The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has determined that San José State University (SJSU) violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The investigation found that SJSU's policies, which allowed male students to compete in women’s sports and use female-only facilities, resulted in unequal educational opportunities and benefits for women.
OCR began its investigation in February 2025 following allegations that SJSU permitted a male athlete to join the women’s indoor volleyball team and retaliated against female students and an assistant coach who opposed the university’s gender identity policies.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey stated, “SJSU caused significant harm to female athletes by allowing a male to compete on the women’s volleyball team—creating unfairness in competition, compromising safety, and denying women equal opportunities in athletics, including scholarships and playing time. Even worse, when female athletes spoke out, SJSU retaliated—ignoring sex-discrimination claims while subjecting one female SJSU athlete to a Title IX complaint for allegedly ‘misgendering’ the male athlete competing on a women’s team. This is unacceptable. We will not relent until SJSU is held to account for these abuses and commits to upholding Title IX to protect future athletes from the same indignities.”
Following this finding of noncompliance, OCR issued a proposed Resolution Agreement requiring several actions from SJSU:
- Publicly state that it will adopt biology-based definitions of 'male' and 'female' and acknowledge that human sex is unchangeable.
- Specify adherence to Title IX by separating sports teams and intimate facilities based on biological sex.
- Affirm it will not delegate its Title IX compliance obligations or contract with entities discriminating based on sex.
- Restore individual athletic records and titles taken from female athletes due to participation by males in women's categories, along with issuing personalized apologies.
- Send apologies to all affected members of women's volleyball teams from 2022–2024 as well as those who forfeited matches rather than play against a team with a male student.
The background provided by OCR indicates that since 2022, SJSU recruited a male athlete for both indoor and beach women's volleyball teams. Coaching staff were reportedly told not to inform female players about the athlete's sex. As a result, some athletes shared locker rooms and hotel accommodations without knowledge of this fact.
Safety concerns were raised after incidents where the male athlete spiked balls with enough force to knock down opposing players. During one season, seven all-women's teams chose forfeiture over competing against SJSU under these conditions.
Additionally, OCR found that SJSU failed to properly investigate complaints filed by female athletes regarding these circumstances. In one instance described by OCR, after joining a lawsuit against the NCAA over Title IX issues, an SJSU player learned she was targeted in an alleged conspiracy involving physical retaliation during play; yet no investigation followed from university officials. Instead, she faced her own Title IX complaint after discussing her experience publicly.
Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex within education programs or activities receiving federal funding.
