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
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