Dear President Bush: I write hoping you’ll sympathize with me because I’ve heard that you, like me, are an avid runner.

I fell in love with running as a member of my high school cross-country team. I also played basketball in high school, and before that, in junior high, I played on volleyball and softball teams. I’m an athlete, always have been, because playing sports lends me confidence in my body and in myself.

I would also like to mention that I’m a math major who developed logic skills as a member of my high school Mathletes team. From trig to math theory, I enjoy all aspects of math, and I’m damn good at it, too.

But transport me back in time to 1972, and my identity dissolves. In 1972, women hold only nine percent of all medical degrees and seven percent of all law degrees, and I don’t aspire to law or medicine – or to a math degree – because my high school doesn’t allow me to participate in academic competitions or take high level math and science classes. Also, girls make up only 7.5 percent of high school athletes, and my high school does not have a girls’ cross-country team, so I never develop a passion for marathoning and the determination that comes with it.

Luckily, Congress rescues my identity with its ratification of Title IX of the 1972 Education Act. Title IX states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” High schools and universities must prove compliance with Title IX in one of three ways: first, by showing that “the percentages of male and female athletes are substantially proportionate to the percentages of male and female students enrolled in the school,” second, by showing that “the school has a history and continuing practice of expanding athletic opportunities for the underrepresented sex,” or third, by showing that “the school athletics program fully and effectively accommodates the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex.”

And suddenly myth explodes. Those who said women just weren’t interested in sports, that women just couldn’t handle pre-med or calculus courses, saw women doing those things in record numbers once the opportunity became available. In fact, fast forward to the present day, and according to the Department of Education, women represent about half of all doctors and lawyers and about 40 percent of high school athletes.

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Alabama girls’ basketball coach Roderick Jackson, fired after complaining that his school relegated the girls’ team to an undersized court with bent rims so the boys’ team could use the nicer gym. The Supreme Court declared that Title IX protects anyone making gender discrimination claims against an academic institution, which is great news for Jackson and for anyone afraid to cite Title IX for fear of institutional or individual retaliation.

It has come to my attention, Mr. President, that while the rest of the country was busy celebrating this ruling, your Department of Education quietly altered Title IX compliance criteria. According to the Department of Education’s Web site, universities can now gauge interest in girls’ sports by e-mailing online surveys to students rather than through more accurate methods such as studying athletic participation rates at feeder high schools. Most students will not open mass e-mails, believing they are spam or that they contain viruses; for this reason, e-mail and online surveying often result in low response. Schools unwilling to increase funding for girls’ athletics can interpret low response as low interest, thereby “proving” that an inadequate athletic program meets girls’ interest.

As a girl who benefited greatly from Title IX, as one runner to another, I am asking you to protect and promote the development of confidence and character in girls through athletics by removing this loophole from Title IX compliance criteria.

Sincerely, Therese