On Dec. 1, 2023, 32 female student-athletes filed a class-action lawsuit against the University of Oregon (UO). The plaintiffs are made up of 32 women: 26 beach volleyball players and six members of the rowing team. The complaint — which spans more than 100 pages — claims that UO discriminates against their female sports teams because of their gender. This would be a violation of Title IX law, which states that no person should be subjected to discrimination on the basis of sex.
A press release published by the plaintiffs’ legal team states that UO is “depriving women of equal treatment and benefits, equal athletic aid, and equal opportunities to participate in varsity intercollegiate athletics, [which is] in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.” UO published a statement in response, claiming, “The University believes it complies with Title IX.” They later elaborated that they are actively reviewing the complaint.
The complaint highlights a contrast between the men’s football team — who have their own movie theater, access to medical professionals and trainers, and more — to the lack of resources, opportunities, and funding given to female athletes. The complaint directly addresses an alleged imbalance regarding equipment, as “members of the men’s football team have exclusive access to an equipment room where players can receive an unlimited supply of extra equipment or gear upon request.” Beach volleyball players, on the other hand, “have to purchase their own sand socks, shorts, pants, sports bras, winter jackets, and additional practice shirts because [they] are not given enough gear to cover each day of practice in a week.”
As the complaint states, “The [discrepancies between the] football and beach volleyball teams are just the most glaring examples of the far superior treatment that Oregon provides to its male student-athletes program-wide. [UO’s] own financial numbers show the bottom line.” As expanded on in statistics from the plaintiffs’ legal team’s press release,“According to its Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act numbers, verified by Oregon as accurate to the federal government, women are 49% of the student-athletes, but UO spends only 25% of its athletics dollars and 15% of its recruiting dollars on them.”
One primary complaint from the plaintiffs is that the beach volleyball team, which has been a varsity sport for a decade, has yet to be given their own facility. They instead hold practices in a public park. In this park the bathrooms are often locked due to drug usage issues.
In addition, despite UO needing to add 94 female varsity teams to reach gender parity in sports, the rowing team says the school refuses to let them exist as a varsity sport. This makes them ineligible to compete in the PAC-12 championships which is exclusive to varsity sports at UO, even after requesting. Title IX declares the need for equal opportunities for men and women to compete in sports; however, plaintiffs on the rowing team are claiming that UO does not provide opportunity to their female-athlete rowers based on not allowing for it to be a varsity sport. After plaintiffs filed their complaint against the University, a waiting period began while the defense reviewed the complaint. Their response was due Dec. 29; however, because of the alignment with winter break, they requested and were granted an extension of time. Arthur Bryant, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs who specializes in Title IX law, has had significant experience with cases like these and predicted this action from the defense before it occurred. Due to this extension, the defense has currently only shared their public statement and has declined to share more information at this time.
The defense’s statement responded to the volleyball team’s claims of inequality, stating, “For beach volleyball, in addition to all other benefits, UO has already previously committed to increasing scholarships and to building a beach volleyball facility on campus at a site identified via the Campus Planning process. This site planning process began in 2019 and the project is now in the development phase.”
In July, 2023, the Oregonian published an investigative report titled “Oregon Ducks beach volleyball players detail disparate treatment that experts say could violate Title IX.” This article was written three months before the class-action lawsuit was filed. The complaint references this article as providing further reasoning for the plaintiffs.
Byrant, while describing the importance of this case, says, “the message that it’s giving to all of the student-athletes and non-athletes is women are not as important to the men.”
UO rower Elise Haverland is one of the lead plaintiffs in the case. She says she never expected to be going into this year amidst a lawsuit against the school. “We just want to be treated equally. You know, we aren’t asking for a leg up over the mens programs. We are asking for something that we should have been given in the first place, just like equal opportunities and equal treatment.”
