UCLA Gives Women’s Soccer Team Status; Pressure Denied

Women’s soccer at UCLA, a club activity since 1979, will be given full NCAA status for the 1993-94 season.

The announcement came Tuesday from Peter Dalis, UCLA athletic director, on the same day that UCLA Chancellor Charles Young received a letter from a law firm demanding that the sport be elevated. The letter said that failure to do so would trigger a lawsuit by the Bruin women’s soccer team charging a violation of Title IX, which guarantees equal opportunity for male and female athletes.

Last month, Judith Holland, UCLA senior associate athletic director, indicated that women’s soccer would not be elevated in the near future because of budget problems, but UCLA was working on a plan to phase in the sport at an affordable level.

“All it took was the threat of a lawsuit for (UCLA) to realize that they ought to do the right thing,” said Kirk Boyd, an attorney for Boyd, Huffman & Williams, the law firm retained by the UCLA women’s soccer team.

Holland said Tuesday that it was merely a coincidence that the announcement was made the same day that the Young received the letter.

“That’s not any reason to make a decision,” Holland said. “We were going about our business.”

With the addition of women’s soccer, UCLA supports 12 NCAA sports for men and 10 for women.