CA State Senator Dean Florez Questions UC Davis Commitment to Equity
By curtislwalker
 
Gender Discrimination chairman sees women’s rowing cut at odds with 2009 promise

SACRAMENTO -- Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter) today called on UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to explain to the Legislature how it intends to uphold its stated commitment to gender equity in light of cutting women’s rowing, a sport with 72 female athletes at the school.

Just last year, UC Davis – in a settlement to a Title IX lawsuit – pledged to ensure equal accommodation of student interest in varsity sports by adding women’s teams or whatever other measures were necessary. Florez, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Gender Discrimination and Title IX Implementation, believes the recent decision to cut rowing calls that commitment into question.

“Certainly, some could argue that this action calls into question the sincerity of UC Davis’ commitment to gender equity during the 2009 settlement agreement negotiations,” Florez wrote.

In today’s letter from Florez to Katehi, Florez states that his Committee will hold a hearing on this issue on Monday, July 12, in Sacramento. In preparation, he asks the Chancellor to provide his Committee with a written plan detailing how it intends to achieve gender equity in both the short- and long-term. He specifically asks how the university expects to be in compliance with Title IX after rowing is eliminated, as well as an analysis of all other possibilities considered before the decision to cut rowing was made.

Florez, who has held hearings throughout the state regarding public universities’ compliance with the federal law aimed at ensuring gender equity in public education since a wake of lawsuits at California State University Fresno, has given Katehi until July 1 to respond to his Committee’s request for information.

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