The University campus was buzzing in February with the opening of the new Tiger Park and Alex Box Stadium.The old Tiger Park was the Tigers’ home for 12 seasons, and LSU volleyball coach Fran Flory said the completion of Tiger Park says a lot about the University’s attention to women’s athletics.”The softball stadium is the first venue for women’s athletics with a true women’s-only athletic facility that I’ve ever been part of in my 20-plus years of coaching,” Flory said. “It was a monumental experience and really a landmark for all of us at LSU … The fact that LSU has built a [$12 million] facility for one female sport is wonderful. Twenty years ago, it wouldn’t have happened.” Associate Athletics Director Judy Southard and Senior Associate Athletic Director Herb Vincent said LSU is in full compliance with Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, which forbids gender discrimination in athletics at schools with federal funding.LSU endured a seven-year lawsuit beginning in 1994 involving gender equity violations, bringing about a lack of opportunities for female student-athletes. Two softball players and three soccer players filed the lawsuit before their sports were enacted at LSU. When the lawsuit headed for trial, LSU created a women’s soccer team in 1995 and a softball team in 1997, in a new stadium.The lawsuit, settled in 2001 after a unanimous ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, said LSU was biased and “possessed a highly discriminatory athletics system.”Terms of the settlement included monetary compensation to the plaintiffs and their attorneys and “LSU’s continued public support of women’s athletics,” which Southard said the athletic department has made known now more than ever. Southard said LSU goes through a certification process with the NCAA every 10 years. She said the last certification began in 2002 and was finalized in 2005.”We really get down into what our offerings are and make sure we’re meeting the needs of our student-athletes in an equitable manner,” she said. “We made a commitment when we went through our last certification process to do some dramatic facility improvement for a number of our women’s sports, and we’ve proceeded with that plan over the course of the last seven years.”One allegation the five female students made against LSU was that the athletic department refused to allow the women’s volleyball team to travel to a tournament in Hawaii, but it permitted the men’s basketball team to make the same trip. Southard said there’s no way discrepancies in travel funding between men’s and women’s teams would happen.”If our men’s basketball team charters a plane to fly to Tennessee, the women’s team also does,” she said. “It may be our men’s and women’s basketball teams have different schedules outside of conference. That may dictate the men’s travel budget is a lot larger than the women’s, not because we’re not providing the same things for the women as we do for the men when we make those trips.”Flory said she can see clear differences in her own team’s travel accommodations since the lawsuit.”We’re not allowed to put more than two girls in a hotel room on a team trip,” Flory said. “That didn’t happen before the lawsuit. You put four or five people, whatever you needed to do to stay within the budget. And in terms of meals, the door is wide open for us to feed our team the same as the football team if we wanted to.”Vincent said the bottom line for LSU athletics today is equal opportunity to “compete for championships and graduate.”Southard wholeheartedly agrees with that motive.”What is important to know is it is our goal,” Southard said. “We strive to provide the absolute best possible for all student-athletes and all our coaches, regardless of gender.”—-Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]