PHILADELPHIA--Eight female varsity athletes at Temple University filed a class action lawsuit in federal district court April 8 charging Temple with sex discrimination in its athletic program.

The women charge that male athletes have much better facilities and receive more funding. In 1979-80 the athletic budget included $700,000 for men and $188,000 for women.

In a prepared statement the women also said that there are locker rooms for men's varsity sports in McGonigle Gymnasium, while all women's varsity sports share one locker room with intramural athletes, physical education students and women changing for dance practice.

Burning the Night Away

"When close to 100 male athletes stay in hotels the night before home games but 12 women athletes are forced to travel home squeezed into one van from an evening match in Washington D.C., arriving in Philadelphia at 4 a.m., because the women's budget is too small to pay for an overnight motel, someone's priorities are twisted," Rollin Haffer, president of the women's student athlete council, said last week.