The Ivy League school could lose federal funding if a male athlete who won the NCAA swimming title as a female competitor doesn’t relinquish records.
The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) remains in violation of Title IX regulations lingering from a transgender-identifying athlete’s victory in an NCAA women’s swimming title for the school in 2022 and will have 10 days to resolve the issue before the matter is referred to the Department of Justice, federal officials said on April 28.
The announcement was made after the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent a notice of noncompliance to UPenn President Larry Jameson.
Jameson was informed that in addition to complying with current NCAA regulations and President Donald Trump’s February executive order prohibiting males from competing in women’s sports, UPenn was required to relinquish that athlete’s 2022 championship title and issue an apology to the female athletes he defeated.
The Ivy League school is also expected to issue a statement asserting that all its athletic programs comply with Title IX.
Title IX is a federal law enacted in 1972 that prohibits educational institutions receiving federal funding from engaging in sex discrimination and assures fairness for NCAA women’s sports programs. President Joe Biden interpreted Title IX to allow people to participate on sports based on their gender identities instead of based on their biological sex, and Trump reversed that under his executive order.
UPenn must also restore to female athletes their rightful records, titles, and honors, “or similar recognition for Division I swimming competitions misappropriated by male athletes competing in female categories.”
In addition, “the university must send a letter to each female athlete whose individual recognition is restored, expressing an apology on behalf of the university for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination,” the April 28 news release said.
In 2022, transgender-identifying UPenn student Lia Thomas won a Division I NCAA women’s swimming championship in the 500-yard freestyle event after competing on the men’s team from 2017–2020.
