Court gives final approval to Brown settlement in Title IX lawsuit

A FEDERAL COURT has granted final approval to a settlement agreement between Brown University and attorneys for student-athletes who challenged the Ivy League school’s decision to reduce several women’s varsity sports teams to club status. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE – A federal court has granted final approval to a settlement agreement related to gender equality in Brown University’s athletics programs, the American Civil Liberties of Rhode Island announced on Tuesday.

The agreement is in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Public Justice following the university’s decision to reduce several women’s varsity sports teams to club status. The lawsuit claimed that Brown had violated a 1998 consent agreement that the university entered to comply with Title IX.

That consent agreement presented a “significant obstacle” to Brown because it established unique reporting requirements not faced by any other U.S. college or university, the school said in a statement in September. The school had also repeatedly denied violating the terms of the agreement.

As part of the settlement agreement finalized Tuesday, Brown will reinstate its women’s varsity equestrian team and women’s fencing varsity team. The university would also have to restore two women’s teams to varsity status for any men’s team restored to varsity status in that time, except for the previously restored men’s track and field and cross country. The university will also not be able to reduce the status or eliminate any women’s varsity team for the remainder of the joint agreement, which concludes on Aug. 31, 2024.

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The university will also be required to maintain at least the same level of support for each varsity women’s team it restores to varsity status that the team received before it was transitioned to club status.

“Through the sustained and exhaustive efforts of the women athletes at Brown and our litigation team, we have successfully concluded a settlement … which restores many of the athletic opportunities for women whose programs were cut by Brown’s 2020 restructuring of its varsity program and ensures that Brown will make no further cuts for at least the next four years,” said ACLU cooperating attorney Lynette Labinger. “While we wish we could have convinced Brown to restore all five teams, we were able to hammer out an agreement that has restored at least two and will hold the line against any more cuts for the next four years, after which Brown will continue to be obliged to comply in full with Title IX’s requirements. These are valuable benefits for our women athletes in the face of a growing national trend to shrink college sports programs across the country.”

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