Christopher Newport University Agrees to Reinstate Coed Sailing Team and Women’s Sailing Regattas, Develop Gender Equity Plan, Comply with Title IX

Christopher Newport University (“CNU”) has agreed to reinstate both its varsity coed sailing team and the female team members’ participation in separate women’s sailing regattas, have an independent Title IX expert conduct a gender equity review, and develop a Gender Equity Plan to ensure its varsity intercollegiate athletic program is complying with Title IX. The settlement agreement avoids a potential Title IX sex discrimination class action against the school for depriving its female student-athletes of equal opportunities and treatment.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination at all educational institutions receiving federal funds.

This is the first Title IX case to preserve a coed team.

Female sailing team members Corine Glickstein, Hannah-Louise Roethel, and Shari-Ann Tremblay, who threatened the class action, said, “We were stunned that CNU eliminated the women’s sailing regattas and then our entire team when it was already depriving women of equal opportunities to participate in varsity sports. We are delighted that CNU chose to stand with us instead of against us and do the right thing: preserve the entire sailing team, reinstate the women’s sailing opportunities, and make sure it is complying with Title IX.”

“This is a huge victory for CNU, its female athletes, all of the women and men on CNU’s sailing team, and everyone who cares about gender equity and sailing in the CNU community and nationwide,” said Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, P.C., in Oakland, CA, lead counsel for the women.  said, “Title IX is the law. Schools need to follow it. To its great credit, that’s what CNU is going to do.”

Linda Correia of Correia & Puth, LLC, in Washington, DC, co-counsel for the women, declared, “These young athletes stood up for their civil rights and won not just for themselves, but for all female student athletes at CNU. The review of all varsity intercollegiate athletic opportunities at CNU should bring about better and more athletic opportunities for all CNU sports.”

The threatened lawsuit stemmed from CNU’s announcement on March 23, 2026, that it was eliminating its varsity sailing team, which includes both female and male athletes. The announcement was made only months after the team stopped providing opportunities for its female members to participate in separate women’s varsity sailing competitions. When these actions took place, CNU was already depriving women of hundreds of equal opportunities to participate in varsity intercollegiate athletics.

On May 22, 2026, Bryant and Correia wrote a letter to CNU President William Kelly behalf of the female sailing team members and informed him that the school’s actions violated Title IX. The law prohibits universities from eliminating female varsity opportunities 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.” The lawyers said CNU failed this test.

The letter noted that, according to the most recent publicly available Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data that CNU submitted and verified to the U.S. Department of Education as accurate, CNU had a total undergraduate population of 4,289 in the 2024-25 academic year, including 2,250 women and 2,039 men. So, undergraduate enrollment was 52.5% women. The school’s varsity intercollegiate athletic teams had 668 athletes: 236 women and 432 men. They were only 35.33% women—creating a gap of 17.17% between the women’s undergraduate enrollment rate and their intercollegiate athletic participation rate. CNU needed to add women’s opportunities to comply with Title IX.

Instead of doing so, however, CNU was eliminating women’s opportunities to participate in varsity sailing entirely, shortly after eliminating their opportunity to participate in separate women’s varsity sailing competitions. As a result, the school’s athletic participation numbers for women would decrease when they needed to increase. After the cuts, based on the most recent publicly available numbers, CNU would need to add approximately 241 opportunities for women to reach gender equity under Title IX.

Bryant and Correia said they and their co-counsel would file a class action lawsuit in federal court against CNU for depriving women athletes and potential athletes of equal opportunities and treatment unless the school agreed to continue its sailing team, reinstate the female sailing team members’ opportunities to participate in separate women’s sailing competitions, and come into compliance with Title IX. In the settlement agreement, announced today, CNU does.

CNU has already hired an interim sailing head coach and will be announcing a nationwide search for a permanent full-time head coach today.

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‍ ‍‍Contacts:

‍ ‍Arthur Bryant, arthur@arthurbryantlaw.com, 510-507-9972

‍ ‍Linda Correia, lcorreia@correiaputh.com, 202-349-1044‍ ‍