At Penn, mixed reactions to Lia Thomas' records being rescinded

The Herald Scotland

7 hours ago

On a misty, oppressively hot early July morning, the campus was mostly quiet, save for a small number of prospective students touring the university and people passing through the urban Philadelphia campus. Few seemed to have the time, or perhaps the inclination, to discuss Thomas, who competed on the women's swimming team for one season after competing for three seasons on the men's team.
More: Lia Thomas, Title IX and $175M: Why Penn struck a deal with Trump
Daniela Lopez, a nursing student from New Jersey, said she felt empathetic toward Thomas, who began transitioning in 2019 and graduated from Penn in 2022.
"They should be allowed to compete," Lopez said of transgender athletes. "On top of everything else, every controversial issue in this world, I think this shouldn't be a big concern."
But Vanessa Placencia, a senior psychology major from Texas, believes Thomas and other transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete in women's sports.
"I think the other girls (whose records, broken by Thomas, were restored) were appropriately prized," said Placincia. "I never thought it was fair (that Thomas competed on the women's team)."
Placincia said she's lost modeling work to transgender women, and believes it was due to "unfair physical advantages." "They're taller, and it's affected me," she said. "I've been told I'm not tall enough but they get hired. I don't want to see them taking jobs from women."
"I am all for being respectful," she said, "but also, be fair."
She added that she's "pro-Trump": "I think he did the right thing and I think he's doing a good job."
The university had said in a July 1 statement that it would comply with an executive order. J. Larry Jameson, the university's president, said it is a "complex issue," adding he was pleased to reach the agreement.
"Our commitment to ensuring a respectful and welcoming environment for all of our students is unwavering," Jameson said in the statement. "At the same time, we must comply with federal requirements, including executive orders, and NCAA eligibility rules, so our teams and student-athletes may engage in competitive intercollegiate sports."
Connor Johns, a sophomore finance major and a wide receiver on the Penn Quakers football team, said that "as an athlete, I don't think it's fair for (transgender athletes) to compete on women's teams, because it discounts all the hard work women have done to compete." He added, though, that Penn was following the rules governing college sports at the time by allowing Thomas to compete.
Thomas began transitioning in 2019, complying with the NCAA and Ivy League rules then in place. The NCAA updated its policy on transgender athletes in 2022, taking a sport-by-sport approach that it said "preserves opportunity for transgender student-athletes while balancing fairness, inclusion and safety for all who compete."
Still, Johns said he believes that once the university allowed Thomas to compete on the women's team, it should have stood by the decision. The reversal, he said, sends a message that the university's administration is influenced by external forces.
"You can't backtrack," he said. "It seems like they were pressured into this decision, but they should get it right the first time."
The decision to rescind Thomas' records "shows student-athletes and students in general that the university can't stand by its decisions," he said.
Penn alum Amy Lipton said she found Penn's decision "problematic, for a number of reasons," including that Thomas was in compliance with existing NCAA rules when she competed.
Lipton, a finance professor emerita at St. Joseph's University just outside Philadelphia, graduated from Penn's Wharton School of Business in 1988. During her time at St. Joseph's, she was a member and for a time co-chair of The Alliance, a group supporting LGBTQ students and faculty.
"Also, as Columbia (University) has learned the hard way, making a deal with this (Trump) administration seems to be a bottomless pit," she said, referencing that school's challenges over accusations of antisemitism and liberal bias. "While they say perhaps it will lead to getting grant money back, the government may very well come back and say, 'Well, we also want this and we also want that.'"
The government will now release $175 million in funding for the school that it had frozen in March, Madison Biedermann, an Education Department spokeswoman, told USA TODAY.
Prospective students and faculty may now find Penn's assertion that it is a welcoming institution "somewhat disingenuous," Lipton added. "Nothing about this, or the agreement to go with the government's interpretation of what male means and what female means seems to be welcoming to people who might identify as LGBTQ."
Contributing: Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY