Biediger v. Quinnipiac University
| Decision Date | 22 May 2009 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 3:09cv621 (SRU). |
| Citation | 616 F.Supp.2d 277 |
| Parties | Stephanie BIEDIGER, Kayla Lawlor, Erin Overdevest, Kristen Corinaldesi, individually and on behalf of all those similarly situated, Lesley Riker, on behalf of her minor daughter L.R., L.R., on behalf of all those similarly situated, and Robin Lamott Sparks, Plaintiffs, v. QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut |
Alex V. Hernandez, Jonathan B. Orleans, Pullman & Comley, Stamford, CT, Kristen Galles, Alexandria, VA, for Plaintiffs.
Erick Ignacio Diaz Vazquez, Wiggin & Dana, New Haven, CT, Jonathan Bardavid, Mary A. Gambardella, Wiggin & Dana LLP, Stamford, CT, for Defendant.
RULING AND ORDER GRANTING PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION
Plaintiffs Stephanie Biediger, Kayla Lawlor, Erin Overdevest, Kristen Corinaldesi, and L.R.,1 each a current or incoming member of the Quinnipiac University varsity women's volleyball team, and Robin Sparks,2 their coach, seek a preliminary injunction to prevent the school from eliminating women's volleyball as a varsity sport. Defendant Quinnipiac University ("Quinnipiac" or the "University") announced in March 2009 that, due to budgetary constraints, it would be cutting two men's teams—men's golf and men's outdoor track—and the women's volleyball team. It also announced a plan to add a varsity women's competitive cheer team in order to maintain compliance with its obligations under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as amended, 20 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq., and the regulations adopted pursuant thereto, 34 C.F.R. § 106 (collectively, "Title IX"). The plaintiffs allege that Quinnipiac's plan is not sufficient to put it into compliance with the requirements of Title IX and that a preliminary injunction to prevent elimination of the volleyball team is necessary to preserve the status quo pending a ruling on the merits of this case.
A hearing on the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction was held May 11-14, 2009. The following are my findings of fact and conclusions of law concerning issues raised by the motion for preliminary injunction. Because the plaintiffs have successfully demonstrated irreparable harm and have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the issue whether Quinnipiac is actually providing genuine athletic participation opportunities for women in substantial proportion to the undergraduate enrollment of women at Quinnipiac, the motion for a preliminary injunction is granted.
Biediger was a freshman member of the volleyball team in 2008-2009 and was recruited to play for Quinnipiac from her hometown in Texas. Biediger attends Quinnipiac on a partial academic scholarship and is pursuing a major in psychobiology; she plans to become a neurosurgeon. During the fall season she suffered an injury to her anterior cruciate ligament ("ACL"), but played through the end of the season, receiving the team's Most Valuable Player award. Biediger had surgery on her ACL on January 7, 2009, and is scheduled to undergo another surgery over the summer; she therefore had anticipated "red-shirting" her sophomore year.3 Biediger had planned to pick up an additional major so that she could stay at Quinnipiac for a fifth year and complete her fourth year of athletic eligibility.
Lawler was a freshman member of the Quinnipiac volleyball team in 2008-2009 and was recruited by Sparks from her hometown in Indiana, where she participated in high school and club volleyball. Lawler attends Quinnipiac on a full athletic scholarship and is majoring in psychology. Her professional ambition is to obtain a Ph.D. in psychology, coach Division I volleyball, and/or play professional volleyball overseas.
L.R. is a high school senior from Ohio who was recruited by Sparks to play on the Quinnipiac volleyball team beginning in the fall of 2009. She had expected to receive a partial athletic scholarship and partial academic scholarship, equal to the total cost of attending Quinnipiac. After visiting Quinnipiac in the fall of 2008, L.R. decided to apply only to Quinnipiac and by November 2008 had committed herself to attend, thereby taking herself out of the pool of potential volleyball recruits for the remainder of the fall recruiting season.
Overdevest was a senior on the volleyball team during the 2008-2009 season, but she redshirted the season due to shoulder surgery in June 2008. Although Overdevest graduated this past May, because she is enrolled in a five-and-half-year bachelors/masters occupational therapy program at Quinnipiac, she had expected to play her final year of eligibility during the 2009-2010 season. She attends Quinnipiac on a partial academic scholarship and a partial athletic scholarship.
Corinaldesi did not testify at the hearing, but she alleged in the Verified Complaint that she was a junior at Quinnipiac and a member of the varsity volleyball team during the 2008-2009 season. She alleged that she had planned to play volleyball during her senior year.
Sparks is the head coach of the women's volleyball team at Quinnipiac. She was recruited to coach the team in the spring of 2007 by Quinnipiac's Athletic Director Jack McDonald. She is also an adjunct professor in communications at the University. Her current employment contract expires June 30, 2009, but Sparks expected her contract to be renewed until the announcement that the volleyball team would be eliminated.
Jack McDonald is Quinnipiac's Athletic Director, a position he has held since 1995. Before coming to Quinnipiac, McDonald was the athletic director at the University of Denver from 1990 to 1995. As Quinnipiac's Athletic Director, McDonald is responsible for managing the athletic department's budget, personnel (including coaches), Quinnipiac's recreational and intramural sports programs, and is "partially" involved with the University's physical education program. In addition, he is responsible for overseeing Quinnipiac's compliance with National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA") rules and regulations and the requirements of Title IX.
Tracy Flynn is Quinnipiac's Senior Women's Administrator and Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance. Flynn's job is to ensure that Quinnipiac adheres to NCAA rules and regulations. In addition, she oversees the University's athletic scholarship budget and the add/delete list, known officially as the Change of Status List. Both McDonald and Flynn share responsibility for compiling Quinnipiac's annual Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act ("EADA") report.
Quinnipiac University is a private, coeducational institution located in Hamden, Connecticut. For the 2008-2009 academic year, it had an undergraduate enrollment of 5,455 students. Broken down by gender, there were 2,089 male students and 3,366 female students, for a male-to-female percentage distribution of 38.3% to 61.7%. McDonald testified that, based on the deposits the University had received as of May 1, 2009, the undergraduate enrollment for the 2009-2010 academic year is expected to be 37% men and 63% women, with the caveat that those numbers could vary slightly up or down by the time the school year actually begins on August 31, 2009.
In the 2008-2009 academic year, Quinnipiac fielded 21 NCAA Division I varsity athletic teams: men's and women's basketball, men's and women's ice hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, men's baseball, women's softball, women's field hockey, women's volleyball, men's golf, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's cross-country, men's and women's indoor track, and men's and women's outdoor track. Division I is the highest level of intercollegiate athletic competition within the NCAA. With the exception of the ice hockey teams and the men's lacrosse team, Quinnipiac's varsity teams compete in the Northeast Conference ("NEC").4 According to Quinnipiac's EADA report for 2007-2008, its athletic participation opportunities were apportioned 45% for men and 54% for women. According to its preliminary EADA data for 2008-2009, its athletic participation opportunities were apportioned 47.43% for men and 52.57% for women. Quinnipiac concedes that those percentages were not in proportion to the undergraduate enrollment for those years.
On March 4, 2009, Quinnipiac informed the women's volleyball, men's golf, and men's outdoor track teams that they would be eliminated at the end of the current academic year due to budgetary constraints. Sparks and the men's part-time golf coach were told their employment contracts would expire on June 30, 2009 and would not be renewed. The track teams at Quinnipiac have a single head coach, but a part-time track coach is also expected to lose his or her position as a result of the cuts. In 2009-2010, Quinnipiac expects to field 19 varsity teams, including a new women's competitive cheer team. With the loss of men's golf and men's outdoor track, and the addition of women's competitive cheer, Quinnipiac anticipates that its athletic participation opportunities will be split 37.08% for men and 62.92% for women in 2009-2010, which it maintains is in substantial proportion to its anticipated undergraduate enrollment for the coming academic year.
Volleyball is a "fall" sport, meaning that the fall is its "championship season," when teams play their official matches and when the sport's conference and NCAA championships are held. Like most Division I sports, however, volleyball is actually played year-round. Specifically, the spring season provides players the opportunity to hone their technique and skills through scrimmages with other teams. Team practices are...
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