After the Department of Education issued three demands with a May 8 deadline for violations of Title IX, Penn quietly submitted its response “on time,” according to a University spokesperson. But a week later, both Penn and the federal government have remained silent, leaving it unclear how — or if — the University complied.
On April 28, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights found Penn in violation of Title IX after the University allowed 2022 College graduate and transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete for the University’s women’s swimming and diving team during the 2021-22 season. The federal agency issued three demands to Penn: Release a statement affirming compliance with Title IX, restore accolades “misappropriated” by transgender athletes to female athletes, and send individual apology letters to the affected athletes.
During a May 8 appearance on the conservative news show “The Mandate,” White House senior policy strategist May Mailman said that Penn waited “until the end” to respond to the federal government’s demands. She added that, with a “a lot of money” already frozen, requesting additional time would be “harmful” to the University.
Mailman noted that Penn did not follow in the footsteps of Harvard University and “immediately” push back against the government’s findings.
In a previous appearance on Fox News, Mailman warned that if Penn fails to comply with the OCR’s demands, it will not be “entitled to federal funding.” Penn also risks referral to the Department of Justice for “enforcement proceedings,” according to the Education Department’s April 28 announcement.
Requests for comment were left with the White House and the Education Department
Thomas’ titles and records — including an NCAA championship win, two individual Ivy League records, three individual Ivy League titles, and three individual program records — are at risk of reallocation or elimination from the record books if the University fulfills the Education Department’s demands.
At the time of publication, all program records set by Thomas while representing Penn are still listed in the University record book.
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The Education Department also demanded that Penn issue letters to each athlete with restored recognition. The agency described the letters as an “apology on behalf of the University for allowing her educational experience in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination.”
Penn’s reply comes after the University’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit — filed on Feb. 4 by three former Penn swimmers — that alleged Title IX violations after Thomas was allowed to compete for Penn women’s swimming and diving in the 2022 Ivy League championships.
On March 19, the White House announced that the administration would freeze more than $175 million in federal funding to Penn, citing the University’s alleged failure to comply with an executive order barring transgender athletes from women’s sports and promising to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.”
At the time of the funding freeze, a senior White House official wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian that the change was not a result of the Title IX investigation into Penn but rather an “immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams to … universities.”
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Finn Ryan is a News Editor at The Daily Pennsylvanian and can be reached at ryan@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies English and political science. Follow him on X @FinnRyan_.
