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REMARKS BY:  DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:       1998 NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHELETIC ASSOCIATION, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
DATE:	     January 12, 1998

I work for a sports fan. No President has ever followed the fortunes of women and men's Division I teams like President Clinton.

Twice in my life I interviewed for university presidencies in Division I. Once I was rejected and once I got the job. Each time I had the distinct impression that everyone on the search committee was thinking: Great credentials, but can she talk to the football coach?

Like everyone else who care about the NCAA, I have followed the debate over the change in governance. What's most important about the change in governance is that you're looking toward the future. That's crucial because we both know that for the NCAA to ensure credibility, equality and stability in intercollegiate athletics in the 21st century, the game plan can't be: business as usual. Strategy on the field changes over time. And strategy off the field must do the same.

At a time of tight revenues, high expectations from Trustees, alumni and fans, and a sea of money from corporations and agents, you need all of your skill, commitment and integrity to keep young people performing both athletically - and academically.

That's no easy task. But every day you prove you're up to it. As coaches, faculty reps, administrators and university presidents at Division I schools, you really are the best of the best.

And by teaching young women and men to test the limits of their abilities, and to represent their schools with pride and dignity - you bring the best out of the best. That is a rare gift. A teacher's gift. A gift to memory.

I saw it for the first time when I was nine years old playing on the girls' Pigtail softball league in Cleveland. Our coach told us if we worked hard - and with great determination - we'd win. His name was George Steinbrenner. And he was right. We did win.

I also saw and admired your special gift in the coaches and athletic staff of the University of Wisconsin - and in Division III at Hunter College. My years at Wisconsin only increased my enthusiasm for Division I intercollegiate sports.

I saw how you mold not just ability, but character. How you turn raw desire into agility and discipline. How girls become women and boys become men because of your tough, disciplined and skillful coaching.

In the President's new child care initiative announced last week, we've included hundreds of millions of dollars for after-school programs that we hope will include a heavy commitment to athletics as a way to build confidence and skills.

But my enthusiasm for intercollegiate athletics did not stop with their effect on young people.

Athletics can be a transforming experience for our nation's great universities and colleges. And it's not just the team building and raised spirits. Intercollegiate athletics are like a grand oak tree in the center of town. They draw a university community together, lead us to reflect on the changing seasons and our timeless values, and inspire memories and friendships that can change a life - and last a lifetime. There is no greater feeling than to be young on a Saturday and walking with a friend to a sports event on a great American campus.

I mentioned a moment ago the special gift that belongs to those who teach. I'd like to give you an example that comes not from the world of sports - but the world of classical music. If Charles Woodson or Nykesha Sales were violin players, instead of star college athletes, they might be mistaken for Yitzhak Perlman or Midori.

Perlman recently sat down with that famous celebrity interviewer: Big Bird. "Who was your best music teacher?" asked the yellow-feathered news hound who stands head and shoulders above the rest. "My first," answered Perlman, "because after only about a month of lessons, my first teacher told my parents I needed a new teacher. She said she wasn't good enough."

I like this story not only because of what the teacher recognized in Perlman, but what she recognized in herself - which was a responsibility to do everything she could to nurture his rare talent.

That is what you do all the time - in your classrooms, laboratories and playing fields. I know that the NCAA has heard a lot of criticism in recent years. Some of it from Washington.

But the fact is, the NCAA - at its best for 100 years - has been dedicated to protecting the integrity of college sports and the safety of players. And that has not changed.

Most Americans don't know that overall graduation rates at Division I schools are actually slightly higher for athletes than non-athletes. We also know that the skeptics about Proposition 48 were wrong. So with the close of a very exciting Division I college football season, and the opening of another wide-open season for women's and men's basketball - all of us who love watching the best in college sports have much to celebrate. But like any good coach, I'm not prepared to say we can't do better. Because the fact is, we can do better - and we must.

While our nation's best young athletes are running for daylight, hitting nothing but net, and belting tape measure home runs - our universities and athletic programs still face major challenges - both on and off the field.

Challenges that, like Yitzhak Perlman's teacher, require us to think long term; act in the best interest of athletes rich in talent but short on experience; and honor the grace of sport by thinking not just about the players, but those who come to watch, enjoy and experience the game.

That won't be easy. But there are two important places to begin. And I'll be talking about both this morning. They aren't particularly popular topics - but I couldn't come here without raising them. And there is no group that I worked with during my tenure in the Academy that I thought were better impact players on their campuses than the presidents, faculties and their athletic staffs and coaches.

The first issue is fighting the risky behaviors that too many young people either associate with athletic activity - or simply believe have a place at athletic competitions. The second is to once-and-for-all make sports - from Division I competition to just playing out in the backyard - as much a part of the life of young women as young men.

A week ago Sunday, the New York Times - in a special education supplement - ran a cover story on binge drinking. I am personally haunted by the problems of young people and drinking. I once recruited a brilliant young man from northern Wisconsin by promising him the seat next to me at the opening football game. The night before his high school graduation a drinking party ended his life. Each fall I remember the empty seats that he and too many of his generation leave open.

For you - and certainly for the parents of young people who have been injured or died - the problem of binge drinking is not news. It has come to colleges with a vengeance.

In the state of Virginia alone, five college students died in one month in incidents tied to alcohol. The most recent victim - a 21 year-old woman - is thought to have been participating in a ritual called a "fourth-year fifth," where seniors drink a fifth of liquor for the last home football game. Her blood alcohol level was .27 - three times the legal limit in Virginia.

There have been alcohol-related deaths at MIT, Louisiana State, Fordham, the University of Massachusetts, Vanderbilt, Penn State and many other schools. And the problem is not just acute alcohol poisoning - or car accidents involving alcohol. We know that alcohol abuse can lead to later health problems, including certain types of cancer, and is frequently a factor in assault, date rape, suicide and drowning.

In fact, most of the serious problems that I dealt with on the two college campuses I led were related to students drinking.

Later this week we will be releasing a study on the relationship between the age at which someone begins drinking alcohol, and the subsequent development of the medical disorders: alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence.

But this much we already know. The most recent data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism indicates that almost 90 percent of college students have used alcohol; over 40 percent binge drink; and binge drinking is more prevalent among college students than non-college students the same age. We know that white-males are the most likely to binge drink - and African-American women the least likely. Research also tells us that drinking in high school is highly predictive of binge drinking in college.

Last month our Department released the 1997 Monitoring the Future Survey, which measures substance abuse among 8th, 10th and 12th graders. There were some important glimmers of hope in the survey. For example, after years of dramatic increases, illicit drug use among eighth graders remained stable in the last year - and decreased slightly for marijuana, cigarettes, and certain other substances.

Also, the percentage of eighth graders who reported having "been drunk" at least once in the past month decreased from 9.6 in 1996 to 8.2 in 1997. And more 8th graders are expressing personal disapproval of both alcohol and tobacco.

But we found some disturbing trends. The number of 12th graders who drank five or more drinks in a row at least once during a two-week period increased in 1997, while the number of seniors who thought that having five or more drinks once or twice each weekend was harmful decreased. That means our message about the dangers of alcohol are still not getting through to thousands of older teens; teenagers who are getting ready to pack their bags and come to your colleges and universities this Fall.

I'm not here to tell you that universities, their athletic departments and the NCAA are to blame for this continuing tragedy. You are not. Nor am I suggesting that athletes are more involved with alcohol than non-athletes. They are not.

But I am here to tell you that we have a problem, that you have a major role to play in the fight against alcohol abuse; and that we need your leadership. You can make a difference by what you do - or don't do.

As you know, right now, advertising restrictions only apply to NCAA championships. Frankly, we don't think that's good enough. We need to sever the tie between college sports and drinking. Completely. Absolutely. And forever.

That's why I believe the time has come for schools to consider voluntary guidelines that say: No alcohol advertising on the premises of an intercollegiate athletic event.

No bringing alcohol to the site of an event.

No turning a blind eye to underage drinking at tailgate parties - and on campus.

And no alcohol sponsorship of intercollegiate sporting events.

All institutions of higher learning should follow the lead of Chapel Hill, Baylor, Brigham Young and soon Minnesota - by saying no to alcohol sponsorship of sporting events.

I know this will have an impact on revenue. And I know there has been stiff resistance - both inside and outside the NCAA - to these kinds of tough guidelines in the past. But the time has come to seriously reconsider them, especially in light of the recent alcohol related deaths - and some research suggesting that advertising may influence adolescents to be more favorably disposed to drinking.

Breaking the connection between sports and drinking is only part of the solution to the problem of alcohol and drugs on campus. We also need to focus much more on prevention, early detection and timely intervention. Research shows that college students who receive even a single counseling session will sometimes significantly reduce their drinking. And there is some evidence that challenging false expectations about drinking can reduce the use of alcohol among college students.

But individual counseling and intervention are not enough. We need a comprehensive prevention strategy on every campus.

But government will never be able to prevent alcohol and drug abuse alone. And we shouldn't have to. Universities and colleges, athletic departments, the media, businesses and families must all be part of this fight.

Many universities are already thinking creatively about ways to end alcohol abuse.

Wisconsin, with help from a $800,000 dollar grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is looking at the entire culture of drinking on campus - from the influence of sororities and fraternities to advertising.

Other schools are making similar efforts focused on prevention. Gettysburg College is requiring all freshmen to take a wellness course. Vanderbilt is imposing tough sanctions on students using fake ID. And Virginia is improving staff training and offering non-alcoholic entertainment.

I mentioned that binge drinking on campus frequently has its roots in teen alcohol consumption - consumption that we are now learning how to reduce or even prevent. Project Northland, a 1996 study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, shows that prevention programs targeted to young adolescents can work.

But the intervention must be sustained and include the active involvement of parents, teachers and peers - but also coaches, older athletes, and local colleges and universities.

That kind of community partnership lies at the heart of the National Youth Sports Program. Our Department continues to actively support NYSP. So I encourage you to strengthen NYSP as a tool to fight drug and alcohol abuse, and as an effective way to reach kids who have big dreams, but are in big danger of falling through the cracks.

Many of those kids with big dreams are young women - which is why the National Youth Sports Program has something new and important going for it: Girls Sports Clinics. I believe it is a slam-dunk to encourage girls to participate in sports, and to use coaches and student-athletes as role models for girls. Similarly, I think your Women's Enhancement Program - which is helping women who want careers in sports - is a winner.

But - and I'm going to be blunt about this - as a nation we have not done enough to keep girls physically active when they're young, nor to open up opportunities for scholarships - and participation in intercollegiate sports - when they're older.

According to the NCAA's own survey released less than a year ago, "[T]here has been only a six percent gain in the number of female athletes in the last five years." Women are also behind men in scholarships, coaches' salaries, recruitment and operating expenditures.

This means we are a long way from fulfilling the letter and spirit of Title IX. And it certainly means that no sport - including football - will be exempted from Title IX. There is a bi-partisan consensus about this. And that consensus will not change.

I know that your new board has made gender equity and diversity a priority for 1998. But there can be no disagreement that 25 years after we enacted Title IX, too many girls and women are still on the outside looking in when it comes to participating in physical activity and sports.

Our 1996 Surgeon General's report says conclusively that female adolescents are less physically active than their male counterparts - and this inactivity can have adverse physical and emotional consequences. Everything from obesity and heart disease to depression and poor body image.

That's why last year at the Women's Final Four in Cincinnati we released a report called Physical Activity and Sport in the Lives of Young Girls. The report tells us that female athletes do better in school - and drop out less frequently than non-athletes, that girls who participate in sports have a greater sense of competence and control; and that physical activity is a money saver - as well as a life saver.

As I mentioned in Cincinnati, this report is part of the President's Girl Power! campaign where we're telling 9 to 14 year old girls: It doesn't matter if you walk, dance, or play sports. Just get smart. Get active. And get healthy.

Who in this room hasn't seen the pattern? Girls once full of resilience and promise enter the second decade of their lives without the strength that got them there. No one I suspect.

But not unlike Martin Luther King's dream that we will celebrate a week from today - Title IX's promise is within sight, but not yet within reach. We've come a long way since my mother, a great athlete at Ohio State in the 1930s, cleaned houses to pay her tuition. Let's make the 21st century a time when the words "sports" and "athletes" are as much about women as they are about men.

We all need to vocally support women's athletics.

We all need to be role models - delivering a message of sports equality to students, faculty, alumni, boosters and the media.

Title IX is the law of the land. Yes, it's morally right. But just as important, it's right for our country. Today, many of our nation's leaders come from the ranks of men's athletic programs. But as we train the next generation of leaders, we have to recognize that women will be everywhere - from the courtroom to the boardroom to the Oval Office.

So all of us must work together to help women acquire the qualities that make great leaders: confidence, discipline, courage and teamwork, because then they will be ready to be great national leaders.

Second, parity in funding must be more than a goal. It must be a reality. That means more money for operating women's sports programs; for hiring women coaches and trainers; and for women's scholarships and recruitment.

Justice sometimes come with a price tag. But the only way to get more women on the playing field is to level the playing field. We need to level up - not down.

Third, we need to form more public/private partnerships to find and support promising young female athletes. They're out there - in every sport. But they need encouragement, training, and good facilities. If we provide it, they will come.

Fourth, we won't see more women participating in intercollegiate sports, if we don't tell more girls to get active and away from alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. So I hope you will team up with local schools, the media, women's organizations, alumni, sports clubs and government to help craft - and spread - good public health messages for girls.

A great model is our SmokeFree Kids campaign with the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team where we're teaming up to encourage girls to put down cigarettes and pick up soccer balls. We even have a new PSA produced by Anson Dorrance, coach of the UNC women's soccer team, that promotes the campaign. SmokeFree Kids could be replicated in other sports - softball, basketball, swimming, gymnastics - where coaches and stars for both men's and women's teams help get out good public health messages.

So just think of me as a friendly - but savvy - recruiter, offering you an opportunity of a lifetime. We need volunteers - and I hope the NCAA will join me in helping to find them.

And fifth, we need to truly believe in women's athletic abilities. My mother is now in her eighties and still active athletically. She is also living proof of the health benefits of competitive sports and staying active. But many women of her generation - and even mine - were talented but never had the chance to show it.

That has to change. The time of living on the sidelines; of searching for the spotlight; of having to settle for second place must come to an end for women in this country. Today, every promising young female athlete should be able to look in the mirror and think: "I'm in the big leagues now - and the big leagues belong to me and my brothers."

The NCAA must continue to bring out the best in women and men because our country needs women and men who are champions on - and off - the playing field.

So in closing let me thank you for letting me come home to the community I love and respect to raise the bar - to give you the challenges that will make this country, as we end this century, the place we want it to be for all of our young people.

Thank you.