(Washington, D.C.) Today the National Women?s Law Center, on behalf of 20 women?s and civil rights organizations, filed a ?friend of the court? brief in support of the female athletes in Biediger et al. v. Quinnipiac, a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Quinnipiac University has appealed a district court decision that the university failed to provide equal athletic opportunities to its female students under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, including athletics. The amicus brief, prepared by the Center and its co-counsel WilmerHale, lays out the important issues under consideration and the nationwide implications for women and girls at all educational levels.
In March 2009, Quinnipiac announced plans to cut three sports teams, including the women?s volleyball team, at a time when it was not providing equal athletic opportunities to its female students. To compensate for these lost opportunities, Quinnipiac attempted to bolster its roster of female athletes to comply with Title IX by counting competitive cheerleading as a varsity sport. Members of the volleyball team and their coach filed a lawsuit under Title IX, and following a trial, the court ruled for the plaintiffs.
?The district court properly determined that Quinnipiac failed to provide substantially proportionate intercollegiate athletic opportunities for its female students when they were available, able and interested in playing,? said Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women?s Law Center.
In response to Quinnipiac?s claim that the cheerleading opportunities were equivalent substitutions for a full-fledged varsity volleyball team, Greenberger said that ?the district court was correct in determining that, while cheerleading certainly requires a high level of athleticism, the competitive cheer squad at Quinnipiac lacked major hallmarks of other established sports?including off-campus recruiting, organized competition and consistency in the level of competition.?
As laid out in the brief, the district court also found that Quinnipiac added athletes to men?s teams and removed athletes from women?s teams after key dates when they had to report participation numbers to the Department of Education. They also double- and triple-counted students who were listed as members of the women?s cross-country, indoor track, and outdoor track teams, even though many of the women did not receive genuine participation opportunities on more than one of the teams.
?Schools that manipulate the facts to make it appear that they comply with Title IX?s promise of fairness cannot be allowed to evade their obligations under Title IX,? Greenberger added.
?We?ve come a long way in the nearly 40 years since Title IX was enacted, but there is still much work to be done before its promise of equal opportunity is fulfilled,? said Greenberger. ?Studies show that playing sports leads to better physical and mental health, more responsible social behavior, and greater academic achievement. The stakes are high in this case, and careful scrutiny of schools? reporting and full enforcement of Title IX is necessary to ensure that women and girls receive equal opportunities both on and off the field.?
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The National Women?s Law Center is a non-profit organization that has been working since 1972 to advance and protect women?s legal rights. The Center focuses on major policy areas of importance to women and their families including economic security, education, employment and health, with special attention given to the concerns of low-income women. For more information on the Center, visit: www.nwlc.org.
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