Champion Women Sends Letter Demanding Cal Poly Reinstate Women’s Swimming and Diving; Cites Trump Executive Order
It’s been five months since Cal Poly University announced it was cutting its women’s and men’s swimming and diving programs. But the fight to save the women’s program, in accordance with Title IX rules, continues. This week, Champion Women, the women’s rights group led by Olympic champion Nancy Hogshead, and Leigh Ernst Friestedt of Equity IX Sports Law, sent a letter to Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong demanding the reinstatement of women’s swimming and diving.
In this latest correspondence between Champion Women and Armstrong, Hogshead and Ernst Friestedt again highlight the university’s violations of Title IX. Champion Women also alerted Armstrong that Stephen F. Austin’s recent attempt to cut three women’s sports – golf, bowling and beach volleyball – was met with a preliminary injuntion from a federal judge. Additionally, Champion Women noted that President Donald Trump’s recent Executive Order, Saving College Sports, directly addresses Cal Poly’s decision to cut women’s swimming and diving.
After the cuts were announced, CPU swimmers and alumni attempted to raise funds to save the programs. While the effort raised $10 million, it fell short of the university’s $15 million figure for reinstatement.
Cal Poly recently announced that it was elevating its women’s STUNT program from the club level to a varsity sport.
In addition to sending a letter to Armstrong and other members of the Cal Poly administration, here is the email sent by Champion Women to the school president:
Dear President Armstrong, Cal Poly athletic administrators, and legal staff,
Attached please find our letter urging you to act quickly to reinstate Cal Poly’s Women’s Swimming & Diving team.
Since we last communicated, President Trump has issued an Executive Order, “Saving College Sports,” that directly addresses Cal Poly’s sex discrimination in cutting a thriving women’s sport, your swimming and diving team.
In addition, on Friday, the court found – in a fact pattern almost identical to Cal Poly’s – that Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) was intentionally discriminating against its women students by denying them equal athletic opportunities. It granted the women’s preliminary injunction and declined to give SFA an opportunity to “create a plan to demonstrate compliance,” given the school’s lack of desire to stop discriminating against women without the court’s direction, again, a pattern similar to Cal Poly.
SFA tried to argue that it was a financial decision, not a sex discrimination decision. But as the Plaintiffs pointed out, the financial harms were exacerbated by the school’s voluntary decision to opt into a settlement that contained a revenue-sharing model that permits the school to share up to $20.5 million with its athletes. We are not sure how this decision would not apply squarely to Cal Poly.
Third, the eventual establishment of STUNT and Flag Football will not prevent a court from reinstating the Women’s Swimming & Diving team. The women are facing intentional sex discrimination NOW, and Cal Poly’s promise to close a 39.95% gap for women’s athletic opportunities, equating to 141 female athletes at some future date, will not suffice.
Fourth, we ask Cal Poly to address the retaliation and the other types of financial and emotional harms that are at issue.
Finally, we request that Cal Poly engage with us to avoid unnecessary and costly legal proceedings or potential withdrawal of federal funds by the Department of Education. As I tell my students, courts determine the facts and the law in a given dispute. Here, both are crystal clear; a court of law is a wasteful use of your resources.
Respectfully,
Nancy Hogshead
Leigh Ernst Friedstedt
Full Champion Women Letter; Stephen F. Austin Court Order; Trump Executive Order
