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Athletics directors tell Regents audit panel Minnesota campuses meet Title IX proportionality, flag publicity and roster challenges
Summary
University athletics leaders told the Audit and Compliance Committee that both Twin Cities and Duluth campuses meet Title IX tests on participation and financial aid parity, noting a calculated participation disparity of 7.38 at Twin Cities and limitations in publicity and roster management as ongoing challenges.
Athletics leaders from the University of Minnesota told the Board of Regents Audit and Compliance Committee on June 2025 that both the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses meet Title IX requirements on participation and scholarship aid but that publicity, roster management and external media decisions can limit equity efforts.
Jenny Yellen, Senior Associate Director for Athletics on the Twin Cities campus, outlined the university’s compliance framework — an athletics compliance office that reports to general counsel, twice-yearly roster reviews, faculty athletics representatives and an equity and diversity committee. On participation, Yellen showed the campus’s duplicated female student-athlete percentage at 53.7% and presented a calculated disparity she said was "7.38," adding, "what that means is if we added 7.38 female participation opportunities on our campus, then we would be in exact proportionality." She cautioned that proportionality comparisons use duplicated head counts and that average roster sizes factor into any remedy decisions.
Forrest Carr, Director of Athletics at the Duluth campus, said UMD’s full-time undergraduate female share is about 49% and its duplicated female student-athlete participation is about 49%, putting the campus "right at exactly even" under the same Title IX formula. Both campuses showed athletically related financial aid distributions within about 1% of proportionality; Yellen said Twin Cities female athletes receive roughly 48.67% of aid while representing about 49.5% of unduplicated athletes.
Regents asked about enforcement and outreach. Regent Johnson said: "Are there any challenges you face, in all of this?" Yellen pointed to publicity and promotion — television and network exposure beyond the university’s control — and described streaming and in-house platforms as partial mitigations. Carr and Mark Coyle, Twin Cities Director for Athletics, described ongoing coach- and conference-level practices to increase exposure and youth outreach; Coyle said coaches run summer camps and other programs to connect younger athletes to campus teams.
Committee members praised the work while noting the difference between meeting the legal tests and promoting equal visibility for women’s programs. The discussion closed with the committee thanking the presenters and moving to subsequent agenda items.
