On April 4, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon denied three motions filed by the University of Oregon that sought to dismiss or significantly limit a series of Title IX claims brought by current and former female student athletes represented by Altshuler Berzon LLP and co-counsel. The plaintiffs, who seek classwide damages and injunctive relief, allege that the University violated and is continuing to violate Title IX by failing to provide its female athletes equal treatment and benefits and equal financial aid as compared to its male athletes, and by failing to provide female students equal athletic participation opportunities as compared to male students.
The Court denied the University’s motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, allowing the plaintiffs to seek injunctive relief and damages on their equal treatment and benefits and equal financial aid claims, and injunctive relief on their equal participation opportunities claim. The Court also denied the University’s motion for summary judgment based on the statute of limitations, which the Court held was two years, not one, and began to run only after the affected students knew or should have known of the University’s alleged violations. Finally, the Court denied the University’s motion for judgment on the pleadings against the plaintiffs’ equal treatment and benefits claim, holding that plaintiffs’ complaint properly states a claim challenging the University’s overall unequal treatment of its female athletes as compared to its male athletes.
The order allows the case to proceed with classwide discovery. Plaintiffs will then move for class certification to allow them to represent all female athletes and students who have been harmed by the University’s discrimination against its female students.
A copy of the order is available here.