News
Female Athletes Settle Title IX Sex Discrimination Class Action against Fresno State University
Outside Expert will Conduct Gender Equity Review; School will Develop Gender Equity Plan, Provide Equal Opportunities and Treatment, Comply with Title IX
Six former women’s lacrosse team members have settled the Title IX class action they filed against Fresno State University in 2021 for discriminating against its female student-athletes. The settlement requires Fresno State to hire an agreed outside expert to conduct a Gender Equity Review, work with that expert to develop a Gender Equity Plan, provide equal opportunities and treatment to its female athletes, and ensure its entire athletic department complies with Title IX by the end of the 2027-28 academic year.
Senior U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller in Sacramento, CA, formally approved the settlement in Anders v. California State University, Fresno, today, noting the women athletes’ and their lawyers’ “success in obtaining a favorable and meaningful settlement.” To read the court-approved settlement, click here.
“This settlement shows what women can accomplish when they fight sex discrimination—and why that’s so important,” said plaintiff Taylor Anders. “We filed this lawsuit in 2021 and we wouldn’t give up. Now, we are getting what we were fighting for. Fresno State is going to comply with Title IX.”
The other plaintiffs and former Fresno State women’s lacrosse team members who won the settlement are Courtney Walburger, Henessey Evans, Abbigayle Roberts, Megan Waliatis, and Tara Weir.
“We are honored to represent Taylor, Courtney, and all of the plaintiffs in this case who have spent the past four years, even after they graduated from Fresno State, fighting for equality that will benefit female athletes for years to come,” said Lori Bullock of Bullock Law PLLC in Des Moines, IA, co-counsel for the athletes.
“These women should be proud,” said co-counsel Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, P.C., in Oakland, CA. “The proposed settlement is a major victory for all female athletes and potential athletes at Fresno State, Title IX, and everyone who cares about gender equity nationwide. With college sports changing so dramatically, it's critically important that women fight for the equal opportunities and treatment Title IX requires. That’s what these brave, tenacious women did.”
Michael Caddell, Cynthia Chapman, and Amy Tabor of Caddell & Chapman in Houston, TX, and Monterey, CA, also represent the women athletes.
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Contacts:
Arthur Bryant, 510-507-9972, arthur@arthurbryantlaw.com
Lori Bullock, 515-416-9051, lbullock@clarksonlawfirm.com
Michael Caddell, 713-751-0400, mac@caddellchapman.com
Cynthia Chapman, 713-751-0400, cbc@caddellchapman.com
Links:
Fresno State Title IX Settlement Approved by the Court
Federal Court Orders Concordia University Irvine to Preserve Women’s Teams While Female Athletes’ Title IX Sex Discrimination Class Action Proceeds
Women’s Swimming & Diving and Tennis Reinstated; Female Athletes Seeking Equal Opportunities to Participate in Varsity Sports
Women’s Swimming & Diving and Tennis Reinstated; Female Athletes Seeking Equal Opportunities to Participate in Varsity Sports
United States District Court Judge Fred W. Slaughter issued a 29-page Order granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction on Friday barring Concordia University Irvine (“CUI”) from “eliminating its women’s swimming & diving team, its women’s tennis team, and all other women’s varsity teams at CUI for the 2025-26 academic year, and for the duration of this case or until further order of this court.” The Order continues: “To the extent that those teams have already been eliminated, CUI shall immediately reinstate them, and provide the teams with funding, staffing, and all other benefits commensurate with their status as varsity intercollegiate teams.”
The order was a complete and sweeping victory on the motion for the women athletes.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, charges CUI with violating Title IX by depriving women of equal opportunities to participate in intercollegiate athletics. The school announced the elimination of the women’s swimming & diving and tennis teams, along with the men’s teams, in May, when it was already providing women with far fewer opportunities to participate.
“This decision shows why women have to fight for the equality the law requires – and what they can accomplish when they do,” said Alexandra Grant, a sophomore on the women’s swimming & diving team. “We are devoted to enforcing Title IX and grateful for the Court’s decision. My teammates and I are eager to get back in the water as soon as possible.”
CUI female athletes Mikayla Barre, Jessica Bear, Kiera Gutierrez, Bryn Johnson, Alexandra Leland, Ruby McCullough, Aliyah Treadwell, and Carissa Ward are also plaintiffs in the case.
“The court’s thorough, compelling decision confirms what we said from the start: CUI’s decision to eliminate the women’s swimming & diving and tennis teams was a flagrant violation of Title IX,” said Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, P.C., in Oakland, CA, lead counsel for the women. “According to the most recent publicly available information, women were 59% of CUI’s undergraduates in 2024-25, but they were given only 51.2% of the opportunities to participate in varsity sports. CUI needs to add about 100 opportunities for women to reach gender equity. It should not be eliminating any women’s teams.”
Eric Grover and Robert Spencer of Keller Grover in San Francisco, CA, Anne Andrews and Robert Siko of Andrews & Thornton in Newport Beach, CA, and John Clune and Ashlyn Hare of Hutchinson, Black, and Cook in Boulder, CO, are co-counsel for the women athletes.
On May 20, 2025, CUI announced it had decided to eliminate its women’s and men’s swimming & diving and tennis teams for financial reasons. A few days later, it emailed all of the athletes on the other teams to “reassure” them their “program remains secure” because CUI is “currently in the midst of a major $17.5 million construction project that includes a new 19,000-square-foot facility featuring a state-of-the-art weight room, locker rooms, and modern training room space…In addition, the University has invested over $7 million in upgrades to our baseball, softball, and soccer/track/lacrosse facilities – including the installation of lights on each of our outdoor fields.”
CUI did not send this email to the athletes on the women’s (or men’s) swimming & diving or tennis teams. But other athletes did.
On June 16, 2025, Bryant emailed a letter to CUI President Michael A. Thomas, PhD, explaining that the elimination of the women’s teams violated Title IX and requesting a meeting to discuss preserving the teams and ensuring CUI’s Title IX compliance.
As the letter noted, Title IX prohibits educational institutions receiving federal funds from eliminating women’s teams for which interest, ability, and competition are available unless “intercollegiate level participation opportunities for male and female students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments.” CUI fails that test.
After CUI received Bryant’s June 16 letter, the lawyers for the school and the women met numerous times over a month. But, on July 17, the school refused to agree to continue the women’s teams and come into compliance with Title IX. So, the women filed suit.
Now, they have won a preliminary injunction preserving their teams and all other women’s teams at CUI while the case proceeds.
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Contacts:
Arthur Bryant, 510-507-9972, arthur@arthurbryantlaw.com
Robert Siko, 949-748-1000, rsiko@andrewsthorton.com
Eric Grover, 415-543-1305, eric.grover@kellergrover.com
John Clune, 970-390-5480, john.clune@hbcboulder.com
Links:
Court’s Order Granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction
Complaint
CUI Title IX Preliminary Injunction Order Preserving Women’s Teams
To read order, click here.
Proposed Fresno State University Title IX Class Action Settlement Agreement
CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT: https://www.arthurbryantlaw.com/s/Fresno-State-Title-IX-Proposed-Class-Action-Settlement-Agreement-10-5-25
Female Athletes File Sex Discrimination Class Action Against Concordia University Irvine for Deciding to Eliminate Women’s Teams and Violating Title IX
Seek Preservation of Swimming & Diving and Tennis Teams,
Equal Participation Opportunities for Women in Varsity Sports
Nine female athletes at Concordia University Irvine (CUI) filed a sex discrimination class action against the school late yesterday for discriminating against its female student-athletes and potential student-athletes in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, charges CUI with violating Title IX by depriving women of equal opportunities to participate in intercollegiate athletics. The school just announced it was planning to eliminate the women’s swimming & diving and tennis teams, along with the men’s teams, when it is already providing women with far fewer opportunities than the law requires.
“We are suing CUI because it refused to comply with Title IX, provide women with equal opportunities to participate in varsity sports, and preserve our teams unless we did,” said Alexandra Grant, a sophomore on the women’s swimming & diving team. “We wish it wasn’t necessary, but we are doing what all women faced with sex discrimination need to do: stand up and fight for our rights.”
CUI female athletes Mikayla Barre, Jessica Bear, Kiera Gutierrez, Bryn Johnson, Alexandra Leland, Ruby McCullough, Aliyah Treadwell, and Carissa Ward are also plaintiffs in the case.
“CUI’s decision to eliminate the women’s swimming & diving and tennis teams is a flagrant violation of Title IX,” said Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, P.C., in Oakland, CA, lead counsel for the women. “According to the most recent publicly available information, women were 59% of CUI’s undergraduates in 2024-25, but they were given only 51.2% of the opportunities to participate in varsity sports. CUI needs to add about 100 opportunities for women to reach gender equity. It should not be eliminating any women’s teams.”
John Clune and Ashlyn Hare of Hutchinson, Black, and Cook in Boulder, CO; Eric Grover and Robert Spencer of Keller Grover in San Francisco, CA; and Anne Andrews and Robert Siko of Andrews & Thornton in Newport Beach, CA, are co-counsel for the women athletes.
On May 20, 2025, CUI announced it had decided to eliminate its women’s and men’s swimming & diving and tennis teams for financial reasons. A few days later, it emailed all of the athletes on the other teams to “reassure” them their “program remains secure” because CUI is “currently in the midst of a major $17.5 million construction project that includes a new 19,000-square-foot facility featuring a state-of-the-art weight room, locker rooms, and modern training room space…In addition, the University has invested over $7million in upgrades to our baseball, softball, and soccer/track/lacrosse facilities – including the installation of lights on each of our outdoor fields.”
CUI did not send this email to the athletes on the women’s (or men’s) swimming & diving or tennis teams. But other athletes did.
On June 16, 2025, Bryant emailed a letter to CUI President Michael A. Thomas, PhD, explaining that the elimination of the women’s teams violated Title IX and requesting a meeting to discuss preserving the teams and ensuring CUI’s Title IX compliance.
As the letter noted, Title IX prohibits educational institutions receiving federal funds from eliminating women’s teams for which interest, ability, and competition are available unless “intercollegiate level participation opportunities for male and female students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments.” CUI fails that test.
According to the most recent Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) data that CUI submitted and verified to the U.S. Department of Education as accurate, CUI had a total undergraduate population of 1,413 in 2023-24, including 833 women and 580 men. So, undergraduate enrollment was 58.95% women. (The 2024-25 EADA data is not yet publicly available.) The school’s intercollegiate athletic teams had 625 athletes: 328 women and 297 men. They were only 52.48% women—creating a gap of 6.47% between the women’s undergraduate enrollment rate and their intercollegiate athletic participation rate. CUI needed to add women’s opportunities to comply with Title IX.
But CUI just announced that it is going to eliminate two women’s teams that included 38 women (along with two men’s teams that include 33 men) in 2023-24. As a result, the school’s athletic participation rate for women will decrease when it needs to increase.
Based on the most recent publicly available numbers, if the women’s teams are cut, CUI will need to add 112 participation opportunities for women to achieve gender equity. This is, of course, far more opportunities to participate in varsity athletics than the women’s swimming & diving and tennis teams provide.
After CUI received Bryant’s June 16 letter, the lawyers for the school and the women met numerous times over a month. But, on July 17, the school refused to agree to continue the women’s teams and come into compliance with Title IX. So, the women filed suit.
Along with the class action, the women filed an application for a temporary restraining order preserving the women’s teams while the case proceeds. A date for a hearing on the motion has not yet been set.
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Contacts:
Arthur Bryant, 510-507-9972, arthur@arthurbryantlaw.com
John Clune, 970-390-5480, john.clune@hbcboulder.com
Links:
Complaint filed August 13, 2025
Application for TRO Preserving Women’s Teams filed August 13, 2025