The Harvard Athletic Department in a press conference yesterday defended itself against a report that shows large disparities between spending levels for men's and women's sports.

Also yesterday, the coaches of all the women's teams held a private meeting to discuss the report.

Although many coaches said the spending figures are unfair, they decided to take no action until after Athletic Department officials have had a chance to explain the disparity in a meeting scheduled for next week.

The controversy was sparked by the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) report that listed the participation rates, operating costs, coaches' salaries and recruiting costs of men's and women's athletics for the 1995-96 academic year.

By law, the EADA had to be made public on Tuesday.

The EADA was written to bolster the efforts of Title IX, which is part of a 1972 law that guarantees equality for women in collegiate athletics.

According to the report, 253 more male athletes participated in Harvard athletics than did women. And men's teams spent almost double on total costs and four times on recruiting costs.

In all, men's teams spent $2,146,493 to the women's $1,158,438.

Athletic Director William J.Cleary Jr. '56 and Associate Athletic Director Patricia Henry downplayed the importance of the spending discrepancies in yesterday's press conference, choosing instead to focus on participation levels and the needs of the particular sports.

"What we're trying to do here is not match dollar-for-dollar, because if we were matching dollar-for-dollar, I'm not sure we would be spending our money totally wisely," Henry said. "What we are trying to do is meet the needs of what our coaches think they need to run their programs."

Cleary and Henry promised that Harvard would not take measures on behalf of Title IX that would cut or put minimum roster sizes on men's teams, actions that many other universities have done to make the ratio of male to female athletes more closely resemble the student body ratio.

"We want to improve all opportunities for women, but not at the expense of cutting men's teams," Cleary said. "All of our coaches know that if we can get more people to compete, we will."

The issue, however, is a contentious one. Other universities that have not taken such steps have been sued by student athletes.

Women's Coaches

Two hours before the athletic department's press conference, the coaches of Harvard's women's teams met behind closed doors to discuss the report, which was dropped off in their mailboxes shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Speaking on behalf of all the women's coaches, women's swimming coach Maura Costin Scalise said that she was excited about the upcoming meeting with the athletic department and was glad that these issues were getting out into the open.