As both the men’s and women’s California Baptist University (CBU) basketball teams prepare for March Madness, supporters of three discontinued men’s sports programs continued their push for the university to change course.
An organization focused on reforming federal gender equity rules announced during a Tuesday press conference in front of CBU that it had filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of the three programs.
“We ask the administration to help us today,” Eric Pearson, the chairman of the American Sports Council, said. “If you work with us, and change the regulations so they’re more fair and reasonable, you will save these three teams here.”
Earlier this year, the university announced it would discontinue three men’s athletic programs: swimming and diving, wrestling and golf.
Micah Parker, CBU vice president for athletics, said in a statement that the cuts were necessary as the university looked to invest in other programs. The school’s website added that Title IX, a federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools, was among the reasons why the administration chose to cut the programs. CBU has not elaborated further on how Title IX played a role in the university’s decision.
However, Nolan Kistler, a local attorney leading the group opposed to the decision, previously told The Riverside Record he believed the university cut the three men’s teams to comply with a section of the equity law that mandated a proportional participation rate between men’s and women’s teams.
“The options were to reduce three programs, men’s programs, or add four new women’s programs,” Kistler told The Record earlier this year. “They chose a very defeatist mindset.”
Pearson told The Record that the organization — with this petition — asked the country’s education department to repeal the policy within the law that mandated a proportional participation rate between men’s and women’s teams based on enrollment.
The policy has created more opportunity for women athletes since its implementation, but Pearson said it had also incentivized universities to discriminate against male athletes like the three cut men’s programs.
Shiwali Patel, the senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center, said that the policy actually provides schools three different ways to show compliance. The first is what Kistler and Pearson referred to: substantial proportionality.
Stay up to date with the latest from The Record. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter today!
Patel said this ensures that the number of spots on teams was roughly proportional to the percentage of female and male students enrolled at the school. However, she said, there were two other ways the school could meet the requirement, including demonstrating a record of increasing opportunities for the underrepresented sex or proving that the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex were fully met, even if there wasn’t a 50/50 split of teams or athletes.
“This guidance has been critical, and it’s been used for decades, and it’s been reaffirmed over the years by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and it has led to a lot of progress,” Patel said in an interview with The Record. “And I think rescinding it may give some schools what they want, which is to not have to comply and not have to take action to ensure that women and girls participation in sports is protected.”
Elizabeth Kristen, legal director for the California Women’s Law Center, went a step further in her critiques of the American Sports Council’s filing, saying in an interview with The Record that the argument “really misses the mark.”
“I think what they miss is the bigger perspective, which is that men are still today advantaged in college and certainly in high school athletics,” she said. “Men and boys have more athletic opportunities than girls and women.”
As for what could happen if the case prevails in court and the current interpretation is overruled, Kristen said that there was a potential that courts would still use the three-prong test as a “reasonable way” to interpret the law. She said she could also see Title IX cases being filed at the state level, since a number of states have similar laws on the books.
Pearson said he did not have a timeline for when the organization would hear back from the U.S. Department of Education, adding that if it ultimately rejected the petition, then the group can appeal that decision in federal court.
“We feel the climate is right for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up our case and resolve what are now different views on proportionality,” Pearson said.
Kristen called Pearson’s view a “pretty cynical approach to this really fundamental civil rights law,” that also has widespread support for the opportunities it has created.
“If we start to see women and girls sports cut in greater numbers under what is potentially an outcome of this petition, we may just see a popular backlash,” she said. “Because I do think [women’s sports] is an area where…interest is growing and developing, and I think it’s going to be really seen as tone deaf to suggest that women’s sports are somehow being advantaged over men’s sports.”
CBU did not immediately respond to The Record’s request for comment.
The Riverside Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet providing Riverside County with high-quality journalism free of charge. We’re able to do this because of the generous donations of supporters like you!