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Whistleblower at Weatherford?

By Erin Buzuvis, Sudha Setty, and Kristine Newhall

A few months ago we mentioned an OCR investigation at Weatherford College in Texas where opportunities for male student-athletes are double those for women even though women comprise 60 percent of the student body. Also in that post was news the Weatherford had recently acquired, for the first time, a full-time athletic director.
It seems that the process for acquiring said AD created a few issues--well, at least one. The former PT AD has accused the college of age discrimination. Bob McKinley filed a grievance with the school saying that he was not chosen for the new position because his age does not conform with the new image of the athletic department that the school desires. This week, though, the board of trustees ended the grievance process and voted to relieve McKinley of his part-time AD responsibilities. He remains head coach of the women's basketball team.
In addition to age discrimination, McKinley has said he did not get the new AD job because of his previous complaints about gender equity in the department. Turns out it was McKinley who triggered the OCR investigation. Though, again, we have no specifics as to which aspects of gender equity McKinley felt were inadequate.
McKinley, according to Weatherford's president, has not been able to provide evidence of age discrimination or retaliation. Of course, it is very difficult to prove either these days, especially since McKinley is still a coach at the school. No word on whether McKinley will take his fight to the courts.

Full post as published by Title IX Blog on January 16, 2009 (boomark / email).