Dickinson College Reinstates Men’s Squash Team Four Months After Reinstating Women’s Squash Team to Avoid Title IX Lawsuit

Dickinson College Interim President John E. Jones III announced late yesterday that the school was reinstating its men’s squash team to varsity status and continuing it going forward. On August 26, 2022, Dickinson said it was eliminating both its men’s and women’s squash teams at the end of the 2021-22 academic year. But the women’s teams members threatened to file a Title IX sex discrimination class action and, on October 6, 2021, Dickinson agreed to reinstate the women’s team, develop a gender equity plan, and come into full compliance with Title IX. Now, as the women’s team members urged, Dickinson is reinstating its men’s team, too.

Last night, President Jones met with the student-athletes about their teams’ treatment, shared the good news, and then sent an email “To the Dickinson Community,” included below, announcing the men’s team’s reinstatement. It says, “New college presidents sometimes forge ahead with plans without having the necessary feel for all the facts and may fail to consider viable alternatives. That was certainly the case here. I deeply regret the disappointment and frustration this caused team members and their families. I offer my sincere apologies…and I thank the dedicated parents who advocated on behalf of their athletes.”

The reinstatement of the men’s squash team comes four months after Dickinson’s agreement to reinstate the women’s squash team. The press release announcing that agreement noted, “The women’s squash team members urged Dickinson to reinstate the men’s squash team, too, but, up to now, the school has not been willing to do so. To ensure that it can, the agreement provides that the women’s squash team members ‘waive any legal claims that would arise out of the men’s squash team’s reinstatement.’ The women will continue to fight for the men’s team’s reinstatement, too.”

Women’s squash team co-captain Courtney Trail, said, “We are grateful for President Jones’s decision to reinstate the men’s squash team, his apology, and his commitment to leading us forward together. We are sorry we all had to go through this, but thrilled that the women’s and men’s squash teams will continue, Dickinson will comply with Title IX, and the sex discrimination in the athletic program will end.”

The women squash team members who successfully fought for their rights are Amna Fayyaz, Jocelyn Feliciano, Whitney Finney, Ellissa (Ella) Goldman, Elizabeth Howerton, Lindsay Kuracina, Doxey Loupassi, Cate Moll, Eloise Nimoityn, Rachel O'Brien, Anna O'Connor, Emerson Rains, Courtney Trail, and Katelynn Young.

In addition to Bryant, the lawyers for the female student-athletes are Bailey Glasser attorneys Cary Joshi in Washington, DC; and Lori Bullock in Des Moines, Iowa.