeated were cut from the team, as were the women.
The campus also agreed to create a wrestling sport club for men and women. None of the three women who participated in the civil rights complaint ever made the effort to participate in the wrestling club.
The university settled to conclude litigation and avoid a possible excessive fee award.
The university is confident that the campus acted appropriately and stands by the decisions made by athletics leadership related to the wrestling program and Burch. Coaches in Burch’s classification hold year-to-year contracts with no guarantee of renewal. The decision not to renew Burch’s appointment was based on his performance. Neither his conduct toward the women wrestlers nor any issue with the women wrestlers played a part in the decision.
The university settled the case after more than three years of litigation. The settlement of $725,000 will be split between Burch’s two attorneys (both of whom made claims of entitlement to attorney’s fees), the trustee of Burch’s bankruptcy estate and Burch. The amount of the settlement reflects the effect of attorney’s fee claims and awards in Title IX cases, which are often multiplied. Both sides entered into the resolution at the urging of the court, taking into consideration the uncertain nature of trial by jury.
Resolution of the case will allow the athletic administration to focus on the campus transition from Division II to Division I competition in the NCAA.
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