Female athletes reach accord with Stanford
After suing Stanford over its now-abandoned plans to eliminate five women’s sports teams, a group of female athletes said Friday they had settled their case with a commitment by the university to promote gender equity in athletics, on subjects ranging from scheduling and equipment to coaches’ pay and athletic scholarships.
Stanford announced in July 2020 that it would be dropping 11 of its 36 varsity sports programs at the end of the 2020-21 school year because of financial concerns. They included women’s teams in fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, squash and synchronized swimming.
In a lawsuit filed in May, women on those teams said the cancellations violated Title IX, the law prohibiting gender discrimination by schools and other institutions receiving federal funding. They said women totaled 50.9% of Stanford’s undergraduates but fewer than half of its varsity athletes, and the gap would widen if the sports were eliminated.
Facing that suit and another accusing the
university of deceiving incoming student-athletes, Stanford announced six days later that its financial outlook had improved and it would retain the 11 teams. The women maintained their suit, however, before announcing Friday’s settlement.
In a joint statement, the athletes and the university said Stanford was committed to fully complying with the federal law’s requirement of equal treatment by the 2023-24 school year. They said Stanford’s Title IX coordinator,
Stephen Chen, a former Justice Department civil rights attorney, would spend the next year developing plans for equity in numerous activities related to athletic competition.
They include, for example, opportunities to participate; athletic scholarships and travel allowances; scheduling of games and practices; housing; coaches’ salaries; and publicity. Stanford will consult with students and sports coaches, invite online comments, and publish its plans by October 2022, the statement said.
“Our goal is gender equity in all aspects of Stanford athletics and we’re looking forward to working together to achieve that,” said Liana Keesing, co-captain of the fencing team and a plaintiff in the suit.
“We were able to work together to come up with a process that will really engage the Stanford athlete community,” said the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Rebecca Peterson-Fisher.