Connecticut Sports Law received an insightful comment to the post “Quinnipiac Volleyball Players Testify in Title IX Lawsuit” that is worth sharing. The comment, from Kristine Newhall, contributor to the Title IX blog, goes beyond an explanation of the Title IX factors and applies them to Quinnipiac. Here is an excerpt:
[T]he three-prong test only requires schools to meet one of the three standards in just one of the areas Title IX covers (opportunities). QU has, by eliminating volleyball, automatically made itself noncompliant with prongs two and three. It cannot show a history of expansion when it just cut a women’s team. And it cannot prove it is meeting the interests and abilities of its female students where there are clearly women on campus who can and do want to play volleyball. And last I checked the numbers, they were not near proportionality.
As for the addition of cheerleading, well it’s not a sport sanctioned by the NCAA; it does not have a national championship (governed by the NCAA). I believe this is the angle the ACLU will take if pressed about the addition of cheerleading. It is hard to justify cutting a sport like volleyball in favor of an activity OCR generally considers to be an extracurricular activity and that the NCAA does not even have on its list of emerging sports.
My sincere thanks to Kristine for sharing her expertise with all of us. As the Quinnipiac Title IX lawsuit continues, be sure to check out the Title IX blog for expert analysis and insight.
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