Portz v. St. Cloud State University

Background

Alexie Portz, Jill Kedrowski, Abigail Kantor, Marilia Roque Diversi, Fernanda Quintino dos Santos, Maria Hauer, Haley Bock, Kaitlyn Babich, Anna Lindell, and Kiersten Rohde brought a certified class action against St. Cloud State University (SCSU) and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The plaintiffs were female student-athletes who attended or recently attended SCSU and participated in women’s tennis or Nordic skiing. They alleged that SCSU violated Title IX by discriminating in athletic participation opportunities and in the treatment and benefits provided to female athletes.

After a 2018 bench trial, the court entered judgment for the plaintiffs and issued a permanent injunction requiring SCSU to improve female students’ athletic participation opportunities and the treatment and benefits provided to female athletes. The Eighth Circuit later affirmed the finding concerning participation opportunities but reversed the original treatment-and-benefits analysis, vacated the related parts of the injunction, and remanded for further proceedings. The appellate court required a program-wide analysis rather than an analysis based on SCSU’s athletic tiers and directed the district court to consider the women’s volleyball team.

The parties then filed competing motions. Defendants moved to dissolve the permanent injunction and end the court’s ongoing jurisdiction. Plaintiffs moved to modify the injunction to comply with the appellate decision. Plaintiffs also filed a motion to strike a pleading.

Participation Opportunities

The court applied Title IX’s requirement that athletic participation opportunities effectively accommodate the interests and abilities of both sexes. It continued using the established method of counting an athlete once for each sport in which the athlete participates, including when the same athlete participates in multiple sports. The court declined to revisit that method because it had previously adopted it and because the method was allowed by the applicable guidance and was not shown to violate Title IX.

For the 2020–21 school year, female athletes held 53% of the participation opportunities and represented 51.5% of full-time undergraduate enrollment. For 2021–22, female athletes held 51.74% of the opportunities and represented 51.28% of full-time undergraduate enrollment. The court concluded that SCSU met the applicable proportionality requirement for both years and had shown that its current athletic program could provide compliant participation opportunities on an ongoing basis.

Because the participation-opportunities violation had been remedied, the court dissolved the permanent injunction concerning the allocation of athletic participation opportunities.

Treatment and Benefits

The court analyzed treatment and benefits across SCSU’s athletic program as a whole. It considered the factors listed in the federal Title IX regulation, including equipment and supplies, travel and per diem allowances, medical services, and locker rooms and practice and competitive facilities. The court found that SCSU had addressed earlier concerns about equipment, medical services, locker rooms, and practice and competitive facilities.

The court nevertheless found that SCSU had not shown that travel and per diem benefits were equitable in 2022. SCSU reported the number of trips taken by male and female teams and the modes of transportation used, but it did not provide updated travel and per diem policies or enough information about individual athletes’ travel opportunities, accommodations, and the amount of university funding. The court therefore relied in part on the most recent detailed evidence, including the 2018 trial evidence, and concluded that travel and per diem benefits continued to favor male athletes.

The court determined that the requirements for a permanent injunction were met. It reinstated the injunction concerning treatment and benefits, with modifications required by the Eighth Circuit and specific requirements addressing travel and per diem policies. SCSU must take immediate steps to provide equitable treatment and benefits on a program-wide basis and must update its travel and per diem policies to address travel frequency, comfort, length, and university funding. SCSU’s actions must be reasonably calculated to achieve full Title IX compliance within a reasonable time.

Attorney Fees, Monitoring, and Disposition

The appellate court had vacated the earlier award of attorney fees and costs. The district court stated that the plaintiffs could seek fees and costs incurred during the trial, appeal, and current motions by filing a new motion. The court did not decide the amount of any award in this order.

The court granted in part and denied in part Defendants’ Motion to Dissolve the Injunction and End the Court’s Ongoing Jurisdiction. It dissolved the permanent injunction concerning athletic participation opportunities but maintained the injunction concerning treatment and benefits. The court granted in part and denied in part Plaintiffs’ Motion to Modify the Injunction. It maintained jurisdiction to monitor compliance, required defendants to submit reports every six months, and stated that it would consider appointing an independent monitor if sufficient progress was not made. The court denied Plaintiffs’ Motion to Strike Pleading and instructed plaintiffs to file a motion for attorney fees and costs.