Lest you think Sen. John Tower was the only one objecting to the idea of the government dictating to our nation’s colleges, hold up. Let’s look at more pushback to Title IX, starting with Grove City College.

            Grove City College is a small school in western Pennsylvania. That area is close to my heart, as my extended family lives in the small cities and towns above Grove City — Meadville, Sandy Lake, Stoneboro, Sharon. Although most of my relatives went north to the Wesleyan Methodist–founded Houghton College in New York State, some went south to Grove City.

            Founded in the Presbyterian tradition, the private college had always refused government assistance. It believed that accepting it would compromise its independence and its mission to provide a quality education at a low cost.

            In July 1976, the Department of Education ordered the college to show its compliance with Title IX. The directive was based on the fact that 140 of the college’s 2,200 students received federal grants and student loans.

            The college refused to comply, claiming it wasn’t the one receiving federal assistance. But a judge decided that the college was still required to file the Title IX compliance report.

            Still, the college refused, so the DOE decided to terminate the students’ aid.

            That poured gasoline on the fire!

            In November 1978, the college and four students who received grants (two women and two men) sued the DOE. The lawsuit sought two things: that the DOE not rescind the student aid and that it not require Title IX compliance.

            In 1984, Grove City College v. Bell arrived at the Supreme Court. The court ruled that just because students received federal financial aid didn’t mean the entire college was subject to Title IX regulations.

            That decision went over like a bomb!

            Congress then passed legislation (over President Reagan’s veto) that required Title IX compliance in all departments regardless of which department benefited from the assistance; in this case, the financial aid office.

            Grove City still didn’t cave. Instead, it ended all financial ties to the federal government.

            “Grove City College recognizes the priceless value of our freedom,” said board president J. Howard Pew at the time.*

            To this day, neither Grove City College nor its students receives any federal assistance. No student loans, no Pell grants, no research funding — it even ended its ROTC program. Yet its allure apparently hasn’t diminished. Its student enrollment of around 2,400 is roughly the same as in 1972. It offers students financial aid under its own auspices and has 12 women’s sports programs and 11 men’s.

            It’s no surprise that a faith-based college objected to Title IX. Not because they’re inherently misogynist institutions, but because institutions like this abhor government intrusion.

            “I think it was a landmark statement of Grove City’s principles [of faith and freedom],” said Robb M. Jones, an attorney for Grove City in the Supreme Court appeal. “It wasn’t a disagreement with the aims of Title IX.”**

            And Grove City was hardly the only school to object.

            In fact, another college almost took the lead in Title IX resistance. While the law was being hammered out, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) was actively seeking a college that could credibly mount a challenge. They wanted a private college without a huge football  program — a point of contention, as we’ve talked about — that objected to government directives.

            In 1977, the NCAA found what it wanted in my husband’s alma mater, Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University). CBC was (and is now) a conservative Christian college in Columbia, South Carolina, with a small enrollment, only 664 students that year. My husband doesn’t remember sports attracting much interest at all there in the 1970s.

            “Can were recruit?” asked an NCAA official in an internal memo, referencing CBC.***

            Yet Grove City beat the NCAA to the punch, filing Grove City v. Bell in 1978. Oh, what could have been! More objections to come. Watch this space!

                                                _____________________

* Grove City College website, Faith and Freedom video, accessed October 17, 2020 (link no longer available).

** Tim Leone, Grove City College Left a Landmark on Title IX, PennLive Patriot News (Jan. 5, 2019). https://www.pennlive.com/patriotnewssports/2012/06/grove_city_college_left_a_land.html

*** Ellen J. Staurowsky, Marquette Sports Law Review (Vol. 14, Issue 1), p. 103-04.