On March 19th, the Trump administration announced it was freezing $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania because of the school’s failure to ban men from competing in women’s sports.
This follows an investigation launched on February 6th into alleged Title IX violations in allowing graduate Will “Lia” Thomas (Penn ‘22) to compete on Penn’s women’s swimming and diving team during the 2021-2022 season.
In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, a senior White House official said that the funding freeze was an “immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams to universities” and was not tied to the ongoing Title IX investigation, but that the decision to cut funding was ultimately because Penn “infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team.”
Long-time supporters of Women’s Declaration International USA may recall that in February 2022, then-president Kara Dansky (Penn Law ‘99) and Keep Prisons Single Sex USA director Amanda Stulman wrote to Penn officials, alleging the very Title IX violations now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education.
While we encourage you to read the letter in its entirety, we especially want to draw your attention to its conclusion:
“Should there be any future litigation on this matter, the news reports, including the one cited here, should be sufficient to have put the University of Pennsylvania on notice that there were reports of multiple female students being subject to harassment and sexual misconduct while engaged in a sanctioned student activity. According to your own policy, you are obligated to investigate this. You know the names of these female students. You know there are reports that they fear retaliation. For this reason, the initiation of any investigation and remedial action should not require a report directly to you by one of these impacted students.
We thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to your taking steps to ensure University of Pennsylvania’s female athletes receive all the rights and protections they are entitled to under Pennsylvania’s criminal code, Title IX, and University Policy.”
Penn declined to reply.
We have sympathy for Penn students and faculty whose future at the University is now uncertain due to funding cuts. However, we do want to note that the funding cuts were entirely predictable and preventable.
Penn knew, both from anonymous reports by their own female athletes and from our February 2022 letter, that they were likely in violation of Title IX, yet they refused to change course, instead continuing to subject their female athletes to indecent exposure and unfair competition.
Now it has cost them $175 million – so far.
“Where are the feminists?!” some ask. We’ve been here for years, sounding the alarm. Perhaps now, more people will listen.
