UConn women’s rowing alumni file complaint
Title IX action against university to reinstate program cut last year
Twenty-three UConn rowing alumni filed a Title IX complaint with the Office of Civil Rights against the University of Connecticut Monday night after university said that the team would be eliminated as part of budget cuts in the athletic department.
“It felt like there was a real injustice and there is systemic sexism in sports,” said Dana Haddad of Providence, R.I., whorowed for UConn from 2008-10 and was one of the alumni who filed the complaint. “For me, it was an opportunity to stand up and say, ‘This isn’t right.’ It felt like the most impact I could have as an alumni.”
The school cut the team June 24, 2020, along with men’s swimming and diving, men’s cross country and men’s tennis to reduce expenses. The number of scholarships in golf and men’s track and field were also cut. The reductions were expected to meet a goal of trimming $10 million from the athletic program’s budget.
A UConn spokesperson said the school had not been served with a complaint and therefore couldn’t address it.
“The decision to eliminate four Division I Athletic Teams, including Women’s Rowing, was painful and not made lightly,” university spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said in an email. “However, it was clear that the University had no choice but to eliminate teams in order to preserve the long-term viability of
the athletics program.
“UConn used its best efforts to eliminate the fewest possible teams in the review, which included a careful analysis of Title IX compliance. While the University certainly understands and appreciates the disappointment of those who supported the Women’s Rowing Team, we are confident that our actions in regard to that team and the other three eliminated teams were consistent with the University’s obligations under Title IX.”
In order to fulfill Title IX requirements, women’s rowing andwomen’s lacrosse were added in 1998 when UConn’s football program upgraded to Division I-A or FBS status. Title IX, enacted in 1972, is a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities that receive federal funding.
Nearly 8,000 people have signed a petition to keep the rowing program alive on the Division I level. OnMarch 26, a group of UConn women’s soccer alumni sent a letter to the university requesting the reinstatement of all the programs cut.
“I am hopeful there’s a potential for the program to be reinstated because I think it has such powerful ramifications throughout the student body and the community and the state of Connecticut of being able to produce amazing women, strong student-athletes who are going to be strong professionals,” said Ashley Kalinauskas of Vernon, who rowed between 2008-11 and is also part of the complaiEvery year, each school is required to report its roster numbers, coaching staff numbers and salaries and revenue expenses for The Equity in Athletics Data Analysis, or EADA.
The complaint centers on discrepancies within the participation numbers and that the ratio is out of compliance with Title IX.
“We’ve been talking to Title IX experts,” Haddad said. “What the majority of [the complaint] talks about is that the EADA numbers are not accurately reported, partly because they’re reported on the first day of competition. That doesn’t take into consideration athletes who were cut or added after that date.”
According to EADA numbers, UConn had a disparity of 11 less female participation slots for the 2018-19 season, 387 women to 398 men.
Part of Title IX compliance states that male to female participation rates must mirror the male to female student population — UConn had a male undergraduate population of 8,998 (48.9% of the total school population) and 9,399 female undergraduate population (51.1%) but its athletic population was 49.3% female and 50.7% male.
The women’s rowing team was allowed to compete this season. The team and the alumni now must wait for the OCR to investigate the complaint and issue its findings in a report.