Funding to women's sports should not be tied to their level of participation in athletics, panelists said last night during a symposium on Title IX, a 1972 law mandating equality of opportunity for men and women in intercollegiate athletics.

Panelist and women's lacrosse coach Carole Kleinfelder, an outspoken critic of the Harvard athletic department's treatment of women's teams, said that interest in a sport is directly related to recruiting funds.

"It's a big vicious circle," Kleinfelder said, referring to the relationship between less funding and lower levels of participation.

About 60 people attended the symposium, which comes in the wake of criticism of Harvard's funding and treatment of its women's teams. University administrators, including President Neil L. Rudenstine, have defended athletic department policies by noting that the percentage of women athletes approximates the percentage of athletic department money spent on women's sports.

"It's a self-fulfilling prophecy," said Patty Flannery, an attorney who specializes in Title IX cases. "If you say the interest isn't there and don't provide the opportunity, who's going to want to play that sport?"

Flannery and Kleinfelder joined Kathryn Reith, communications director of the Women's Sports Foundation, and two students who have filed a Title IX suit against Brown University, in speaking at the event, which was organized by two members of the Radcliffe crew team.

Co-captain Rachel E. Lerner '93 and rower K. Noelle Tune '94 said athletic department administrators, including Senior Associate Director of Athletics Patricia W. Henry, turned down invitations to speak at the symposium.

While panelists presented basic information about the law, they also said they believe universities and athletic directors are misinformed about their obligations to women athletes--despite the fact that Title IX has been law for more than two decades.

Panelists discussed the situation at other schools. Reith noted that Brown, which is currently being sued by the women's volleyball and gymnastic teams, has also argued that the percentage of athletic money it spent on women's sports was in line with the percentage of women athletes.

But in a trial and one appeal, courts have rejected Brown's argument, saying that the school wasn't offering participation opportunities equal to the interest in women's sports. And Reith said that when schools have been ordered to increase opportunities for women's sports, they "have had no trouble filling the slots."

Harvard Department of Athletics administrators have said alumni donations to friends' groups, which support individual teams, are the pri- mary reason why men's teams generally have more resources than their female counterparts. During the symposium, Kleinfelder said the inequality in donations from friends' groups is the greatest cause of inequity in sports funding between men's and women's teams.

But Reith said that since the universities administer the friends' money, the funding discrepancies caused by those donations constitutes a violation under Title IX.

"Whenever something is provided for a team, the school is responsible," Reith said. "They are still liable for women's team receiving equal funding. They have the choice of turning down the donation or coming up with that funding."

The organizers said they were thankful that Kleinfelder and Radcliffe crew coach Holly Hatton had spoken out on Harvard's treatment of its women's teams and provoked discussion of Title IX.

"Carole and Holly really went out on a limb," Lerner said. "We wish that all the women's coaches felt secure enough with their jobs that they could speak out about women's athletics.