By Cliff Potts, WPS News, Editor-in-Chief
July 2, 2025

The University of Pennsylvania’s decision to settle with the Trump administration over alleged Title IX violations is as embarrassing as it is revealing. On July 1, the U.S. Department of Education announced Penn would formally admit violating Title IX by allowing a transgender swimmer to compete on the women’s team.

As part of the settlement, Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I women’s swimming records to cisgender athletes, update its policies to enforce “biological sex” definitions, and send personalized apology letters to female swimmers who were displaced from records or awards.

“This agreement is a victory for women and girls everywhere,” Secretary Linda McMahon declared, crediting “the leadership of President Trump” for forcing compliance (U.S. Department of Education, 2025).

Political Pressure, Not Legal Principle

Let’s be clear: this wasn’t a normal legal settlement. It was an ideological arm‑twist.

Federal funding—some $175 million—was on the line, and Penn folded. They didn’t stand on precedent or NCAA guidance (which had allowed Lia Thomas to compete). Instead, they accepted humiliating terms designed to make them a national example in Trump’s culture war.

Either Penn’s legal counsel was spectacularly incompetent or the university’s leadership simply lacked the backbone to fight.

A Mixed Message on Pending Lawsuits

The hypocrisy runs even deeper. Despite this settlement, Penn is still fighting in court against a lawsuit filed by former team members who allege emotional distress from sharing a locker room with Thomas.

So which is it? Is Penn willing to comply completely with Trump’s definition of sex and gender in sports—or only when forced under the threat of losing federal funds?

Their posture looks less like compliance with the law and more like compliance with political theater.

Reputation in Tatters

Penn tries to spin this as “technical compliance,” but let’s be honest: they handed Trump exactly the symbolic victory he wanted.

The university’s leadership effectively endorsed an agenda to strip trans athletes of recognition and rewrite history by erasing results. Worse, they empowered the federal government to dictate campus policy on deeply contested cultural questions.

It’s a terrible precedent. Universities shouldn’t bend the knee to political bullies. If they do, they deserve the reputational damage that comes with it.

Conclusion

Penn had a choice: fight for its autonomy and its students, or cave in to an administration seeking a wedge issue to rile its base.

They chose to surrender.

Whether that’s due to incompetent counsel or ideological sympathy is anyone’s guess. But the result is the same: an Ivy League institution humiliating itself in service of a cynical culture war.

References

U.S. Department of Education. (2025, July 1). U.S. Department of Education announces the University of Pennsylvania has entered into a resolution agreement to resolve its Title IX violations. ED.gov

Chari, A., Young, E., Lee, J., McKeown, S., Chitirala, I., & Ryan, F. (2025, July 1). Penn complies with Education Department demands in Title IX resolution agreement. The Daily Pennsylvanian

Power, J. (2025, July 2). US university bans trans athletes under pressure from Trump administration. Al Jazeera

Axios. (2025, April 28). Education Department says Penn violated Title IX over trans athlete policy. Axios

Reuters. (2025, April 29). Trump administration orders Penn to erase transgender swimmer’s records. Reuters

Tim Weight, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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