Signed into law in 1972, Title IX is a broad-based statute prohibiting gender discrimination in all aspects of educational programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. It states: No person in the United States, shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. When it comes to athletic departments, Title IX requires they provide men and women with the equal opportunity for: 1) Participation, 2) Scholarships, and 3) Benefits and Treatment.

Title IX compliance in athletics is evaluated using a three-prong test. For a school to be in compliance with Title IX, at least one of the answers to the following must be “yes.”

Prong 1: Substantial Proportionality. Are theopportunities for males and females to participate in sports roughly the same as their respective enrollment percentages?

• In Cal Poly’s case, the answer is no. Women comprise 50.51% of the total undergraduate enrollment at Cal Poly but only about 38.45% of athletes This means Cal Poly needs to add an additional 141 more athletic opportunities for women to be compliant with Title IX.

Prong 2: Continuous Improvement. Can the school demonstrate a history and continuing practice of program expansion that is responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex?

• In Cal Poly’s case, the answer isno. When a school cuts a team, it cannot show “a history and continuing practice of program expansion for the underrepresented sex.”

Prong 3: Interests and Abilities. Can the school show that the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex are “fully and effectively” being met by the present athletic program, and there is a reasonable expectation of competition in the school’s geographic region?

• In Cal Poly’s case, the answer is no. When a school cuts a team, it is denying sports to students of the underrepresented sex who are “interested and able” to participate. There are many women on the Cal Poly Swimming and Diving Team who are both interested and able to participate.

Cal Poly fails this three-prong test and, therefore, cannot eliminate a women’s team, like they did with the Women’s Swimming and Diving Team. The law does not allow a school to cut women’s opportunities when they are already failing to give women enough.

Yes, Cal Poly should have known this. But sadly, most schools aren’t in compliance with the law. The sports participation gender gap starts early, and it continues all the way through college. While women have made enormous strides in sports since the law was passed in 1972, schools have added far more opportunities, scholarships and recruiting dollars for men in the past 15 years than women. The reason? Lack of enforcement – Despite being enacted over fifty years ago, Title IX remains widely unenforced, with an estimated 90% of colleges failing to comply due to inadequate enforcement measures.

Although Congress granted girls and women the legal right to equality in athletics, universities, high-schools, athletic associations, and the NCAA have largely failed to enforce it. In most cases, only current student-athletes are advocating for their rights – if they are even aware those right exist. When Champion Women and Equity IX addressed Cal Poly’s decision to cut Women’s Swimming & Diving, the affected student-athletes were unaware of their legal protections under Title IX.

Budgets do not excuse a university from complying with federal law.

No. First, remember “equality” is measured male/ female throughout the athletic department, not just sport-for-sport. The state and federal anti-discrimination laws don’t care what uniform a student is wearing, or whether they’re playing football or swimming. The law cares about whether the athletic program – as a whole – is providing men and women with the same opportunities to play, the same athletic scholarship budgets, and the same treatment.

This is Cal Poly’s decision, not one dictated by the law. Cutting a women’s team when you’re already discriminating against women in athletics violates federal and state laws.

Cal Poly could cut a women’s team, but only after it added new women’s teams and closed that substantial gap. That’s highly unlikely, so Cal Poly’s Women’s Swimming and Diving Program must be reinstated to even begin addressing the disparity.

No. All the same strategies are still available to the men. The women’s team’s actions do not shut off any strategy the men’s team can employ – like fundraising or other legal avenues. 

If Women’s Swimming and Diving is reinstated, it dramatically lowers the marginal cost of keeping Men’s Swimming and Diving. The teams share numerous costs, including facilities. The pool is typically one of the biggest costs for collegiate swimming and diving teams. Reinstating the women’s team benefits the whole swimming and diving community by preserving the program’s facilities and competitive environment.

There are many avenues to add the programs back, and filing a Title IX lawsuit doesn’t foreclose any of those strategies for men. They are free to and encouraged to work hard to save the Cal Poly Men’s Swimming and Diving team. In fact, Cal recently announced their Men’s Swimming and Diving and Water Polo teams received a generous $26M endowment to provide dedicated funding and lasting support for the men’s swimming and diving and water polo programs for years to come.  

Of course in an educational setting, any outside funding, whether from a donor, a sponsor, a media contract or ticket sales, cannot negate a schools’s responsibility to treat male and female athletes equally.

By standing together publicly and privately. The men’s team can use their voices to advocate for the reinstatement of the women’s team, showing solidarity. Women can recognize that the men’s team’s challenges are also real.

Unity creates pressure on the administration and shows that this is not a fight between men and women, but a fight for educational opportunities, fairness, and respect for all student-athletes.