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ACLU: Brown wanted to dismantle sports equity agreement

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Newly released internal documents show that top Brown University officials wanted to undermine and dismantle a 22-year-old agreement to provide gender equity in varsity sports, attorneys for Public Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island said.

A federal judge last month ordered the release of the documents.

The documents, including emails sent earlier this year, were filed Thursday and are part of an ongoing legal dispute stemming from Brown’s decision in May to cut five women’s varsity sports teams and six men’s teams.

In one email, Chancellor Samuel Mencoff expresses a desire to “kill this pestilential thing,” a reference to the 1998 agreement.

In another email, Brown President Christina Paxson wrote: “This might be the perfect moment to petition the court to get us out of this agreement,” while restoring some men’s sports.

Brown announced in May it would cut women’s varsity fencing, golf, squash, skiing and equestrian teams in an effort to streamline its athletic department. Six men’s varsity sports were also cut, although some were later restored. Brown said it would add co-ed and women’s varsity sailing teams.

Public Justice and the ACLU of Rhode Island on June 29 filed a motion asking the federal court to enforce the 1998 settlement agreement by restoring the women’s sports and finding the university in contempt. The 1998 agreement stemmed from a legal challenge to Brown’s decision to cut women’s gymnastics and volleyball.

“When we filed the motion to enforce the Court’s order in June, we expressed concern that Brown’s commitment to gender equity and its women athletes was insincere and simply window-dressing,” Lynette Labinger, cooperating counsel for the ACLU and the lead attorney in the 1992 suit brought by female athletes against Brown, said in a statement. “Through discovery, we learned the unfortunate truth: Brown does not care.”

A Brown spokesman defended the school’s commitment to women’s sports and its ongoing compliance with the 1998 agreement.

“When neither the facts nor the law support their case, a party to a litigation sometimes resorts to rhetoric and invective,” Brian Clark said in a statement to The Providence Journal. “Today’s press release and accompanying documents in Cohen v. Brown exemplify that unfortunate approach, reflecting the continued efforts by plaintiffs’ counsel to use snippets from documents taken out of context to develop a public narrative in lieu of a viable legal claim.”

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