Assumption College women's track and field team members were prepared to go the distance against sex discrimination in a Title IX lawsuit. Photo by Richard Orr.

Assumption College of Worcester, Massachusetts has agreed to reinstate both its men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams to avoid a sex discrimination lawsuit threatened by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ). In a demand letter dated May 10, 2005, TLPJ charged that the school’s decision to eliminate the women’s teams violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination by educational institutions receiving federal funds. The school has now confirmed that it will reinstate the teams.
   “This is a great win for the athletes at Assumption College and everyone who cares about gender equity in sports,” said TLPJ’s Leslie A. Brueckner, who represented the team along with Sharon F. McKee and William T. Hangley of Philadelphia’s Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin. “We are delighted that the school has agreed to immediate reinstatement of the teams. We were confident that we were right on the law, and the school apparently agreed.”
   In its demand letter, TLPJ explained that Assumption’s decision to cut the women’s track and field teams violated Title IX’s three-part test for determining whether a university has provided “equal opportunities” for members of both sexes to participate in sports. The letter stated that Assumption failed the test because (1) women students at Assumption comprise almost 61 percent of the student body but are offered less than 44 percent of the athletic opportunities; (2) the school has not demonstrated a “history and continuing practice” of expanding its women’s sports program over time because, with the exception of women’s track and field, it has not added a women’s team for almost a decade and then, adding insult to injury, decided to cut existing women’s teams; and (3) the school cannot claim that it is fully satisfying all existing female interest in sports because it cut two viable women’s teams that were ready, willing, and able to compete.
   “Unless we are able to resolve the team members’ claims without the need for litigation,” TLPJ’s letter concluded, “we are prepared to file suit.” 
   TLPJ has successfully sued several schools, including Brown University, the University of Bridgeport at Connecticut, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and West Chester University, for illegally discriminating against women in athletics.
   Assumption announced its decision to cut the women’s track and field teams in January 2005, citing budgetary concerns. School officials stated that Assumption could no longer afford to maintain the teams, despite plans to open a new $3.2 million multi-sport stadium in Fall 2005. This decision shocked the team members, who were anticipating a full competitive season in 2005-06. At the same time, Assumption announced that it had decided to cut men’s track and field as well, also citing budgetary reasons. In its letter, TLPJ advised Assumption that the simultaneous elimination of the men’s teams did not provide any defense under Title IX because the school remained in violation of the three-part test for Title IX compliance. Three weeks after receiving TLPJ’s letter, Assumption officials announced their decision to reinstate both the men’s and women’s track teams as fully-funded varsity sports. 
   “We are pleased that the school has agreed to reinstate both the men’s and women’s teams,” said Sharon McKee of Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin, co-counsel for the team. “Although Title IX only protects the ‘underrepresented gender’– in this case, the women athletes at Assumption – the school’s decision to reinstate all the teams is a terrific result for all concerned. We hope that Assumption will now turn its attention to creating even more participation opportunities for women.”
   “I’m thrilled that the teams have been reinstated,” said team member Amie Nolan, who will be returning to Assumption as a junior next year. “For months, we have been urging the school to reinstate the teams, yet the administration has refused. I am happy and relieved that the school has finally agreed to do the right thing.”
   In addition to Brueckner, McKee, and Hangley, the plaintiffs’ legal team includes Rebecca Starr of Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin. The demand letter is posted on TLPJ’s web site, www.tlpj.org. The school has also been contacted by, and is in discussions with, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights about its treatment of women athletes.
   Trial Lawyers for Public Justice is the only public interest law firm dedicated to using trial lawyers’ skills and resources to advance the public good. Founded in 1982, TLPJ utilizes a network of more than 3,000 of the nation’s outstanding trial lawyers to pursue precedent-setting and socially significant litigation. TLPJ has a wide-ranging litigation docket in the areas of consumer rights, worker safety, civil rights and liberties, toxic torts, environmental protection, and access to the courts. TLPJ is the principal project of The TLPJ Foundation, a not-for-profit membership organization headquartered in Washington, DC, with a West Coast office in Oakland, California. The TLPJ web site address is www.tlpj.org. TLPJ’s Massachusetts State Coordinator is Robert J. Bonsignore, tel. (781) 391-9400.