Certified copy of Ohlensehlen v. The University of Iowa. Title IX violation lawsuit brought by swimmers Sage Ohlensehlen, Christina Kaufman, Alexa Puccini, and Kelsey Drake, 2020. On loan for this exhibition from Jennifer Sterling.
From curator Dr. Jennifer Sterling:
Gender equity for women, and in women’s athletics, is an ongoing pursuit and legacy at the University of Iowa. Iowa women athletes and sports administrators have been recognized a number of times for their efforts to advance women’s rights, particularly with the Jean Y. Jew Women’s Rights Award. Women’s sport pioneers and Iowa colleagues Dr. Yvonne “Bonnie” Slatton and Dr. Christine Grant were honored with the award in 1997 and 1998, respectively, shortly after the award was established in 1992 to honor Jew and others who demonstrate outstanding effort or achievement in improving the status of women on campus.
In 2016, Iowa field hockey players Dani Hemeon, Chandler Ackers, Jesse Silfer and Natalie Cafone received the Jean Jew Award after they filed a civil rights complaint alleging gender-based discriminatory practices in violation of Title IX. Coinciding with the firing of their head coach Tracey Griesbaum (who later, along with athletic administrator Jan Meyer, settled their own discrimination lawsuits with the university), the athletes raised issues of gender bias in relation to the management of women coaches and women student-athlete concerns.
Similarly, Iowa swimmers Sage Ohlensehlen, Christina Kaufman, Alexa Puccini, and Kelsy Drake received the Jean Jew Award in 2022 after they filed a successful Title IX noncompliance lawsuit when their program was cut in 2020. Wrestler Abbie Lyman and rugby player Miranda Vermeer also later added their name to the suit, urging the expansion of women’s sports at Iowa. As a result of the lawsuit, women’s swimming was reinstated and women’s wrestling was added to the women’s sports program. Their initial filing, certified by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, is displayed in the exhibit and has now also been added to the university’s special collections.
Most recently, the Iowa women’s basketball team were the 2024 recipients of the Jean Jew Award. See the 2024 Celebration of Excellence and Achievement Among Women ceremony and Coach Lisa Bluder’s acceptance speech here.
It should also be noted that sport studies faculty Susan Birrell and founding curator of the Iowa Women’s Archives Kären Mason—two people whose efforts to advance the study of women in sport and preserve women’s sport history made this exhibit possible—have also received the Jean Jew Award, in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
Partial transcript from the preliminary statement of Ohlensehlen vs. The University of Iowa (2020):
“Plaintiffs bring this Complaint against Defendant and, in support thereof, state the following:
[…] Female student-athletes enrolled at the University of Iowa (‘UI’)—Sage Ohlensehlen, Christina Kaufman, Alexa Puccini, and Kelsey Drake—bring this class action lawsuit to challenge the UI’s failure to provide equitable athletic opportunities for its female students and equitable treatment of female student athletes, including the UI’s announced elimination of a viable female sports team, with a venerable history and strong public support: women’s swimming and driving.”