Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal on December 4, 2024. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission.
The San José State University (SJSU) women’s volleyball team made international news this season, with coverage by the BBC, the Telegraph, Quillette, the New York Times, CNN, and ESPN. The reason for all this interest is that SJSU had a biological male on the team.
This offense against athletic fairness was not received kindly by many involved. Brooke Slusser—a team co-captain—assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, two former players, and eight players from teams that forfeited games against SJSU have all filed suit. Teams from Boise State University, Southern Utah University, Utah State University, the University of Wyoming, and the University of Nevada all opted not to play SJSU due to the Spartans’ unfair advantage.
This lack of fairness is evidenced by the fact that nets for male teams are set at 7 feet, 11 5/8 inches, whereas nets for female teams are set at 7 feet, 4 1/8 inches, a nearly 8-inch difference. Male athletes, with their extra strength, can seriously injure female athletes, particularly when playing by women’s rules. In 2022, North Carolina high schooler Payton McNabb was struck by a ball spiked by a trans athlete, ending her athletic career and causing traumatic brain injuries that she is still struggling to recover from today. In Massachusetts, a male high-school basketball player caused injuries to female players from a rival school before forcing a forfeit.
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The SJSU women’s volleyball season has now come to an end. SJSU nearly won the Mountain West Tournament after two judges ruled against injunctions to stop the school from playing with a male on its team. Due to opponents’ forfeits, SJSU advanced to the final round without playing a single game in the tournament. Furthermore, Batie-Smoose alleges that the male athlete in question conspired with Colorado State University—the team that would go on to beat SJSU in the final—to throw a match and injure teammate Slusser.
In addition to her lawsuit, Batie-Smoose filed a Title IX complaint in support of the team’s female athletes. Instead of moving to investigate, however, SJSU suspended her indefinitely. She was also threatened with job loss if she expressed concerns about practical issues, such as the fear of injury due to the biological male’s participation in training sessions.
The fight against SJSU’s discriminatory actions continues. Representing the plaintiffs is veteran Title IX attorney Bill Bock, who alleges discrimination by the university in violation of Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. For her own part, Slusser states that she was forced to play and share a room with the male player without being informed that he was a male. Furthermore, the suit alleges that the male player in question had requested that he room with Slusser on road trips—perhaps he has a crush on her.
Multiple teammates, including Slusser, were reportedly warned that if they complained about the situation, “things would go badly” for them. Thus, in addition to the Title IX suit, SJSU is also being sued for violating the First Amendment for trying to silence women who are against males in women’s sports.
This isn’t the first time SJSU has decided not to protect female student-athletes. For over a decade, SJSU administrators enabled coach Scott Shaw to sexually abuse female students. This occurred under the watch of multiple SJSU presidents and resulted in one president, Mary Papazian, stepping down. The athletic director, Marie Tuite, allegedly knew about the allegations and was forced to resign in 2021.
Instead of doing a thorough investigation, Tuite and Papazian performed a sham one, letting Shaw back into the locker rooms where he continued his abuse. Whistleblower coach Sage Hopkins reported this neglect to the NCAA, but for this, Tuite tried to fire him. After leaving SJSU in disgrace, Tuite unbelievably landed a job as the athletic director at Southern Utah University.
Eventually, the FBI stepped in. Shaw pleaded guilty, six student-athletes testified at his sentencing, and he received a paltry two years of incarceration. SJSU paid $1.6 million to 13 female students whose complaints they had mishandled.
One may wonder what is wrong with SJSU. Why are they failing to protect and respect women? But this isn’t a case of just one misbehaving university. Progressive colleges around the U.S. are falling into the same pattern. For example, male athletes entering female sports and stealing opportunities from women have also occurred at Georgia Tech, which hosted the infamous 2022 NCAA women’s swimming championship featuring Lia Thomas. If allowed to take effect, the Biden administration’s changes to Title IX would strip away protections for female athletes and enable more males to join women’s teams.
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The attacks against females at SJSU go beyond athletics. I, too, was targeted as a professor at SJSU. Upon changing its protocols for access to the curation facility in my field of anthropology, the university inserted sex-discriminatory regulations, stating that henceforth, “menstruating personnel will not be permitted to handle” the human remains collection. (Note that politically correct university administrators couldn’t even bring themselves to say “women,” as that would exclude the possibility that males menstruate.) Such menstrual taboos are about casting females as filthy while they’re on their periods. Primitive beliefs that menstruating females need to be excluded from interacting with others should not, in the 21st century, be endorsed by a university dedicated to promoting education and progressive, inclusionary values.
This offensive menstrual taboo was removed after my lawyers notified the university that I’d be filing a Title IX complaint. Yet, my victory notwithstanding, menstrual taboos are also found in hands-on field schools, such as the University of Washington’s. There, anthropologists collaborating with Native Americans prevented menstruating women from entering the kitchen, preparing food, or serving themselves.
Universities also celebrate World Hijab Day, which is held on the first day of February to coincide with the return of Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran from exile. Campuses around the U.S. have been remarkably silent when violence occurs against women who regard the hijab as a repressive tool meant to erase their individual identities. Note, for example, Wear-A-Hijab Day at the University of Illinois.
Some may argue that biological males should be free to identify as females. And if, in the 21st century, some Native Americans still want to cling to offensive superstitions about menstruating women, that, too, is their right. But as the saying goes, “The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s [or, in this case, woman’s!] nose begins.” Where very real physical, sexual, and psychological harms result, these policies are not acceptable. It’s time to take a stand for female rights and to ensure that female students and women in general are protected from violence, abuse, stigma, and backward ways.
Image of San Jose Spartans women’s beach volleyball at Stanford Invitational 2015-03-07 on Wikimedia Commons
This article was originally published at www.mindingthecampus.org
