Emergency Memo

TO: Sharon Mar

Desk Officer

Office of Management and Budget

THROUGH: David A. Bergeron

Director

Policy and Budget Development Service

Office of Postsecondary Education

FROM: Barbara Bauman

Policy and Budget Development Service

Office of Postsecondary Education

SUBJECT: Emergency Clearance Request

We respectfully request emergency approval of the Information Collection Request (ICR) Regulations for Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA). The EADA requires every institution that participates in the Title IV HEA federal student financial assistance programs and has an intercollegiate athletic program to annually prepare a report on athletic participation, staffing, revenue and expenditures by gender, and by men’s and women’s teams. An institution must make the report available to students, potential students and the public upon request. An institution is required to report the information to the Department of Education via our web-based data collection application. Our web data collection historically begins mid-September each year and closes at the end of October.

This is necessary due in part to a January 2009 request from RIMS for action on the 1845-0010 that was addressed to our office, I thought at the time that the 1845-0010 had been switched to 1845-0004 – my recollection was incorrect--I hadn’t worked on the collections in years and had switched jobs as well since then. A few months later, I realized that I had confused that scenario with another package from years back and informed RIMS.

We thought at that point that 1845-0004 covered both data collections and that some of the other activity in 0010 had been absorbed into an NCES IPEDS collection from years back so it appeared to be okay to discontinue the collection.

After a closer examination we have determined that the 1845-0010 was discontinued in error and indeed does cover the EADA data collections.

Emergency review of this request is necessary in order for the Department to proceed with collecting data starting September 11, 2009. Delays in conducting this web data collection would prevent the Department from providing current and prospective students access to information to assess a school’s commitment to providing equitable athletic opportunities for its men and women students.

We appreciate your consideration of this request. I am available by phone at (202) 219-7045 or by e-mail at [email protected] if you need additional information.