Latest news with #TitleIX
Al Arabiya
7 hours ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
ULM Drops Women's Tennis Amid Athletic Department Financial Constraints
The women's tennis program at Louisiana-Monroe has been disbanded because of financial constraints at the university's athletic department. Athletics Director John Hartwell announced this week that the decision stemmed from increased operational and infrastructure costs and will help ULM athletics to continue progress toward balancing its budget while maintaining an NCAA-required minimum of 16 NCAA Division I sports. The move comes after NCAA rule changes, which take effect this fall, eliminated scholarship limits on specific sports. The scholarship caps are replaced with roster limits, and schools now may fund scholarships for every roster spot–as long as they maintain equal scholarship opportunities for men and women as required under Title IX. As women's tennis athletes graduate or transfer from ULM, scholarship funds that had been dedicated to them will be redirected to other remaining women's sports teams at the university, Hartwell's announcement said. While the number of women's athletic scholarships funded by ULM won't change, its athletic department will save on all other expenses–from coaches' salaries to travel, equipment, and facility costs–associated with the tennis program. The university did not offer specific estimates on what those savings might be. 'Discontinuing a sport is never an easy decision, nor one that we take lightly,' Hartwell said. 'We know this is tough for our student-athletes and our coaches who have poured so much into our tennis program.' Hartwell said ULM will honor the scholarships of those who want to complete their degrees without transferring elsewhere. He said his administration also will help those tennis players who want to continue to compete to pursue opportunities at other schools. 'We will prioritize as smooth a transition as possible for our student-athletes,' Hartwell said.
Hindustan Times
8 hours ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
ULM drops women's tennis amid athletic department financial constraints
MONROE, La. — The women's tennis program at Louisiana-Monroe has been disbanded because of financial constraints at the university's athletic department. HT Image Athletics Director John Hartwell announced this week that the decision stemmed from 'increased operational and infrastructure costs' and will help ULM athletics 'to continue progress towards balancing its budget' while maintaining an NCAA-required minimum of 16 NCAA Division I sports. The move comes after NCAA rule changes, which take effect this fall, eliminated scholarship limits on specific sports. The scholarship caps are replaced with roster limits, and schools now may fund scholarships for every roster spot — as long as they maintain equal scholarship opportunities for men and women as required under Title IX. As women's tennis athletes graduate or transfer from ULM, scholarship funds that had been dedicated to them will be redirected to other remaining women's sports teams at the university, Hartwell's announcement said. While the number of women's athletic scholarships funded by ULM won't change, its athletic department will save on all other expenses — from coaches' salaries to travel, equipment and facility costs — associated with the tennis program. The university did not offer specific estimates on what those savings might be. 'Discontinuing a sport is never an easy decision, nor one that we take lightly,' Hartwell said. 'We know this is tough for our student-athletes and our coaches, who have poured so much into our tennis program." Hartwell said ULM will honor the scholarships of those who want to complete their degrees without transferring elsewhere. He said his administration also will help those tennis players who want to continue to compete to pursue opportunities at other schools. 'We will prioritize as smooth a transition as possible for our student-athletes,' Hartwell said. tennis: /hub/tennis This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
CBS News
3 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Another Placer County school district passes resolution supporting Title IX
The Western Placer County School District on Tuesday passed a resolution supporting Title IX and what they call fairness in girls' sports. It's just the latest district in Placer County to do so. Title IX prevents sex-based discrimination in schools and prevents the exclusion of gender groups from classes and extracurricular programs like sports. Critics argue the language of "fairness in girls' sports" comes at the expense of transgender students. In the past few weeks, the Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District and Placer Union High School District both approved resolutions backing Title IX, specifically expressing concern about transgender girls competing against cisgender girls in sports. Carolyn Brown is a public school advocate and former teacher. While she supports the principles of Title IX, she believes the sentiment behind the resolution is exclusionary and harmful to transgender students. "Many of our school boards and our school board members have lost sight of the actual responsibilities and duties they have when they ran and were elected to a school board, and instead, they are using that platform to push political agendas," Brown said. Title IX has been put back in the spotlight after a transgender teen from Southern California recently competed in the California Interscholastic Federation track and field finals, drawing national attention and also criticism from President Trump. Sophia Lorey is a former collegiate athlete and now an advocate for California Family Council, which supports separating sports based on biological sex rather than gender identity. "We are going to watch girls lose first, second and third place spots," Lorey said. "We are going to watch girls be put at risk and watch girls have males in their locker rooms. So all of this affects the girls." Brown was at the Placer Union board meeting when that resolution was passed. She said it was "heartbreaking" to hear from board members who supported the resolution. She said that all students should feel safe, respected and valued. "Many of our school boards and our school board members have lost sight of the actual responsibilities and duties they have when they ran and were elected to a school board and instead they are using that platform to push political agendas," Brown said.
Fox News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Virginia school district accused of religious discrimination in transgender locker room case
A northern Virginia school district dropped its Title IX sexual harassment investigation into a Muslim student who allegedly complained about sharing a locker room with a biological female who identifies as transgender, while adding additional Title IX violations against two Christian students involved in the same incident, their lawyer says. The three high school students, who are sophomores at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), were placed under a Title IX investigation for "sexual harassment" after "expressing confusion and discomfort" over a transgender male student being in the boys' locker room during PE class in March, according to their attorney, Founding Freedoms Law Center legal counsel Josh Hetzler. Under LCPS policy, students are allowed to use the locker room and restrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Hetzler says the district's Title IX office notified his Muslim client that the sexual harassment allegation against him had been dismissed. However, the district refused to drop the sexual harassment allegation against his other two clients, who are Christian, and slapped them with an additional charge of "sex-based discrimination." In its dismissal letter, LCPS said that the Muslim student's alleged conduct, even if proved to be true, "would not constitute sexual harassment" as defined in its Title IX regulations. Hetzler's other two clients received a letter from LCPS on the same day informing them they were still under investigation for sexual harassment and, now, sex-based discrimination, under Title IX. While Hetzler is grateful for the dismissed probe against one of his clients, he argued all three students' cases should be dismissed. "If your reason for dismissing it against our Muslim client is that — even if proven, even if true — this would not be a Title IX violation, then it must also be true that it's not a Title IX violation for our other clients," he told Fox News Digital. "So it's just really baffling that they would do this." He accused LCPS of "clear religious discrimination" and suspects the district is backing off the probe into his Muslim client for political reasons, as the Muslim community is a "key constituency" in Loudoun County. "We find this to be outrageous, and we're pushing back," he added. If found guilty, the students could face suspension or expulsion and would have the violation on their record, Hetzler says. "Often times the process is the punishment," he added. "They shouldn't be investigated." In audio of the taped locker room incident obtained by Fox News Digital, male students can be heard asking, "Why is there a girl? I'm so uncomfortable there is a girl. A female, bro, get out of here." LCPS told Fox News Digital it was restricted legally from being able to share specifics about Title IX investigations. A spokesperson said the district was "committed to providing a safe and inclusive educational environment for all students, employees, and community members" and that its Title IX process "follows applicable federal law." The district previously pushed back on the allegations it was investigating students based on their viewpoints. "To be absolutely clear: Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) would not investigate or discipline students based on their personal opinions, thoughts, or beliefs, provided those expressions do not violate policies prohibiting hate speech, discriminatory language, threats, or other forms of harmful or disruptive conduct," LCPS said in a statement to Fox News Digital in May. "However, LCPS does investigate and may take disciplinary action when student behavior violates LCPS' Student Rights & Responsibilities Handbook for Families and Student Code of Conduct." The district's gender policy was recently challenged by Virginia's Republican Attorney General, Jason Mirayes, and is now being investigated by the Justice Department. The district was already under a Title IX investigation by the U.S. Department of Education over its gender identity policies. The Biden administration updated Title IX regulations in 2021 and 2022 to expand protections for LGBTQ+ students, interpreting the law's prohibition on sex discrimination to include gender identity and sexual orientation. Under then-President Joe Biden's interpretation, transgender students were allowed in women's sports, bathrooms, changing room facilities and in other educational programs. Soon after taking office, Trump's Department of Education notified K-12 schools that it would be reversing Biden's re-write of Title IX and enforce these protections on the basis of biological sex in schools and on campuses. Fox News' Jamie Joseph contributed to this article.
Politico
4 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
Department of Energy looks to gut sex discrimination protections for education programs, athletics
The Trump administration is seeking to rescind key civil rights protections for sex discrimination in sports and education programs through a swift regulatory process at an unlikely agency: the Department of Energy. Buried in a list of more than three dozen regulation changes published in May, the DOE is moving to rescind regulations that oversee sports participation and sex discrimination protections for students in education programs. The direct final rules align with a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year that seek to ban transgender athletes from women's sports and one that proclaimed there are only two sexes — male and female. While DOE isn't the main enforcer of Title IX, the federal education law that bars sex-based discrimination, the agency's Office of Economic Impact and Diversity monitors and enforces compliance among educational programs at institutions that receive federal funds or grants from the agency. The office has long used the law to close the gap between men and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, and the agency's Office of Civil Rights investigates sex-based discrimination. Civil rights advocates argue the agency is circumventing the traditional notice and comment rulemaking process to remove protections that have been around for decades under Title IX. They're concerned about the precedent it could set for how other agencies overhaul their civil rights enforcement guidelines, especially since more than two dozen agencies enforce Title IX. 'If this is successful, it really creates a blueprint for dismantling civil rights protections across the board while flying under the radar,' said Kel O'Hara, senior attorney for policy and education equity at Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit legal organization that aims to protect women and people of all gender identities nationwide. The Energy Department did not respond to a request for comment. How does Energy even play a role here?: DOE is using a direct final rule, a regulatory process reserved for noncontroversial rules the agency believes are unlikely to receive significant adverse comments. Patel said the process does not apply to regulations around Title IX. More than 2,100 comments have been submitted on the athletics rule and more than 8,200 comments have been submitted on the rule on education programs as of Monday afternoon. But comments submitted on the regulation have been unable to be publicly viewed. The Education Department — which is a major enforcer of the civil rights law — has seen several hotly contested Title IX rules under the Biden and first Trump administrations that drew hundreds of thousands of public comments. 'Technically, it just takes one significant adverse comment for them to have to withdraw the rule or to go through the notice of proposed rulemaking,' said Shiwali Patel, senior director of safe and inclusive schools at the National Women's Law Center, of the DOE's direct final rule. 'However, we're dealing with an administration that has made very clear that they are not about complying with the law … We've seen with this administration that they are willing to use other federal agencies to weaponize Title IX in the context of sports.' What are the changes?: DOE's direct final rule would no longer require schools to allow a student of the opposite sex to try out for a non-contact sports team if their school does not have one for their sex. For example, a school would no longer be required to allow a female athlete to try out for the men's tennis team if their school does not have a women's team, which O'Hara says is often the case in rural schools. The agency claims that the provision ignores differences between the sexes, which is a key part of the president's executive order that bars transgender students from competing in women's sports. 'This is a clear example about how the anti-trans sports ban executive order doesn't do anything to protect women and girls,' said Patel. For education programs, schools would no longer be required to take 'remedial action' or 'affirmative action' to assist students in overcoming the effects of of sex discrimination they've faced. The agency, in the regulations, said it deemed the provisions to be 'unnecessary.' What's next: The rules would take effect by July 15 unless there are significant adverse comments submitted against the regulations by Monday.
