University of Pennsylvania violated Title IX, Education Department charges

Dive Brief: 

• The U.S. Department of Education determined Monday that the University of Pennsylvania violated Title IX over its athletics policies, escalating the Trump administration’s fight against educational institutions that have allowed transgender women to play on teams aligning with their gender identity. 
• Former Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, has been a focal point of debates on this issue. While on Penn’s women’s swimming team, Thomas became the first openly transgender woman to win a NCAA Division I title for her 2022 victory in the 500-yard freestyle. 
• The Education Department’s decision comes after the Trump administration suspended $175 million to Penn last month, citing the university’s athletics policies. However, Penn said it is complying with current NCAA policies. The association bars transgender women from competing in women’s sports, though it did not during Thomas’ time on the swimming team.

Dive Insight: 

 The Education Department alleged that Penn violated Title IX — which prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education institutions — by “denying women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”  

“UPenn has a choice to make: do the right thing for its female students and come into full compliance with Title IX immediately or continue to advance an extremist political project that violates federal antidiscrimination law and puts UPenn’s federal funding at risk,” Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a Monday statement. 

The Education Department announced its investigation into Penn on Feb. 6, one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that threatened to pull federal funding from colleges and K-12 schools that allow transgender women and girls to participate on sports teams aligning with their gender identity. 

The NCAA also changed its rules to comply with Trump’s order on Feb. 6. 

After the Education Department opened its probe into Penn, university officials told the agency that it had followed NCAA rules and applicable laws during the 2021-22 season, when Thomas competed on the women’s team.

“We now comply with the NCAA policy and the law as they exist today,” Penn President Dr. J. Larry Jameson said in a March statement. Jameson said the university has never had its own athletics policies for transgender athletes. 

Penn didn’t answer emailed questions Monday about whether the university planned to agree to the draft resolution or contest the Education Department’s findings. 

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights gave Penn 10 days to comply with the agency’s proposed resolution agreement — or risk being referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for enforcement. 

The agreement would require Penn to “restore to all female athletes all individual athletic records, titles, honors, awards or similar recognition for Division I swimming competitions misappropriated by male athletes.” 

It also would require the university to apologize to those women for allowing their “educational experience in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination,” the department said. 

The Education Department has taken the same tack with Maine, whose governor publicly sparred with Trump over transgender athletes. The agency sent the state’s own Department of Education a draft resolution agreement and threatened to send its case to the Justice Department. 

After the deadline for signing the resolution passed, the Education Department moved to cut off the state’s federal funding for K-12 schools. It also referred the case to the Justice Department, which filed a related lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education earlier this month. The legal action puts the state at risk of having to repay $864 million in past federal funding.