Nearly two dozen members of the Quinnipiac University women’s rugby team, including a group of incoming recruits, filed a motion in federal court Friday seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the yniversity from eliminating their varsity program and to address ongoing Title IX violations affecting female athletes.
Perez et al v. Quinnipiac University et al follows Quinnipiac’s April 14 decision to terminate women’s varsity rugby at the end of the current academic year, despite the team’s status as a nationally recognized Division I program and its past role in expanding opportunities for women’s sports at the university, according to an email shared with AB Today by Graff Communications on behalf of the Connecticut law firm of Christine Brown & Partners.
The 23 plaintiffs allege that Quinnipiac has engaged in long-standing sex discrimination by providing women’s teams with unequal benefits, treatment and support across key areas of athletics, and that the decision to cut women’s rugby is a retaliatory response to repeated Title IX concerns raised about the treatment of female athletes. They are asking the court to preserve the women’s rugby program and to require equal treatment and opportunities for present and future female student-athletes at Quinnipiac.
Two of the plaintiffs — Regan Perez, rising junior; and Carolyn Melody, rising sophomore — shared the following statement:
“Today our counsel filed a motion in federal court asking the court to immediately force the university to reinstate women’s rugby as a varsity program. Quinnipiac chose to eliminate one of the most successful programs in school history while adding men’s indoor and outdoor track, and it did so at the worst possible time for all of us who have been affected. We believe that decision raises serious Title IX concerns, breaks the promises made to all of the players who committed to Quinnipiac to compete at the varsity Division I level, and treats our futures like line items that can be erased overnight.
“Quinnipiac women’s rugby has been one of the leading programs in the country. We chose Quinnipiac because we believed in what this program stood for, and we are fighting to protect that opportunity for current and future athletes. We are asking the court to reverse this decision and stop forcing its own athletes to fight for rights they should never have had to defend in the first place. We are grateful for the support we have received, and we will continue standing together as we seek a fair outcome.”
The plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction has been scheduled for June 16, and the preliminary injunction hearing has been scheduled for later that day In Bridgeport, Conn.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to support the program’s reinstatement.
This is not the first time complaints have been filed against the university in regard to alleged Title IX violations, according to Ava Highland, managing editor of The Quinnipiac Chronicle student newspaper.
“The decision is particularly troubling because women’s varsity rugby was one of the very programs QU expanded and relied upon following prior Title IX litigation in this very court concerning inequitable athletic participation opportunities for women,” the complaint said.
The decision was announced April 14 by Quinnipiac Athletics, which stated that along with the demotion, a decision was also made to add a men’s indoor and outdoor distance program.
Quinnipiac claims these decisions were made in an initiative to align “institutional resources with long-term competitive priorities, fiscal sustainability, and the University’s ongoing commitment to Title IX compliance,” Highland reported.
The athletes are suing the university on three counts: retaliation, unequal allocation of athletic treatment and benefits and sex discrimination. Named defendants include Quinnipiac University, the university’s board of trustees, president Marie Hardin and director of athletics Greg Amodio.
