'We want the respect we deserve.' Quinnipiac women's rugby team continues fighting to reinstate program
Players say they're set to meet with the university later this week. In the meantime, they've started a GoFundMe to cover legal fees, as they plan to take the issue to court.
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The fight continues for the Quinnipiac women's rugby team as it pleads with the university to get the program reinstated.
On Tuesday, members of the team joined students4stat for an on-campus protest and Title IX demonstration.
"We're not just going to let them do this to us," student-athlete Macey Dunn says, "and take it away from us easily without a fight."
The protest was partly in response to the university's recent decision to downgrade the three-time national championship division one program that produced Olympic medalist Ilona Maher from varsity to club level.
"What we want is to be reinstated," senior captain Kelsey Thomas says. "We want the respect we deserve."
School officials have cited Title IX compliance as a central component of the decision.
"You received news recently that you neither wanted nor expected," Quinnipiac President Marie Hardin said at the protest. "I'm not going to minimize that."
A new men's distance track team will take the rugby team's place, which players say is kind of ironic.
"This current team deserves to know why the university would cut them under the guise of Title IX," Thomas says, "when our program was created to settle Quinnipiac's wrongdoings with Title IX."
Players say they're set to meet with the university later this week.
In the meantime, they've started a GoFundMe to cover legal fees, as they plan to take the issue to court.
"Quinnipiac tries to show itself as a progressive university that cares about women and women in sports," Dunn says. "I think this contradicts that."
