The University of Cincinnati did not violate gender-equity requirements in college sports despite eliminating its women’s crew, a federal judge ruled last week.

In a class-action lawsuit filed in 2002, members of the team asserted that the university had failed to provide it with sufficient equipment, training facilities, and coaches. The plaintiffs also said they had received less support than comparable men’s teams had.

In 2006, Cincinnati announced that it would cut women’s crew and replace it with women’s lacrosse. According to legal documents, Cincinnati officials decided that continuing to finance women’s crew would strain the athletics department’s budget.

In a written ruling last week, Judge Thomas M. Rose of the U.S. District Court in Dayton, Ohio, ruled that Cincinnati had not violated a key federal gender-equity law, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, because the percentage of female athletes at the university was higher than the percentage of female undergraduates.

Cincinnati now offers women’s rowing as a club sport, and its members have access to a new athletics training center. “Any claims of unequal facilities …,” Judge Rose wrote, “have been remedied.” —Eric Hoover