Republican lawmakers voice support for White House leadership, Penn’s compliance

Several prominent Republican lawmakers across the country expressed their support for Penn’s resolution agreement with the Department of Education, with many applauding the federal government’s role in the negotiations.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the third-highest-ranking Republican in the United States Senate — wrote that he was “grateful that President Trump forced UPenn to apologize and end its absurd policy of allowing men to compete in women’s sports.”

He added that “Every campus should do the same and protect women’s sports.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Penn’s compliance “fantastic news.” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) also praised the Trump administration, stating that “after the Democrat Party willfully and purposefully destroyed opportunity for female athletes, President Trump is protecting women and girls sports!”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) criticized the Biden administration’s previous leadership, writing that “these athletes would never have received the justice they deserve under Biden.”

“Thankfully, they now have a president who is on their side,” she added.

The Republican-controlled House Committee on Education and the Workforce called the decision a “huge win for women and girls in sports.” Former Alabama state Sen. Phil Williams and U.S. Reps. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) and Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) similarly described the agreement as a “major win” for women’s sports, “common sense,” and America.

Reps. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) and John Rutherford (R-Fla.) both expressed their gratitude for the “historic lengths” taken by the Trump administration “to end [Penn’s] egregious violation of Title IX.”

“It’s time more colleges recognized what Americans already know: fairness in women’s sports is non-negotiable,” Owens wrote.

Faculty group condemns Penn’s ‘failure to commit’ to ideals amid Title IX resolution

The Executive Committee of Penn’s Chapter of the American Association of University Professors condemned the University’s chosen “path of political expediency at the expense of trans athletes” in a public statement following Penn’s resolution agreement with the Department of Education.

The Wednesday statement — which links to other AAUP statements and articles — characterized the University’s compliance as “a painful reminder that Penn’s administration will not adhere” to its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments.

The Executive Committee emphasized that the University’s decision contradicts the collective action of “1100 workers at Penn [who] signed a petition demanding that Penn uphold research and counter funding cuts, affirm sanctuary and legal rights of immigrants, maintain commitments to DEIA, and stand up for equal treatment for LGBTQ+ members of our community.”

“Penn makes all trans students, faculty, staff, and community members less safe, exposing them to renewed and emboldened harassment and discriminatory treatment,” the statement continues.

The Executive Committee also referenced Penn’s “failure to commit” to its motto — which translates to “Laws Without Morals are Useless.”

In the statement, the Executive Committee encouraged the Penn community “to recognize the urgency of this moment” and hold “this institution accountable to its professed ideals.”

Penn Carey Law professor says the University reached a ‘reasonable’ agreement

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor of law and philosophy Claire Finkelstein wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian that the agreement the University reached with the federal government “is a reasonable one in an environment that is becoming increasingly unreasonable for all institutions of higher learning.”

Finkelstein noted that the federal government’s current scrutiny of higher education is unique to the Trump administration.

“While other administrations have used threats to the federal funding and tax-exempt status of universities to compel their compliance with particular policy objectives, the Trump administration has raised political pressure on universities to an entirely new level,” Finkelstein wrote.

Since returning to office, President and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump has launched attacks on higher education — including cutting research and grant funding, restricting student visas, investigating specific institutions, and issuing demands to Penn and its peer institutions.

“On the question of transgender athletes, as in other areas, Penn’s best course is to follow clear federal law, such as Title IX, whenever possible, and to seek interpretive guidance on that law from relevant professional standards, such as applicable athletic rules and community standards,” Finkelstein wrote. “That is what Penn has done in entering into this agreement.”

Civil rights organizations criticize Penn’s compliance with Education Department, 'manipulation' of Title IX

National civil rights organizations have spoken out against Penn’s resolution agreement with the Department of Education.

The Human Rights Campaign condemned the Trump administration’s handling of the case, characterizing it as a politically motivated attack on LGBTQ+ youth.

“The American people deserve a White House that is laser focused on making sure every student thrives,” Brandon Wolf — the organization’s national press secretary — said in a statement to The New York Times. “Instead, this administration is obsessed with making young people’s lives harder and scapegoating transgender people so they can attack independent institutions. This country deserves better.”

Shiwali Patel — the National Women’s Law Center’s senior director of safe and inclusive schools — also issued a statement of disapproval about the agreement.

“The University of Pennsylvania’s utter failure to stand up for transgender students and the Department of Education’s continued manipulation of Title IX to harm transgender students have led to this devastating and shameful outcome,” Patel said. “The Trump administration’s attacks on civil rights protections, including Title IX, and obsession with undermining bodily autonomy is the real harm to women and girls — unlike transgender athletes who want to compete in sports alongside their peers and pose no threat to women’s sports, contrary to Trump’s lies. In fact, their inclusion benefits all women and girls.”

The NWLC has pledged their continued support of 2022 College graduate and former Penn swimmer Lia Thomas and her peers with regard to their “right to compete.”

Pa. Senator Dave McCormick praises Penn resolution over Title IX

Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) praised Penn's resolution with the Department of Education as a "long overdue step in the right direction" in a Tuesday social media post.

McCormick — who was elected to the Senate last year — has previously spoken out against transgender athletes competing according to their preferred gender identity. At a June 2024 campaign event, McCormick said "the very idea of allowing biological males to compete with biological females is fundamentally unfair" and "guts women’s sports."

He also met with 2022 Engineering graduate and former Penn swimmer Paula Scanlan at a debate last year, and described her as a “champion for defending women’s sports” who was "censored for speaking out against a man competing in her sport at UPenn" in a subsequent social media post.

Education Department official says Penn’s resolution marks end of ‘toothless’ Title IX enforcement

In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for the Department of Education Craig Trainor said he has “every confidence” that Penn will comply with the terms outlined in the resolution agreement within the 10 business day timeline. He stated that the Education Department will “work with Penn to ensure that they remain in full compliance with Title IX,” noting that the University’s “willingness to enter into this resolution agreement indicates that they intend to do that.”

“What Penn subjected Paula Scanlan, Riley Gaines, and other women to during the Biden administration years is outrageous and it was illegal. There's no question about it and they know it,” Trainor said. “That's why they came to the table under the Trump administration to make a resolution and to try to make things right. I think that's exactly the right approach for universities across the country who have been violating Title IX, title VI and other civil rights laws under the prior administration.”

As the agency continues to scrutinize higher education institutions, Trainor encouraged “universities and colleges across this country to look at what Penn did.” He emphasized that the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights will continue investigations and offer universities the opportunity to “come to the table, get ahead of this, and work with us to come into compliance with federal civil rights law” — adding that cooperation would be contingent on institutions following the terms outlined by the agency.

“Penn provides a model for institutions that want to do right by their victims, and that want to follow the law and show that they are ready to be serious and responsible and respect the anti-discrimination laws that they are required to follow if they want to continue to receive taxpayer funds,” Trainor said.

He added that the federal government made it “very clear” to Penn’s representatives that certain terms and language contained in the proposed resolution agreement were “non-negotiable.”

“We desired to bring them into full compliance with Title IX and this agreement does that,” Trainor said. “The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights represented the American people zealously. We ensured that [Penn] came into compliance with Title IX, and we ensured that the agreement had teeth. The Biden administration days of toothless resolution agreements are over, and this agreement makes that clear.”

Former Penn swimmers, lawsuit plaintiffs say University still has to take 'full accountability'

2024 College graduates Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist — who swam on Penn's women’s swimming and diving team during the 2021-22 season and were former teammates of Lia Thomas — spoke on Fox & Friends about the University’s federal settlement agreement on Wednesday morning. Both women are currently plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Penn alleging Title IX violations for the same season.

“I’m really grateful for the Trump administration and what they are doing to protect women, but there’s so much more to go,” Kaczorowski said. “They wouldn’t be doing this without the federal government forcing them, so I think we have a long way to go to make sure women’s rights are upheld and policies are in place to ensure the verification process that it’s only females in women’s sports.”

Both women said that they are thinking of future athletes, with Holmquist stating that she hopes to ensure the "situation that happened to me never happens to someone else in the future."

Kaczorowski echoed that statement and said she “would like for women’s rights to be upheld to the utmost standard and for those titles and records to come down.”

On Tuesday, 1996 College graduate and T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W'69 Director of Athletics and Recreation Alanna Wren sent out individual apology letters to former athletes “regarding the Penn Women’s Swimming 2021-22 season,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian.

When asked about whether they had received these letters, both graduates said that they had.

“While they are kind of acknowledging what went on that year, they’re really not taking full accountability the way that I wish that they would,” Kaczorowski said. "I think that they have an opportunity to hear if they’re going to accept responsibility to then work with us, work with girls who actually want to see change and ensure that women’s rights are protected going forward.”

Holmquist added that Penn was “more so passing the blame on to the NCAA” because they claimed to be “abiding the rules at that time.”

“It’s really not acknowledging the fact that that was completely wrong in the in the time of 2022,” Holmquist said. “I’m hoping that things start to change, and they take this opportunity to take full responsibility in court.”

Conservative Pennsylvania Rep. calls agreement a 'great step in the right direction'

In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Pennsylvania state Rep. Martina White (R-Philadelphia) said she “fully supports” Penn’s “positive” decision.

“Women have worked for decades to earn equal opportunity and competition, and that progress needs to be protected,” White said. “In terms of this agreement, it’s definitely a necessary step to preserving the integrity of women’s sports and for UPenn and the students on campus.”

White has been outspoken in her efforts to prevent transgender women from participating in women’s sports. She was part of a group of lawmakers who introduced a bill in Harrisburg to ban transgender youth from competing in their preferred gender category.

“Here in Pennsylvania, I think that our governor and this commonwealth should be upholding as well Title IX and making sure that it’s reaffirmed in statute,” she said. “More needs to be done, but I think this is a great step in the right direction.”

White emphasized that this move was particularly “important” for “young women … to know that their hard work is going to pay off.”

As of Tuesday evening, Lia Thomas’ individual records had been removed from the Penn Athletics website.

“All of it’s now restored, and their highest achievements are now recognized, and they deserve that, because they’ve worked hard for it, and they don’t deserve to be cheated out of it,” White said.

White classified the experiences of athletes who competed as “unfortunate.”

“I think, [it] was probably very, very difficult,” she said. “What those achievements should have been for those young women, it was a real shame, and I can’t imagine what they had to go through.”

White House restores $175 million in previously frozen funding

The White House has restored $175 million in federal funding to Penn that was previously frozen due to the University’s alleged failure to comply with an executive order barring transgender athletes from women’s sports, CNN reported Wednesday.

The funding restoration comes after Penn entered a resolution agreement with the Trump administration on Monday, complying with all three Title IX demands issued by the federal government.

The White House announced on March 19 that it would freeze more than $175 million in federal funding to Penn, 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 DP that the change was not related to the Title IX investigation into Penn, but rather an “immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams to … universities.”

Related:

• Trump administration freezes $175 million in federal funding to Penn

Penn GSWS program director says University chose compliance in face of government ‘tyranny’

Director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program and Annenberg School for Communication professor Jessa Lingel wrote in a statement to the DP that the University’s “obedience” to the federal government “goes way beyond trans athletes” as a “signal that trans people aren’t fully valued at Penn.”

Quoting Benjamin Franklin’s advice that “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God,” Lingel wrote that “Penn had an opportunity here to be rebellious in the face of tyranny and opted instead for obedience.” She added that the move was a “huge disappointment.”

The GSWS website currently includes a message that the program “is an inclusive space, committed to affirming students, staff, and faculty of all genders and identities, including trans and non-binary individuals.”

Lingel has previously affirmed GSWS’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, despite escalating federal scrutiny. In March, Lingel told the DP that the program would not remove DEI references from its website — as all 12 of Penn’s undergraduate and graduate schools had done — despite calls from University administrators to follow suit.

Secretary of Education applauds Penn’s compliance, outlines closed-door negotiations

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon described Penn’s resolution agreement as “a turning point” in Title IX compliance during her Tuesday remarks at the nation’s capital.

Calling Penn “one of the most well-known offenders of Title IX,” McMahon referenced the University’s response to the Education Department’s “clear” message that "allowing men to claim they are women, so they can invade women’s locker rooms and compete against them in sports, was neither fair nor safe.”

“So UPenn came back to the table and asked us what they can do to make it right,” McMahon added. “We said, ‘You have to completely rewrite your institutional policy.’ They signed on the dotted line.”

She applauded the efforts of former Penn swimmer Paula Scanlan, former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, along with the University for “recogniz[ing] the harm caused to these excellent female athletes and now seek[ing] to make amends.”

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon calls Penn’s compliance a ‘template’ for other universities to follow

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon praised Penn’s resolution agreement with the Education Department as a “template” for universities “to acknowledge there is no room for men in women’s sports.”

The agreement should serve as an example of how universities can “get in line and make things right for our women and girls who are going into these sports,” McMahon said in a Tuesday interview with Fox News.

“We hope that that agreement is going to be a template for other universities who acknowledge that there is no room for men and women’s sports, not only during the competition, but also in the locker room and other intimate spaces where these women were required to be with males who changed in front of them,” McMahon added.

She called the decision an “utter triumph” for the federal government and “the women and girls who will come behind Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan.”

Local politicians condemn Penn's 'surrender' to the Trump administration

Penn’s city councilmember Jamie Gauthier, councilmember Rue Landau, and Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Krajewski (D-Philadelphia) issued a statement condemning Penn’s “surrender to Trump demands.”

“We are deeply disappointed in the University of Pennsylvania’s decision to reward a politically motivated campaign that seeks to erase Transgender athletes under the narrative of equity in sports,” the elected officials wrote. “This move is not about equity. It is about appeasing the Trump Administration.”

The representatives described the revisions to Thomas’ competitive record as “not just ethically wrong,” but the beginning of a “dangerous message.” They added that “Lia Thomas deserved her place on that team, as affirmed by athletic and legal standards.”

Gauthier has previously criticized several decisions made by Trump’s administration. In February, she introduced a resolution to the City Council on denouncing Trump for referring to himself as a king.

Penn issues letters of apology to former swimmers

On Tuesday, 1996 College graduate and T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W'69 Director of Athletics and Recreation Alanna Wren sent out individual apology letters to former athletes “regarding the Penn Women’s Swimming 2021-22 season,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Penn issued individual apologies as a result of the resolution agreement the University struck with the Department of Education over an investigation into Title IX violations. According to an Education Department press release, the letter is one of the federal agency’s three demands that Penn must comply with.

Under the rules newly established by the Education Department, “former Penn student-athlete Lia Thomas would not be permitted to compete as a member of the Penn Women’s Swimming team,” Wren wrote in the letter.

“The U.S. Department of Education’s guidance and NCAA policy on transgender student-athlete participation have changed, and Penn has adjusted its practices accordingly,” Wren wrote.

Although “Penn’s policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA rules at the time,” Wren issued an apology — on behalf of the University — to student-athletes who experienced “competitive disadvantage” due to the rules at the time.

"Penn is dedicated to providing a wide array of athletic opportunities to enrich the educational experience of our students, while at all times complying with federal law and NCAA rules and policies," Wren added.

The University also updated its books, removing Thomas’ individual records.

Penn professor, constitutional law expert says Trump gave University an 'impossible choice'

In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Wharton Legal Studies and Business Ethics professor and constitutional law expert Amanda Shanor wrote that the Department of Education’s investigation into Penn “threatened the University with crushing punishment for following the law.”

When 2022 College graduate and transgender swimmer Lia Thomas competed on Penn’s women’s Swimming and Diving team, Shanor added, the University was “required to [allow her] by both the NCAA’s rules and the Department of Education under Title IX.”

She described the “strategy” of the Trump administration as to “ratchet the stakes so high that institutions fold to its will, regardless of how unlawful or unconstitutional its demands.”

“This puts university leaders to an impossible choice: do the President’s illegal bidding or lose perhaps billions of dollars, and in so doing devastate the lives that depend on that research,” Shanor wrote.

Peer institutions — such as Harvard University — have been met with severe federal funding freezes after refusing to comply with demands from the Trump administration.

“If the government decimates major research institutions like Penn, it will cause crippling and long-lasting damage to the American economy, to its healthcare, to its international competitiveness, and to the arc of human knowledge,” Shanor’s stated.

Shanor previously worked as a lawyer for the American Civil Rights Union and represented Charlie Craig and David Mullins, the gay couple denied service by Masterpiece Cakeshop, before the Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

“Despite the University’s decision not to fight on this issue, I am desperately trying to retain hope that Penn and other institutions like it will stand up before it is too late for all of us,” Shanor concluded.

Lia Thomas' records stripped from Penn Athletics website

Lia Thomas’ individual records have been removed from the Penn Athletics website as of Tuesday evening.

A note was added at the bottom of the women’s swimming and diving records page stating that “competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season.”

Thomas’ records were removed in compliance with the Education Department demand that required Penn to restore accolades “misappropriated” by transgender athletes.

As of publication, Thomas’ name is still listed in the record for the 400-meter free relay.

Thomas was the first transgender athlete to win a NCAA Division I title. The University maintained its compliance with NCAA rules at the time of Thomas’ participation, citing a review to meet “current eligibility guidelines” for the erasure of records.

Penn publishes new Title IX policy

On Tuesday, Penn published a Title IX athletics compliance statement, affirming that the University will follow Title IX “as interpreted by the Department of Education.”  According to the statement, “all practices, policies, and procedures adopted and implemented by the University with respect to women’s athletics will comply” with two recent Trump administration executive orders. The orders — Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, which was issued in January, and Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, which was issued in February — mandate sex-based separation in athletics.

According to Penn’s statement, facilities “such as locker rooms and bathrooms in connection with Penn Athletics” will be “strictly separated on the basis of sex and comparably provided to each sex.” The statement emphasizes that Title IX applied regardless of rules set by “sporting or scholastic governing bodies.”

“The University will not delegate its obligation to comply with Title IX to an external association or other entity,” Penn wrote in their statement.

Former Penn swimmer speaks out in support of University decision

2022 Engineering graduate and former Penn swimmer Paula Scanlan appeared in Washington, D.C. following the announcement.

“So many women have fought so hard, for so many years, on this issue,” Scanlan said. “I have quite literally gotten exactly what I voted for.” She has been outspoken in her support for 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump.

Scanlan also applauded the University’s decision in an Education Department press release.

“As a former UPenn swimmer who had to compete against and share a locker room with a male athlete, I am deeply grateful to the Trump Administration for refusing to back down on protecting women and girls and restoring our rightful accolades,” the statement read.

She called the development a “momentous step in repairing the past mistreatment of female athletes” and a step toward a future where “sex discrimination plays no role in limiting girls’ potential.”

The press release also included a statement from former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines — who tied for fifth place with 2022 College graduate and transgender athlete Lia Thomas in the 2022 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships.

“From day one, President Trump and Secretary McMahon vowed to protect women and girls, and today’s agreement with UPenn is a historic display of that promise being fulfilled,” Gaines wrote.

Gaines was also in attendance at the D.C. event.

Penn approached the White House to begin negotiations in April, official says

On Tuesday, White House Senior Policy Strategist May Mailman told The Daily Pennsylvanian that Penn initially approached the federal government to begin negotiations “several months” ago, adding that the White House will ensure the terms of the July 1 agreement are complied with.

“This is an agreement where there are terms, and so we expect for those terms to be complied with,” Mailman said. “If they’re not, then, then they will continue to face substantial liability under Title IX.”

If Penn follows through with the terms outlined in the agreement, the University could see the $175 million in funding that was frozen in April restored.

The White House announced on March 19 that it 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.”

Mailman added that Penn could be rewarded for showing “goodwill” throughout the negotiations and could potentially receive funding from other institutions — such as Harvard — that have had funding paused.

“There’s obviously a real relationship with the federal government and for a university to recognize that and treat it like that, and be able to have a conversation like adults, I think, will always result in a listening side from the government,” Mailman said.

Penn complies with Education Department demands in Title IX resolution agreement

Penn entered into a resolution agreement with the Department of Education to resolve an investigation into the University’s compliance with Title IX on Monday. 

According to a Education Department press release, Penn will comply with the three demands issued by the federal agency in April: 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. The University will additionally issue a public statement specifying that Penn Athletics “will adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders.”

The July 1 announcement comes more than two months after the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights found Penn in violation of Title IX following the University’s decision to allow 2022 College graduate and transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete on the University’s women’s swimming and diving team during the 2021-22 season. 

“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in the Education Department’s press release.

Related:

• Penn complies with Education Department demands in Title IX resolution agreement