Appendix X: Comments from the National 

 Science Foundation 



NATIONAL SCIENCE FOOMDATION 



4201 WILSON BOULEVARD 

 ARLINGTON. VIRGWLA 22230 



July 2, 2004 



owiceoFTW 



OIRECTOfl 



Cornelia M. Ashby 



Director, Education, Woricfbrce, 



and Income Security Issues 

 U.S. General Accounting Office 

 Washington, DC 20548 



Dear Ms. Ashby: 



Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the draft copy of the report, "Gender 

 Issues: Women's Participation In the Sciences Has Increased, but Agencies 

 Need to Do More to Ensure Compliance with Title IX {GAO-04-639)." 



NSF agrees with the assessnoent that the participation of women in mathematics, 

 engineering, and science has inaeased in the last 32 years, but that participation 

 in education in certain fields, and advancement in faculty ranks, is still lagging. 



The report recommends that NSF ensure that Title IX compliance reviews of 

 grantees are periodically conducted. We believe that the Department of 

 Education had agreed to conduct these on behalf of NSF. 



Nonetheless, our Office of Equal Opportunity Programs is quite willing to 

 participate in an effort led by the Department of Justice to develop new 

 agreements or procedures for coordination of penodical compliance revievre. We 

 would want to develop an Independent review program only in the context of 

 coordinated efforts, to make the best use of our resources and to minimize the 

 impact on our grantees. 



The report notes that Title IX complaints made to NSF involving education 

 institutions are referred to Education, and those involving employment to EEOC. 

 We will continue to rely on investigation services from those agencies for the 

 small number of complaints we receive. 



The report obsewes that some grantee institutions have not established 

 procedures for resolving Title IX sex discrimination complaints and have not 

 adopted or published complaint procedures. Further, they are not tracking the 

 complaints they do tiandle. Finally, the report notes that there is little avrareness 

 generally that Title IX applies to academtes and not just sports programs. 



Page 47 



GAO-04-639 Gender Issues 



