New Title IX Lawsuit Against Slippery Rock U. Alleges Retaliation

Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania appears headed back to court over its compliance with Title IX, the key federal gender-equity law that’s often cited in disputes over whether female students get equal opportunity in college sports. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the women’s volleyball coach, Laurie Lokash, and an assistant to the athletic director, Pearl Shaffer, sued Slippery Rock on Friday, asserting that they had suffered retaliation after they testified, as part of a previous Title IX lawsuit against the university, that the athletic director, Paul Lueken, had trouble working with strong women. The coach said Slippery Rock had opted to not renew her contract, and the assistant said she had been overloaded with work and excluded from important meetings. The university had no comment on the new lawsuit, the newspaper reported, and Mr. Lueken could not be reached. Slippery Rock settled the previous lawsuit by agreeing to reinstate three women’s teams that it had sought to eliminate.