This article is a compilation and summation of three articles that appeared in a summer edition of The Daily Pennsylvanian published on or about July 11, 2025:
Penn complies with Education Department demands in Title IX resolution agreement written by Ayana Chari, Ethan Young, Justin Lee, Sean McKeown, Isha Chitirala, and Finn Ryan
Penn’s ‘goodwill’ talks with Washington pave way to a settlement, officials say written by Ethan Young and Jasmine Ni
Good morning, Penn written by Ethan Young, Summer DP Editor-in-Chief
The University of Pennsylvania and the United States Department of Education have reached an agreement regarding federal government demands involving transgender athletes.
On July 1, 2025, Penn announced that it would comply with all federal government demands in compliance with Title IX and Presidential executive orders. Included among these demands are Penn’s implementation of a revised Title IX policy, removing the records of Penn student Lia Thomas from the Penn record books, banning any further transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, and sending individual apology letters to all affected Penn athletes.
In addition, Penn will issue a public statement that Penn Athletics will “adopt biology-based definitions for the words “male” and “female” pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders.” Nevertheless, after removing Lia Thomas’ swimming records, Penn is placing a footnote on the same page as the revised records stating “competing under (NCAA) eligibility rules in affect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200, and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season.”
The apology letters have been sent out by Penn. Refusing to admit any fault or moral lapse by the Penn administration, Penn’s apology maintained that Penn was in compliance with NCAA rules but was sorry that Penn student athletes experienced a “competitive disadvantage.”
According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, $175 million in frozen funding from the federal government, due to Penn’s failure to comply with Title IX, has now been restored and released to Penn.
The federal government has been very generous in its praise of how Penn conducted its negotiations. Public statements have been made by various government officials and spokespersons to the effect that Penn set a tone for the negotiations with understanding and the ability to “have a conversation like adults.”
The negotiations began shortly after Penn’s funding was paused and lasted several months. Senior government officials noted that Penn’s willingness to engage with the federal government was the groundwork for a resolution that restored the funding. Without expounding on what Penn sought in the negotiations besides receipt of the funding, it was said that Penn’s legal team sought to oppose certain provisions and to “soften” the language. Even so, the federal government successfully obtained full compliance with all its demands. The federal government is still seeking compliance from other educational institutions. The cooperative nature and subsequent agreement by Penn are being used as examples for others. Craig Trainor, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said, “Penn provides a model for institutions that want to do right by their victims, and that want to follow the law and show they are ready to be serious and responsible and respect the anti-discrimination laws that they are required to follow if they want to continue to receive taxpayer funds.”