Penn State is hearing the praises of its gender equity policy from coaches and fans alike. But in five years, it may be Iowa who wins the gender equity race.

Iowa is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the passing of Title IX by going above and beyond Big Ten gender equity action policies. Instead of demanding a 60/40 split in favor of men's sports within five years, Iowa's athletic administration is planning to accelerate the equity policy by providing 51/49 athletic opportunities for men and women by 1997. This ratio will be representative of Iowa's undergraduate student population.

The celebrations were kicked off in September by granting the women's crew team varsity status for next year.

Iowa's Sports Information Director for women's sports Cathy Bongiovi said Iowa has received a lot of attention nationally for paving the way in terms of gender equity. In addition to committing itself to an accelerated equity policy, Iowa is one of only five schools in the country that has separate athletic departments for men and women, Bongiovi said. Minnesota is the only other Big Ten school with separate departments.

"Our women's teams' exposure is a thousand times better," Bongiovi said. "We have separate sports marketing and sports information departments. We have separate weight room facilities. Our women athletes give credit to women who fought for equity and were pioneers since the early 70s."

Wisconsin still bears the remnants from a time when almost all athletic departments were separate. The Badgers once had two athletic departments, but now they have separate sports information departments.

Wisconsin's sports information departments will be combined sometime within the next year and a half, said Wisconsin Sports Information Director for women's sports Diane Nordstrom, adding that the current sports information departments provide full attention to female athletes.

"We want to provide one voice for the university athletic department," she said.

Penn State has been providing one voice for as long as Associate Athletic Director for Communications L. Budd Thalman can remember.

"It's always been the feeling here that one (athletic department) was the way to go," said Thalman, adding that female athletes' needs are serviced at Penn State with one athletic department.