Iowa Athletics faces Title IX lawsuit

Iowa settled a Title IX noncompliance lawsuit with four former Hawkeye women’s swimmers — Sage Ohlensehlen, Kelsey Drake, Christina Kaufman, and Alexa Puccini — in September 2021.

The four athletes brought the lawsuit against the UI in September 2020 after the athletic department announced that it would cut men’s and women’s swimming, men’s tennis, and men’s gymnastics after the 2021-22 academic year.

“It was hard to see all the sports [cut], men’s or women’s, didn’t matter to me,” Burke said. “It’s just that that was such an, still is, a really difficult financial burden that we had to deal with. Nobody wanted to do it. The athletic director didn’t want to do it. But sometimes we have to make decisions that are best for the good of the order.”

The former Hawkeye women’s swimmers alleged the university did not have equal opportunities for female athletes compared to its student population — a pillar of Title IX. The lawsuit said that women make up 53.56 percent of the population, they only received 50.77 percent of athletic opportunities dating back to the 2018-19 academic year.

“I’ve always tried to say we make the best decisions we can make with the best information that we have at the time,” Burke said. “I’m very confident in what we’re doing on behalf of our women’s sport programs. I believe that we’ve been in compliance, it’s our intention to be in compliance. And I focus a lot on the opportunities that we provide.”

A federal judge temporarily reinstated the women’s swimming program on Dec. 22, 2020. The university officially reinstated the women’s swimming program in February 2021. The men’s swimming, tennis, and gymnastics programs were still discontinued, however.

The women’s swimmers and the UI settled for a monetary sum of $400,000, including $307,000 in attorney fees and $92,000 in litigation costs. Iowa will need to keep women’s swimming as a varsity sport for at least seven years.

Additionally, Iowa will be required to enforce a roster cap on the rowing roster. The lawsuit alleged that the athletic department was stashing female athletes on its rowing team to stay in compliance with Title IX. In 2014, there were 89 student-athletes on the Hawkeye rowing roster, while the NCAA average was 64. The UI agreed to a rolling three-year roster cap of 75.

The settlement also mandated that the university had to add a new women’s sport. Iowa chose to become the first Division I Power Five school to sanction women’s wrestling as a varsity sport, announcing the addition on Sept. 23, 2021. The women’s wrestling program will start team competition in 2022-23.

“This is a huge victory,” Ohlensehlen told The Daily Iowan in September 2021. “I think the thing that’s very important to remember is that Iowa is adding this wrestling program because of the lawsuit. The lawsuit is the catalyst for this program being added. I’m so happy that Iowa is taking these steps for equality, and I’m hoping that this case will set a precedent for all other schools. I think it’s about time that every school out there, every Division I-qualified school, should really take a look at their rosters and make sure that they are offering equal amounts of opportunities to both men and women.”

Ohlensehlen, a law school student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, led the push for the lawsuit while she was still a student at Iowa. Although she faced criticism from her Hawkeye peers, she said she’s proud of the end result.

“The fact that I’m able to close this chapter of my life, knowing that I did something that’s going to make a difference in 70 young women’s lives a year, that’s amazing,” Ohlensehlen said. “Because they have 35 wrestlers and 35 swimmers and divers that are going to be able to compete as D1 athletes every single year.

“That is the coolest thing. And I consider that to be my greatest achievement in my whole life.”