Eastern Michigan University has agreed to pay out $125,000 to two student-athletes affected by the school’s athletics cuts in 2018, as well as commit $2 million to women’s sports on campus, MLive.com reported last week.
Tennis team member Marie Mayerova and former softball team member Ariana Chretien sued the school in June 2018 claiming EMU “was not providing effective accommodation to female student-athletes,” according to MLive. Mayerova, whose team was reinstated, will receive $25,000, and Chretien, whose team was not, will get $100,000. They’ll also be reimbursed for their legal fees.
Claims against EMU, its Board of Regents, Athletic Director Scott Wetherbee and President James Smith were dismissed as part of the agreement, MLive reported.
In March 2018, EMU announced it would cut women’s tennis and softball, as well as men’s swimming and diving, and wrestling, in an effort to lower its athletics budget by $2.4 million. In February of last year, a judge ruled that EMU must reinstate both women’s tennis and softball, but the school argued that instead of softball, it should start a women’s lacrosse program. That program will begin in the 2021-2022 school year.
Per MLive, the settlement agreement also includes the following:
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EMU agrees to take steps to achieve sustainable “substantial proportionality” between the ratio of male to female athletic participation opportunities to the ratio of male to female full-time undergraduate students attending the University by the end of the 2022-23 academic year.
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EMU agrees it will not eliminate any women’s varsity sports during the settlement period unless the elimination is the result of circumstances beyond its control, or the elimination will not cause participation of women to fall below the level of substantial proportionality. The settlement neither requires nor prohibits the elimination of any men’s varsity team.
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EMU agrees to take steps to manage the roster sizes of men’s and women’s sports as are necessary to achieve substantial proportionality.
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The University will commit at least $2 million more in total investment to women’s sports on campus over the course of the next three years, in addition to funding the lacrosse program. This amount includes capital projects as well as operations.
That’s probably more than what the men’s swim & dive team budget was.
for sure. they paid for their own swag, had to hand in warm-ups every year, had to pay their own way for a training trip, rarely traveled to a meet and if they did it was with the girls who i’m sure picked up much of the expense. And the men’s team had 38 athletes, of which 35 were not from Michigan and paying out-of-state tuition.
Every single time that a team is cut this needs to happen. Every single time. Make these schools think twice before cutting.
Make sure enrollment matches the offerings for gender, and force them to keep the underrepresented team. If they are out of Title IX compliance for men, make them keep the men’s team. Force their hand. This athletic department made a huge mess that I’m positive that if they could go back and redo it they would.
This is just par for the course at EMU. A total failure by the athletic department!
Total failure of leadership in general for years. Remember when they covered up a murder in the dorms? https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jun-19-na-murder19-story.html
I was told personally by the chair of the board of regents (James Webb, a former EMU swimmer) that getting rid of the teams was to save the football program.
So while trying to lower the budget by $2.4 million, they end up being forced to increase the budget by $2 million and pay out damages and legal fees. Seems like the plan went great!
And the Men what were not being provided “effective accommodation” when their teams were cut? Yeah, per the usual they get nothing.