By Sean Griffin on SwimSwam
The U.S. Department of Education announced today that the University of Pennsylvania has entered into a Resolution Agreement to address Title IX compliance. This follows an April ruling by the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which found that the university violated federal sex discrimination laws.
Penn was found to have “violated Title IX by denying women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
The Department of Education initially gave Penn 10 days from April 28 to “voluntarily resolve these violations or risk a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for enforcement proceedings,” with news of the finalized agreement released just hours ago.
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s press release, the signed Resolution Agreement requires Penn to carry out the following action items:
UPenn will restore to female athletes all individual UPenn Division I swimming records, titles, or similar recognitions which were misappropriated by male athletes allowed to compete in female categories. UPenn will issue a public statement to the University community stating that it will comply with Title IX, specifying that UPenn will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs or occupy Penn Athletics female intimate facilities. The statement will specify that UPenn will adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism” and “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” UPenn will post the statement in a prominent location on its main website and on each of its websites for women’s athletics. UPenn will rescind any guidance which violated Title IX, remove or revise any internal and public-facing statements or documents that are inconsistent with Title IX, and notify all staff and women’s athletics of all such rescissions. UPenn will send a personalized letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer.“This is a complex issue, and I’m pleased we were able to reach a resolution through the standard OCR process for concluding Title IX investigations,” UPenn President J. Larry Jameson said in a news release.
“Penn has always followed — and continues to follow — Title IX, along with the NCAA’s policies on transgender athletes. NCAA eligibility rules changed in February 2025 with Executive Orders 14168 and 14201, and Penn will continue to comply with these updated standards,” he said.
“Penn has never maintained a policy of its own regarding the participation of transgender athletes in intercollegiate sports. Nor do we maintain our own policies related to other NCAA rules. We adhere to NCAA and Ivy League rules that are designed to ensure fair and transparent athletic competitions for all schools and participants,” he continued.
“We will review and update the women’s swimming records from that season to reflect who would now hold them under the current eligibility guidelines,” he added.
The federal investigation centered around Penn’s decision to allow Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, to compete on its women’s swimming and diving team during the 2021–22 season.
Thomas, who previously swam for three seasons on Penn’s men’s team, went on to qualify for three A-finals at the NCAA Championships, placing 8th in the 100 free, 5th in the 200 free, and winning the title in the 500 free.
At the time, Thomas was in compliance with the NCAA regulations on transgender competition, and Penn was following all guidelines.
To further clarify, Thomas’ NCAA title has not been revoked. However, under the terms of the resolution agreement, her records have been removed from Penn’s official women’s swimming record book.
The school has already updated its website, erasing Thomas’ marks of 47.37, 1:41.93, and 4:33.24 in the 100, 200, and 500 freestyle, respectively, and listing Kayla Fu (48.61), Virginia Burns (1:45.51), and Anna Kalandadze (4:37.21) as the current record holders.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Penn Reaches Title IX Resolution With Trump Administration; Thomas’ School Records Now Erased
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