40 YEARS OF TITLE IX

Title IX, bane of collegiate men's sports teams, turns 40 this month -- an occasion to regret, not celebrate, its sanctioning of "social justice" discrimination and twisted notion of "equality."

Originally aimed at medical-school, law-school and undergraduate admissions and supposedly protecting both genders, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 gradually became a de facto gender-quota system. By the late 1970s, it became best known as a feminist cudgel, compelling collegiate athletics to advantage women at men's expense.

Tweaked occasionally since by court rulings and bureaucratic reinterpretations, Title IX still runs counter to truly equal opportunity. As recently as a year ago, it led the University of Delaware to mull ending some men's teams pre-emptively to avoid any future compliance hassles.

Ever more an anachronism in an America where women are the campus majority, Title IX turns the very notion of discrimination on its head, purportedly rectifying one sort by substituting another. It's brought higher education no closer to genuine nondiscrimination than has its close cousin, so-called affirmative action.

Those who do celebrate Title IX's 40th birthday celebrate the codification of gender discrimination. How regrettable indeed.