And Caples says that hard financial times havemeant more of an uphill battle for women's teams.Caples says she is not always completely satisfiedwith the initial budget allocations for her team.
"Things aren't going to be handed to you...Wealways have to fight to get the job done andaccept the money given to us," she says. Still,Caples insists her team is "well taken care of."
But Kleinfelder says that women's coachesshould not have to fight for basic support."That's not good enough," she says. "It's notabout giving [women] what they need. It's aboutgiving them the same."
Getting the "same" includes getting top qualitycoaches for women's teams as well as men's,according to coaches.
"It's important for our athletes to see strongrole models," Caples says.
But Kleinfelder says she believes thedepartment does not always encourage womenapplicants for head coaching positions.
Kleinfelder says that the department'sadvertisements in NCAA publications for the headcoaching position on the women's soccer teamdiscouraged female applicants with its wording.Kleinfelder says the department requested anapplicant to fill the position of "head women'ssoccer coach and assistant men's lacrosse coach,"implying that the two jobs were equivalent inimportance.
"If they wanted to get a strong femaleapplicant, they wouldn't have worded the ad thatway," says Kleinfelder, who was the firstfull-time women's coach hired under Title IX. Shesays she complained to Henry about the ad'swording.
But Cleary and Henry deny that the ad ran withsuch a tone.
"I don't believe we ever advertised it thatway," Henry says. "We do the best we can to findthe best qualified coaches."
NCAA officials contacted last week said theycould not recall whether Harvard had placed suchan ad.
Henry says half of the applicant pool for thatposition were women. The department eventuallyhired Timothy Wheaton to head the soccer team.
While straight budget numbers remain undertight wraps by the athletic department, some saymore open discussion of the status of women'sathletics at Harvard is needed.
"The most depressing thing for me is that wehave not even sat down and discussed the issue,"says Kleinfelder. "Nobody gets together and talksabout things."
Last week, the department presented an annualreport on Title IX progress at Harvard to theStanding Committee on Athletics. But Kleinfeldersays she was not asked to contribute to thereport.
"I've never been asked to comment--I didn'teven know it existed," she says.
Caples, however, insists that communicationwith the department has been "good." Last month,she says, she was asked by departmentadministrators whether her team's needs were beingmet.
Kleinfelder says that what the department needsto do is "to encourage people to come forward, notto suppress."
"Vision and change should come from the topdown, not from the bottom up," she says.
Steven A. Engel B. Goodale, Lorraine Lezamaand Joe Mathews contributed to the reporting ofthis article.