A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR WOMEN

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Lisa Stern received some bad news over the phone on April 30, 1991. Then a high school senior in Phoenix, Arizona, Stern had committed to Brown University not only because it is part of the Ivy League but also because of its reputation in women's gymnastics. The call from Providence, Rhode Island, though, was to inform her that Brown's athletic department was eliminating four sports, among them women's gymnastics, in a budget cutback. "I was devastated," recalls Stern. "I wanted the best academics and the best athletics. Brown's team had won the Ivys the year before. I had already turned down full rides at Berkeley [California] and Illinois." Stern and other female athletes eventually filed a class action against the university to restore gymnastics and volleyball, citing Brown's failure to comply with Title IX, the landmark civil rights statute barring gender discrimination in education.

One small decision for Brown women turned into a giant one for womankind last week. On April 21, a phone call brought some very good news to Stern, now an investment banker in Baltimore, Maryland. The call was from Lynette Labinger, an attorney representing the women. Labinger told Stern that the U.S. Supreme Court would let stand a lower-court ruling that Brown was in violation of Title IX. "I was ecstatic," says Stern. "After six years, it was finally over. It shows that universities can't ignore women in sports."

Reaction to the Supreme Court's non-decision was as swift as a Lisa Fernandez fastball, as dramatic as a Kerri Strug vault. "It's the greatest single legal action in the history of women's sports," said Donna de Varona, the Olympic swimmer and first president of the Women's Sports Foundation. "It's bad law," says Southern Cal athletic director Mike Garrett, voicing a concern that the Brown ruling will spur lawsuits against schools that are earnestly trying to upgrade women's sports.

Taking a more measured view of the Supreme Court's pass was Donna Lopiano, a true pioneer in women's athletics and the current executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation. "The impact is as much psychological as anything else," says Lopiano. "A lot of people--football coaches, especially--were absolutely convinced that some rich school would go to the court and salvation would be at hand and Title IX would be overturned. That was their dream. We hope now that they realize there is no out, that we can move forward and do what we were supposed to do 25 years ago."