“This is a complex issue, and I am pleased that we were able to reach a resolution through the standard OCR process for concluding Title IX investigations,” UPenn President J. Larry Jameson said Tuesday, as the university announced a sweeping agreement with the federal government that’s set to ripple through college athletics and the national conversation on fairness and inclusion.
The University of Pennsylvania will now ban transgender athletes from competing on women’s sports teams and erase the records set by Lia Thomas, the swimmer who made history as the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I NCAA title in the women’s 500-yard freestyle in 2022. The move follows a Department of Education investigation that found UPenn violated Title IX by “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities,” as reported by the Office for Civil Rights.
Every record and award Thomas earned during her time at UPenn is being stripped from the books. The university has already begun updating its women’s swimming records, now crediting other athletes with top times in the events Thomas once dominated. The school’s website notes, “Competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season,” but those records are being officially revised. The university will also send personalized apology letters to each female swimmer who lost out on titles or awards due to Thomas’s participation, a step required by the federal agreement.
The Department of Education’s findings, announced in April, concluded that Penn had denied “women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.” The ruling gave Penn just ten days to comply or risk losing federal funding, a threat that had already resulted in a pause on $175 million in federal funds earlier this year.
As part of the settlement, UPenn must now adopt “biology-based” definitions of male and female, publicly announce that “males” will not be allowed to compete in female athletic programs, and promise that its teams will comply with the new eligibility guidelines. The university emphasized that its previous policies were always in line with NCAA and Ivy League rules, which allowed Thomas to compete at the time. “We acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules,” Jameson stated, adding, “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”
This agreement comes amid a rapidly shifting landscape for transgender athletes in collegiate sports. In February, the NCAA moved to a stricter policy, now limiting women’s competition to athletes assigned female at birth, ending its prior sport-by-sport approach. The Department of Education has also asked both the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations to restore titles and records it says were “misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories,” though neither organization has yet responded to these requests.
UPenn’s case is not isolated. Several other universities and K-12 schools have faced similar federal scrutiny over transgender athlete participation, but UPenn is the first major institution to reach a resolution agreement since the Trump administration’s executive order in February. That order, signed on February 5, 2025, bans transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports at federally funded schools, requiring institutions to comply or face potential loss of funding.
The debate over transgender inclusion in women’s sports remains deeply polarized. Supporters of the new policy, like Education Secretary Linda McMahon, have called the agreement “a victory for women and girls.” Others, including Title IX advocates, have sharply criticized the move. Shiwali Patel of the National Women’s Law Center called the outcome “devastating and shameful,” arguing, “The Trump administration’s attacks on civil rights protections, including Title IX, and obsession with undermining bodily autonomy is the real harm to women and girls, unlike transgender athletes who want to compete in sports alongside their peers and pose no threat to women’s sports, contrary to Trump’s lies.”
Paula Scanlan, a former teammate of Thomas and a vocal advocate for restricting transgender participation, expressed gratitude for the administration’s actions, saying she was “deeply grateful to the Trump Administration for refusing to back down on protecting women and girls and restoring our rightful accolades.”
UPenn’s decision and the federal agreement are now setting a new precedent for how universities nationwide navigate the intersection of gender identity, athletic competition, and federal law. As the NCAA and other schools continue to review their own policies, the impact of this agreement is likely to be felt far beyond the pool.
