Iowa reverses decision to cut women's swimming and diving program amid legal challenge
The Iowa women's swimming and diving program is not going away after all.
In the face of a legal challenge that presented an uphill battle for Iowa athletics, the university announced Monday it is backing off its decision to cut the program.
Iowa athletic director Gary Barta had said his decision last August to end the program was based on cost-saving measures and he contended that the school was Title IX-compliant in doing so. However, Title IX experts disagreed with that reasoning in a recent Register story that detailed the legal troubles ahead for Hawkeye athletics.
Barta said in a news release that he is still moving ahead with plans to cut his men's gymnastics, men's swimming and diving, and men's tennis programs.
"The women’s swimming lawsuit brought forward last September, combined with the recent court order mandating the continuation of the sport during the legal process, has created additional uncertainty that could last several months or even years," Barta said in a university news release.
“We made the decision the right thing to do was to re-instate the women’s swimming and diving program and remove any uncertainty moving forward for our current student-athletes as well as high school swimmers considering attending the University of Iowa.”
Mark Kaufman, whose daughter Christina is a Hawkeye swimmer, said he felt the university was merely belatedly doing what was inevitable, given that a federal judge had issued an injunction in December requiring Iowa to keep the women's swimming team until a final ruling in the lawsuit. Kauffman, who has been active in a group called Save Iowa Sports, was bitter that it took so long.
"The team has been decimated. Athletes have left. Coaches have left. And the team is still competing. They're doing what they can," Kaufman told the Register. "But Iowa slow-played this to the point where their backs were against the wall. But what does it do now? It's a completely different challenge."
Christina Kaufman is one of four Hawkeye swimmers who initiated the Title IX lawsuit in September. It claims that Iowa was already well out of balance with the federal requirement to provide equal athletic opportunities for men and women.
The university had appealed District Judge Stephanie Roee's injunction that it maintain the sport, but relented Monday. Across the nation, there has been a wave of schools backing off of plans to cut women's sports amid the pandemic once they face legal challenges. Michigan State still faces a Title IX lawsuit over its plans to discontinue women's swimming.
Kaufman, an Iowa alumnus who now lives in Illinois, said reinstating women's swimming was "an obvious step that had to happen." But he's still upset that university leadership, including President Bruce Harreld and Barta, have not been willing to negotiate on plans to bring back the men's sports. He said Save Iowa Sports raised $3 million from hundreds of donors willing to help pay for the sports programs. He is skeptical that the decisions were really based on finances.
"We've sent over multiple proposals that were met with silence," Kaufman said. "We're sitting there with our checkbooks and our pens ready to go and we can't even get a discussion. That doesn't make any sense to me."
Barta has estimated that he is facing a $50-60 million budget shortfall this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The women's swimming team costs his department $1.5 million a year.