Members of the St. Thomas women’s tennis team have threatened to take legal action against the university after the men’s and women’s teams were both cut from the athletics department earlier this month.

Arthur H. Bryant, a California-based attorney representing players of the women’s tennis team, sent a letter to university President Julie Sullivan last week threatening a class action lawsuit “for depriving women athletes and potential athletes of equal participation opportunities” and alleging that the university is in violation of Title IX laws. Bryant gave a deadline of Thursday, May 27 for the university to respond.

“St. Thomas’s decision to eliminate the women’s tennis team (and the men’s tennis team) is especially surprising and ill-considered,” Bryant wrote.

The university’s athletics department did not “have any new comment on the story,” according to an athletic department spokesperson.

In its May 11 announcement, the St. Thomas athletic department said it concluded that it could not “adequately provide the conditions necessary” to field competitive Division I tennis programs, including a lack of dedicated tennis facilities.

Title IX, a part of the Educational Amendments of 1972, says that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

“The elimination of the women’s tennis team blatantly violates Title IX,” Bryant wrote in his letter.

Citing a 1996 clarification, Bryant wrote that Title IX “prohibits educational institutions receiving federal funds from eliminating women’s teams for which interest, ability, and competition are available unless ‘intercollegiate level participation opportunities for male and female students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments.’”

The letter included data from the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, which indicated that St. Thomas had 2,883 female and 3,272 male undergraduate students in the 2018-2019 school year, meaning that women made up 46.83% of its undergraduate population.

That same year, according to the letter, the university’s athletics programs had 545 male and 335 female student-athletes, or 38.06% women. This creates an 8.77% gap between the female student enrollment and female student-athlete population at St. Thomas.

The elimination of men’s and women’s tennis, Bryant wrote, would increase the gap to 9.24%.

“St. Thomas would need to add 148 participation opportunities for women to achieve gender equity,” Bryant wrote.

Bryant said that unless St. Thomas restores women’s and men’s tennis, or reveals plans for Title IX compliance, he intends to file suit and seek a preliminary injunction to reinstate the women’s tennis team.

The university’s Varsity Tennis Announcement FAQ addressed the question, “How is St. Thomas’ Title IX compliance affected?” The Q&A response said, “This was not a decision related to Title IX.

“As we transition to Division I, we are implementing adjustments to roster sizes across all sports, which will also assist with Title IX compliance,” the FAQ said.

Earlier this month, the St. Thomas women’s tennis team claimed its first MIAC regular-season championship in 30 years, becoming the first St. Thomas tennis team to sweep the regular-season and playoff championships, in securing its seventh NCAA tournament appearance.

Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.

Editor’s note: TommieMedia Sports Editor Olivia Paradise, who was a member of the women’s tennis team, did not contribute to this report. Also, we replaced the original image with one that better represents this story.