Male Student-Athlete Files Class Action Against University of the Pacific Over Alleged Athletic Financial Aid Discrimination

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action alleges University of the Pacific (UOP) has discriminated against male student-athletes by failing to pay them equal athletic financial aid since at least 2020.

Want to stay in the loop on class actions that matter to you? Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.

The 12-page lawsuit claims that throughout the past several years, the private university in Stockton, California has deprived male student-athletes of their fair share of athletic financial aid by failing to award scholarship money in proportion to their athletic participation rates. 

For example, men comprised about 48 percent of all UOP student-athletes during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 academic years but received only 38 and 42 percent of the total athletic financial aid the school awarded those respective years, the case contends.

“Thus, in just the two most recently reported academic years,” the complaint says “UOP’s male student-athletes received over $925,000 less in athletic financial aid—and its female student-athletes received over $925,000 more—than they would have received if UOP had granted such aid in proportion to the number of students of each sex participating in intercollegiate athletics.”

According to the filing, the university’s disproportionate allocation of athletic financial aid violates Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972 and California’s Equity in Higher Education Act, both of which prohibit educational institutions receiving public funds from discriminating against individuals on the basis of sex. 

The plaintiff, a student-athlete at UOP from 2016 to 2021, says it wasn’t until his final year on the school’s varsity swimming team that he received a partial athletic scholarship totaling $5,000.

The suit claims that the plaintiff would have received more financial aid had UOP complied with state and federal laws requiring educational institutions to allocate athletic financial aid to male and female athletes in proportion to the number of students of each sex participating in intercollegiate athletics.

The lawsuit looks to represent all current and former male students who participated in intercollegiate varsity athletics at University of the Pacific from the 2020-2021 academic year to the present and did not receive all of the athletic financial aid they could have received.

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.