University of Iowa Title IX athletics compliance falls short in female equality
IOWA CITY, IA—When the University of Iowa women’s swim and dive team, recently cut due to COVID-related budget evaluations, filed a Title IX lawsuit this past September, they argued that the university did not support women’s and men’s sports to the same degree. Despite the university reinstating the team on Feb. 15 in response, the lawsuit continues, claiming that the school still is and has long been out of compliance with Title IX.
Passed in 1972, Title IX broadly ensures that federal funding is provided equally to men and women throughout public institutions, including equal opportunity and funding in college sports. Publicly-funded schools must prove they are compliant in all aspects of education and athletics, according to University of Iowa sport studies lecturer Dr. Jennifer Sterling. Equal funding allows for the same quality of assets such as scholarships, travel, uniforms, and athletic trainers for men’s and women’s programs.
“The problem with Title IX is that it doesn’t have any teeth. There’s not really a lot of repercussions for people that are not in compliance which is why you see things like the lawsuits come to bear,” Sterling said.
Freshman swimmer and lawsuit plaintiff Alexa Puccini had been on campus for three days when she found out the university cut the women’s swim and dive team, along with men’s gymnastics, men’s tennis and men’s swim and dive once the teams completed the 2020-2021 season.
“There was a month or two where I didn’t even know if I wanted to swim anymore,” said Puccini. “It was really difficult news, and it’s happening all around the country. Teams getting cut, teams having lawsuits, teams getting reinstated, and this was all due to COVID.”
When lawyer Jim Larew approached Puccini and her teammates with the possibility of reinstatement, she realized they had a much larger case against the university. The lawsuit is still ongoing, positing that athletic inequality still exists despite the women’s swim and dive reinstatement.
“We almost felt like if there wasn’t a lawsuit, would we be getting reinstated. It felt like a way to diminish the lawsuit,” Puccini said.
The lawsuit claimed that cutting the swim team diminished women’s opportunities and 102 opportunities were unaccounted for when compared to men’s athletics. In the past twenty years, the university hasn’t added a new women’s team, according to the lawsuit.
For sophomore swimmer and lawsuit plaintiff Christina Kaufman, she recognized that men’s basketball and football may make more money for the university, but she hopes the lawsuit will instill that women’s athletics are just as important.
“It seems like now they don’t care to support that many female athletes,” said Kaufman. “They’ve been cheating the system for so long just to fill Title IX spots just so they could fit more men on the football team.”
According to Sterling, Title IX lawsuits should not be viewed as a threat. In her experience, participating in a lawsuit against a school with the resources to draw out the case is a “huge ask of someone.” A lawsuit is a tool for when all other options to create equity are exhausted.
For senior rugby club president and lawsuit plaintiff Miranda Vermeer, she sees the lawsuit as an opportunity for the university to regain an image maintained by former women’s athletic director Christine Grant.
“Iowa used to serve as a leader in the community in Big Ten and NCAA, which I don’t think we are anymore, but we could be,” said Vermeer.
To learn more about Title IX’s impact throughout Iowa’s history, including the parallels of a past Title IX lawsuit, listen below to hear Dr. Jennifer Sterling explain.
There are three ways for an institution to comply with Title IX, according to Sterling. The university can prove that there’s equal interest in athletics or that continual progress exists, whether that be through the addition of a scholarship or a women’s team.
A significant argument for the current lawsuit is the third aspect of satisfied compliance through proportionality. According to Sterling, the percentage of women on campus must be equal to the percentage of athletic opportunities for women.
Puccini said what stood out to her at the trial was that the women’s rowing team roster is only about half of the number of athletes officially part of the team who don’t represent the team competitively. This inflates the number of active athletes competing at a varsity level for easier proportionality compliance.
“When the judge requested to have some of the numbers from the university, they wouldn’t give them up,” Puccini said. “We still don’t have them, and that was over two months ago. It seems really weird. If you want to show that you’re in compliance and you have the numbers, then just show it.”
According to sophomore rower Ashley Stepien in an email, she found rowing to be a beneficial community that welcomed her to compete in Florida this March after being on the team for five weeks. Even so, Stepien said she believes male athletes receive more opportunities.
“I believe that it ties more into culture and gender norms. Personally, I believe that males excel in some sports just like females excel in other sports,” Stepien said.
Sterling says since rowing provides a large number of women athlete spots to allow the magnitude of football scholarships, rowers often have to “justify their existence.” But she feels this unfairly puts the weight on the rower rather than putting pressure on the university to grow the rowing program in a way unrelated to compliance.
Another aim of the ongoing lawsuit is the potential addition of a new women’s team to reach Title IX compliance. Recruiting Vermeer provided a representation for university club sports like rugby.
“The picture they wanted to illustrate was that the university ignores the current interests of female students. A way to show that there’s an interest in more varsity athletic spots is to show that clubs have interest as well,” Vermeer said.
Vermeer’s main goal is for women to have the opportunity to play a contact sport at a varsity level. Varsity status means scholarships, facilities, and elevated play for incoming students.
“The sister program for our football team here is the rowing team, and rowing is not a contact sport. It’s not an equal opportunity in any way,” Vermeer said. “I don’t know why people think that women can’t tackle each other.”
Equality in female athletics, however, goes beyond schools fulfilling Title IX compliance, according to Sterling. Many universities that view compliance as an obligation do so because men’s athletics are valued at the professional level, with women not having future opportunities in athletics like what the NFL or NBA offers.
“I do think there’s a difference between a compliance with Title IX and a true belief and commitment to women’s sports,” Sterling said.
Although Kaufman says reinstating the team was an important first step for the university, she also echoed that the school must do more to “rebuild out trust with the athletic department.”
According to Kaufman, women’s teams like gymnastics don’t get the recognition they’ve earned in comparison to men’s sports, even when they have higher rankings. She also says that many athletic directors attend meets or attend senior night, which is not the support she’s seen from University of Iowa athletic director Gary Barta.
“Even when we hosted Big Ten last year, I didn’t see Gary Barta’s face. I didn’t even really know who he was until August,” Kaufman said.
A week after reinstatement, the swim team competed in the Big Ten Championships. Kaufman wanted it to be clear to Barta that the team was not swimming to represent the school, particularly since the cut greatly decreased the swim team’s roster.
“Even though we’ll put on a Hawkeye shirt, we’re not doing it for the university,” Kaufman said. “We’re doing it for us.”
Elisabeth Oster 