Foreword: “Just Do It!”: Title IX as a Threat to University Autonomy

For a short time I was stymied to identify a suitable theme for the Foreword to the 2003 Survey of Books in the Michigan Law Review. The task is surely a daunting one, because it is never possible to write a Foreword that offers the reader a Cook’s Tour of the many distinguished offerings reviewed in its pages. Therefore I hope to link one broad theme to one narrow topic, knowing that at first it may look as though they have little in common. In taking this approach, I prefer dangerous shoals to well-marked channels. I shall therefore begin with one elusive word and then work my way back to one of the bitterest controversies of the present time, which illustrates the general dangers of which I speak. The single word that I have selected is “just”; the current controversy is the application of Title IX to intercollegiate athletics.