Lawmakers Urged to Cut Funding for Universities that Refuse to End Sex-Discriminatory Programs

Rebecca Stewart: 513-479-3335

Lawmakers Urged to Cut Funding for Universities that Refuse to End Sex-Discriminatory Programs

WASHINGTON / March 7, 2022 – The federal Title IX law bans sex discrimination in schools. Defying this decades-old law, hundreds of universities currently offer programs that discriminate against male students. SAVE calls on lawmakers to cut funding for institutions that refuse to end programs that engage in sex-discrimination.

These discriminatory programs address issues such as computer coding; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); and leadership development. Literally hundreds of colleges around the country are known to offer such illegal offerings. Listings of schools with discriminatory programs (1) and scholarships (2) are available online.

As a rule, universities do not offer corresponding programs designed to address areas for which men are under-represented, such as the behavioral sciences, nursing, or teaching. Nor do they sponsor programs designed to rectify the lagging number of male enrollments in colleges.

In the Teamsters v. United States decision, the Supreme Court ruled that discrimination is not limited to explicit statements like “no male students allowed,” but also can include “actual practices” such as how the program is publicized and “recruitment techniques.” (3) But ignoring this milestone decision, many colleges have responded to discrimination complaints by making “fig leaf” adjustments to program descriptions.

For example, Arizona State University offers a program called “Girls in Tech.” In response to a recent complaint, the school added a legal disclaimer that “Girls in Tech is open to all, regardless of race, color, national origin, or sex.” But male students are unlikely to apply to a program with such a gender-biased title.

James Madison University in Virginia offers a program titled, “madiSTEM” that is described as a “STEM Conference Designed for Girls in Grades 6-8.” Responding to a complaint, the university added the legal disclaimer, “Open to all students, grades 6-8,” but did not change the program description.

The most egregious offender appears to be Stanford University. A recent complaint filed with the federal Office for Civil Rights lists a total of 33 discriminatory programs sponsored by the school. A partial list of the programs includes: Girls Teaching Girls to Code, Girls Code @Stanford, VMware Woman’s Leadership Program, Girls Engineering the Future, Women in STEM, and many more (4).

Sex-discriminatory policies may arise from an undercurrent of anti-male sentiment on college campuses (5). State lawmakers have already begun to place budget cuts on schools that sponsor programs based on social ideologies. (6-7)

SAVE urges state lawmakers to impose a 10% appropriations reduction on “woke” universities that continue to flaunt anti-sex discrimination mandates.

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