Below is an overview of Kentucky State's athletics program with a focus on gender equity. The PICTOR Group's assessment is based on a review of informational materials provided by the athletics program, information contained in the 2022-23 EADA Report, results from the three distinct Survey Questionnaires, interviews with Athletics Staff and Student-Athletes, and an assessment of athletics facilities and venues. The three primary components to be considered when assessing gender equity are addressed below.
The 2022-23 EADA Report filed by Kentucky State University revealed a 28% variance between the female undergraduate enrollment (61%) and the female athletics participation rate (33%). The athletics participation rate for student-athletes was not proportionate to the full-time undergraduate student population. Kentucky State would need to add approximately 208 participation opportunities for women to meet substantial proportionality if the participation rate of male student-athletes did not change. This could be done by increasing roster sizes for existing women's sport programs and/or adding new sports for women and/or reducing roster sizes of existing men's sports programs.
Sports programs have not been added to the women's programs since 1995-96 when volleyball was added. As a result of a grant awarded to the SIAC from First Point Volleyball Foundation volleyball was added as a men's sports program in 2021 and formal competition began in spring 2022. Adding men's volleyball has added more participation opportunities for male student-athletes thus creating a greater gap in participation opportunities for female student-athletes. Since 1995-96 there has been no other women's teams added which means that there has been no demonstrated history and continuing practice of expanding participation opportunities in response to developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented gender (females).
As noted in the analysis of the 2022-23 EADA Report, Kentucky State student-athletes were supported by a total of $1,353,036 of athletics related aid. Sixty-eight percent ($911,800) of the athletics scholarships were awarded to student-athletes who participated on men's teams and 33% ($441,236) was awarded to student-athletes who participated on women's teams. This puts Kentucky State out of compliance with respect to awarding athletics related aid to student-athletes. To be gender equitable, Kentucky State would first need to increase the number of participation opportunities to female student-athletes and then proportionately increase the athletics scholarship allocation to female student-athletes and/or reduce the amount of athletics related aid awarded to male student-athletes.
There are 13 programmatic elements of an athletics gender equity review. At Kentucky State, in 11 of the 13 areas there does not appear to be a significant disparity in the treatment or services provided to women and men in the athletics program. However, due to inadequate funding and staffing across the athletics program, the treatment and services provided to both
14