Just what the heck is Title IX, anyway?

The phrase "Title IX" commonly refers to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, or the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

Basically, Title IX is the rallying cry whenever a college is offering more money to men's sports than women's, or otherwise promoting men's athletics over women's. There's a whole lot of legalese behind it, but let me break it down to how it specifically affects students news media.

Odds are you cover your school's athletics, right? But maybe you don't have enough room to cover all the sports. Maybe this week, you're covering men's basketball, women's softball and men's golf.

Well, if you're supported financially by your school, that's not okay. If you're taking money for printing, administration, anything, you need to be giving equal coverage to both men's and women's athletics. (If you aren't funded in any way by the school, you can cover whatever you want, but someone will complain at some point if you give unequal coverage.)

Equal coverage is a pretty nebulous concept, too. Some people might count column inches, some might consider how many photos you run. The general rule I would recommend is running an equal number of articles over the course of the semester -- this will let you run a full section of football stories if you win the big bowl game and still be compliant.