Litigation Update in St. Cloud State Athletics Case

On Monday a federal court ruled on various preliminary motions aimed to limit the scope of ongoing litigation against Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota, which was sued by female athletes over its decision to eliminate two women’s teams in 2016.  The plaintiffs claim that even though the university cut four men’s teams at the same time, the elimination of women’s tennis and nordic skiing violate Title IX because the university failed and continues to fail to provide athletic opportunities in proportion to women’s enrollment.  Though Title IX provides alternatives to proportionality compliance, neither of them is satisfied when a university cuts viable teams of the underrepresented sex.  The lawsuit also challenges inequitable distribution of scholarship dollars and access to facilities and equipment.

One issue that the court addressed this week was the plaintiffs’ decision to pursue this litigation as a class action. The class action is an important litigation strategy to plaintiffs in Title IX athletics cases because without it, lawsuits are vulnerable to dismissal for lack of standing after the plaintiffs graduate.  Here, the court agreed to certify the class over some objections by the university, but it did modify the description of the class to ensure it wasn’t overly broad. Now, the class of plaintiffs include “all present, prospective, and future students at Saint Cloud State who are harmed by and want to end sex discrimination in the allocation of athletic opportunities, the allocation of athletic financial assistance, and the allocation of benefits provided to varsity athletes.” The italicized language was added by the court, which used as a model a similarly-defined class that was certified in the Quinnipiac case.  

More significantly, the court narrowed the scope of the plaintiff’s case by granting the university’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims for money damages arising from the alleged discrimination in the allocation of athletic scholarships. Title IX is a spending clause statute, expressly requiring that universities refrain from sex discrimination as a condition for federal funding. Though the Court has permitted private lawsuits to seek money damages from institutions that violate Title IX, the plaintiffs in such cases must prove that the institution engaged in intentional discrimination.  Decisions that reflect official university policy are intentional, as are unofficial decisions that the university fails to remedy despite being on notice of the fact that they are discriminatory. Here, the court agreed with Saint Cloud State that the university’s allocation of athletic scholarships was not official university policy; nor did university officials have notice of the fact that the harm to plaintiffs resulting from the alleged discriminatory allocation.  This conclusion, which the court supports by citing a 2001 Eighth Circuit decision called Grandson v. University of Minnesota, is concerning to me (and I’ve criticized its application in other cases as well.). An athletic department is strategic and intentional about how many scholarships to offer. In this case especially, the plaintiffs allege that the disparity in scholarships results from the athletic department’s decision to include too few women’s sports in the tiers that receive full scholarship support.  The decision to tier one’s athletic offerings is surely an official decision, isn’t it? 

The court also granted the university’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ Equal Protection claim on the grounds that the state has not waived its sovereign immunity to be sued for violations of the 14^th Amendment.

Lastly, the court addressed the scope of testimony of the plaintiff’s expert witness, Dr. Donna Lopiano. Lopiano, a former athletic director and advocate who currently serves as gender equity consultant. Here, the court agreed with the university’s argument that the law prohibits expert witnesses to testify about legal requirements or to provide legal conclusions.  Yet, the court ruled that Dr. Lopiano is permitted to testify about her own findings about the university’s compliance with equal opportunity, equal treatment, and scholarship provisions of Title IX, as well as Title IX compliance at other institutions. 

Portz v. St. Cloud State Univ., 2018 WL 1050405 (D. Minn. Feb. 26, 2018).

Throwback Thursday: Cutting women's teams

This is not really a throwback Thursday, but it feels oddly nostalgic to write about Title IX and the cutting of women's sports teams. Not in a good way, of course. Cutting teams is always a difficult process, but it has not been nearly as much of a Title IX issue recently. But as the recent announcement from St Cloud State University (Minnesota) shows us, cutting women's teams is not a thing of the past.

Five members of the women's tennis team at St. Cloud have filed a Title IX lawsuit against their university. The team is one of six that has been cut from the list of varsity intercollegiate sports in an effort to deal with budget shortfalls.

The university currently provides just under 120 more opportunities for men to play sports. The undergraduate student enrollment is nearly 50/50 men/women. This does not automatically mean they have been out of compliance; they could have been expanding opportunities for women or sufficiently meeting the interests and abilities of the female undergraduate population in terms of sports and opportunities provided.

It does mean, however, that with the cuts they must--post cuts--be adhering to prong one, in which the athletic opportunities provided reflects the male/female ratio in the undergraduate population. In other words, next fall there should be equal athletic opportunities for men and women at St. Cloud.

The numbers will surely be in dispute at pre-trial hearings and a trial, if it gets there. Here is what my basic math revealed:
Men are losing, based on the cuts alone, 92 spots (tennis and all track programs), bringing the total opportunities to 226. Women are losing 24 spots (tennis and skiing) bringing their opportunities to 178.

The asterisks on these numbers include the following:
1. As in any of these calculations, the numbers can change. The number of undergraduates enrolled, especially.
2. Specific to this case, the university, when making the announcement two months ago, said it was going to reduce the number of roster spots on 7 teams and increase spots on 6 others. I do not know exactly  where these additions and subtractions will occur or if it will be a zero sum game.

The university has said it will increase the roster for women's track to 90 from 60. The data I was using, though, said women's track was at 73 members, not 60. But if we add 30 to the reduced opportunities, it brings the number for women to 208. Lawyers for the tennis players (one of whom is also representing former Duluth hockey coach Shannon Miller) do not like this solution. They feel the university is using this to count the same athlete as many as three times (cross country, indoor track, outdoor track) and not really increasing opportunities.

Even if this is not legally wrong, I expect the university will have to respond to questions about this plan, and reveal their other plans sooner rather than later, i.e., when they go to court next month to deal with the request for an injunction.
  
Because, yes, the women have asked for a temporary injunction against the cuts that affect the opportunities for female athletes until the legal issues are resolved. That request will be heard on June 3. They are also seeking class action status.

It is possible that the university's intention to reduce spots on the football and baseball team along with increasing the numbers on the track team will bring them into proportion.The question remains though whether they can so drastically increase the women's track team. We have seen some sketchy roster management around women's track. Even if the lawsuit is not successful because the university has a plan for proportionality, they will certainly be on notice that they have to effectively and legally execute that plan.

One final thought: as I read the articles about the lawsuit I got the impression that these cuts were the proverbial final straw for many female athletes who feel the athletic department has not been treating them equitably. The cuts may have felt like such a tangible and actionable move, and some women are using the opportunity to illustrate the inequities. But even if the university brings itself into compliance with the quantity of opportunities, they may not be providing a similar quality to women. I sense quality is also an issue at St. Cloud. If it is, a complaint filed with OCR might be worth it to address the inequities other female athletes may be experiencing.