The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has found that San José State University (SJSU) violated Title IX by allowing a male athlete to compete on women’s volleyball teams and use female-only facilities, the agency announced in a Jan. 28 press release.
The determination follows a directed investigation launched in February 2025 into allegations that the university permitted a male student to play on the women’s indoor volleyball team and retaliated against female athletes and a coach who criticized the policy.
In a statement, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said the university “caused significant harm to female athletes” by allowing the male to compete, as the decision created unfair competition, safety concerns, and denied women equal opportunities, including scholarships and playing time.
She added that the university retaliated against women who spoke out, including by filing a Title IX complaint against one female athlete for allegedly “misgendering” the male competitor.
Richey said, “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.”
According to the release, the OCR issued a proposed resolution agreement to address the violations. It would require SJSU to:
- Issue a public statement adopting biology-based definitions of “male” and “female,” acknowledging sex as unchangeable.
- Specify that the university will separate sports and intimate facilities based on biological sex.
- Affirm that it will not delegate Title IX compliance to external entities or contract with those that discriminate on the basis of sex.
- Restore individual athletic records and titles to female athletes affected by male participation in women’s categories.
- Send personalized apology letters to each impacted female athlete.
- Send apologies to women on its women’s indoor volleyball teams from 2022-24 and the 2023 beach volleyball team and to any women on opposing teams that forfeited matches rather than compete against SJSU.
In 2022, the university reportedly recruited a male athlete for the women’s indoor and beach volleyball teams. SJSU allowed the man to compete and allegedly instructed coaches not to disclose the athlete’s sex, leading to shared locker rooms and hotel rooms—raising privacy and safety concerns among teammates.
The OCR cited unfair physical advantages, including instances where the male athlete’s spikes knocked opposing female players to the ground, as well as seven women’s teams from other universities that forfeited matches against SJSU rather than compete.
OCR concluded that the university failed to promptly investigate Title IX complaints from female athletes about the male’s participation and discouraged participation in the process.
In one case, a female player joined a Title IX lawsuit against the NCAA, she allegedly faced a conspiracy involving an opposing player to spike her in the face, according to the release. The university did not investigate but later pursued a Title IX complaint against her for “misgendering” the male athlete when discussing the issue.
The university has previously defended its policies in related legal disputes involving transgender athlete participation.
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