The proportion of men to women who participate in varsity athletics matches almost exactly the proportion of men to women in the undergraduate student body as a whole, according to a report issued by the College yesterday.
The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act report states 52.8 percent of varsity athletes are male and 47.2 percent are female. In comparison, 52.4 percent of the undergraduate student body are male and 47.6 percent are female.
The EADA, which went into effect Oct. 1, requires all colleges receiving federal aid to annually release the same information Dartmouth made available in its report.
Statistics in the report are for the 1995-1996 academic year.
"I think [the report] says some pretty positive things about where Dartmouth is in the world of athletics," Head Field Hockey Coach Julie Dayton said. "One of the reasons I'm at Dartmouth is because of how fair they treat the women."
"It's a federal law and we are simply complying with that law," Director of Athletics Dick Jaeger said. "I think every school spent the summer getting ready for this."
Not every college has made its report widely available Jaeger said. Some schools restrict public viewing of the report to their offices, he said.
Dayton said other schools may not have been as honest in their disclosures.
"I think there are ways to shade some things, just because there are so many factors," Dayton said.
"I think Dartmouth is going to fare pretty well" in comparison with other schools, Dayton said. "I think a lot of schools are way out of line."
The report lists the average Dartmouth salary for men's team head coaches as $36,817 and the average salary for women's team head coaches as $31,875. Recruiting expenditures for men's teams totaled $275,297 while the total for women's teams was $135,703.
The combined operating expenses for men's teams were $632,626 and the operating expenses for women's teams were $441,503, according to the report. The operating expenses for the coed riding and sailing teams added up to $22,103.
Among individual teams, the football and men's ice hockey teams had the highest operating costs for the 1995-1996 academic year at $145,692 and $89,454 respectively.
"I think that's were the money is going," Head Men's Lacrosse Coach Tim Nelson said. "For our sport, we're probably lower than the other schools."
The operating cost for men's lacrosse was $42,569, compared with $45,342 for the women's lacrosse team, according to the report.
Women's basketball, at $54,466, had the highest operating cost for a women's team.
Men's teams generated $1,036,043 in revenue through "such sources as alumni donations, corporate advertising and ticket sales," the report stated. Women's teams generated $268,748 in revenue and coed teams generated $68,812 in revenue.
"In no sport does the amount of revenue cover the full cost of the program," the report states.
Dayton said the numbers will most likely vary from year to year, and could be misleading for that reason. Coaches' salaries change depending on how long the coach has been at Dartmouth and operating costs vary each year depending on the number of home and away games a team plays, she said.
Dayton said in most cases where money is not equally distributed, the discrepancy is due to the nature of the sport rather than the gender of the participants.
Equipment and uniform purchases made every few years will cause fluctuation, as will differences in the nature and price of different sports' equipment, according to the report.
While all team members receive the same monetary "per diem" for food and lodging during travel, the sizes of the teams and the durations of their trips factor into their different operating costs, the report states.
