Madison College has reached a settlement in the Title IX case from last fall. A complaint filed cited disparities in the number of male to female sports programs, representation and funding at the college.

The new plan will add women’s soccer to the athletic program and will begin documentation for moving women’s softball to Division II in the NJCAA. It will not be an immediate change because of the quick turnaround to the fall season, but this will be a project over the coming months.

“We can’t do it this fall, because of a number of different things,” said Keith Cornille, vice president of learning and development. “So our plan called for starting it next fall, but we would start hiring a coach this fall, to do the recruitment and everything else.”

Since May 1, the college has been in compliance of Title IX. Madison College submitted a formalized plan to the Office of Civil Rights. The outlined plan included checkpoints that the college will follow up and report on over the next two years.

As far as making these steps for more equality between men’s and women’s programs, the college said this plan had already been in the works prior to when the complaint came in.

“I think it’s important for the college community to know that we already realized that we needed to continually grow and continually improve our programs,” Cornille said.

Steve Hauser, Madison College athletic director, said that the athletic department will continue to move everything forward beginning with the 2014-2015 school year.

“We’re excited about adding women’s soccer and we’re excited about taking our softball team to the Division II level within that declaration period,” said Hauser.

Title IX, also called the Equal Opportunity in Education Act of 1972, states in part that no person in the United States should be excluded on the basis of sex from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.