Friday, November 19, 1999
Miami U sees hidden agenda in lawsuit
Says men have no right to be on sports teams
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A federal lawsuit filed Thursdayalleges Miami University in Oxford tried to satisfy “gender quotas” when it eliminated the men's wrestling, soccer and tennis teams in April.
The 12-page lawsuit, brought by male Miami students and filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, claims the university discriminated against the studentsby violating their equal protection rights. The suit seeks the reinstatement of the three men's sports, an injunction and unspecified compensatory damages.
Also named in the suit are the Miami University wrestling, soccer and tennis clubs. Named as defendants are the university, President James Garland, Athletic Director Joel Maturi and the board of trustees.
University spokesman Richard Little said a two-year process found Miami had to eliminate the three men's sports to save money and meet Title IX goals, which in part, require equal opportunities for men and women in intercollegiate athletics.
But senior Nate Studeny said the reason he transferred to Miami from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware was to wrestle. Not being able to do so has made him feel “distanced and detached from the rest of the Miami community.”
While on the wrestling team, “I began to feel a sense of camaraderie, a sense of acceptance and worth, something that might have been lost within the lonely transfer process,” Mr. Studeny said at a press conference at the Cincinnatian Hotel downtown.
James Wright, an attorney with the Center For Individual Rights in Washington, D.C., said the university acted illegally when it eliminated the three men's sports to ensure men participate in intercollegiate athletics at a rate no greater than women. The students are being represented free of charge.
Mr. Little said the lawsuit has nothing to do with Miami University or its male students.
“Two of the attorneys (Lou Goldstein of Chicago and Mr. Wright) represent national associations and organizations whose interests are to fix what they see is wrong with Title IX,” he said.
“There's no constitutional right to be a member of a varsity sports team at a college university,” Mr. Little said the appeals courts have ruled.
The suit says Miami is a state-
run university that receives federal funds. Since 1995, the suit says, Miami has added women's intercollegiate athletic teams in precision skating, indoor track and soccer while failing to add any men's teams.
The suit charges the university violated both the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and the federal civil rights statute Title IX when it eliminated the three men's sports.
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