San Jose State University has 10 days to resolve federal violations stemming from its transgender athlete policy or it will face financial and legal consequences, the Trump administration warned Tuesday — but the school is showing no sign of giving in.
In January, the U.S. Department of Education found San Jose State University violated federal sexual harassment and discrimination regulations — Title IX — by allowing a transgender athlete to play on the women’s volleyball team.
Tuesday’s warning follows a previous deadline set for the university’s compliance, which expired over the weekend.
“We have provided San Jose State University with multiple opportunities to resolve its Title IX violations with common sense actions…Yet, SJSU remains obstinate, choosing a radical ideology over safety, dignity, and fairness for its own students,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey in a statement Tuesday. “With today’s action, the department is putting the university on notice: comply with the law or risk losing its federal funding.”
The inclusion of a transgender athlete on the SJSU team sparked controversy in 2024, resulting in several opposing teams forfeiting matches against the university in protest and a lawsuit from a fellow Spartan volleyball player. The federal government launched an investigation into the university in February of 2025.
The investigation’s January findings alleged that San Jose State’s policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports and “access female-only facilities deny women equal educational opportunities and benefits.”
The department offered a proposed resolution agreement for the university to “voluntarily resolve” the violations but threatened consequences if San Jose State did not agree.
That agreement would have required San Jose State to issue a public statement adopting “biology-based definitions” of sex; separate sports teams and certain facilities “based on biological sex”; restore athletic records and titles it said were “misappropriated” by transgender athletes; and issue personalized apology letters to female athletes — including players on teams that forfeited matches — for what the department described as sex discrimination.
The department threatened to cut the university’s federal funding if San Jose State did not agree to the resolution and gave university leaders until March 6 to respond, San Jose State’s president, Cynthia Teniente-Matson, said in a message to the community earlier this month.
In the message, Teniente-Matson said the university informed the education department that San Jose State “cannot and will not agree to the terms of the Proposed Resolution Agreement,” pointing to existing federal law that prohibited discrimination against transgender athletes.
The university also filed a lawsuit against the federal government earlier this month to challenge the findings and prevent the federal government from slashing funding.
San Jose State University reiterated Teniente-Matson’s previous comments on Tuesday, stating that the university will not agree to to proposed resolution. The campus deferred to the California State University system for additional comments.
The California State University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration’s warning Tuesday gives the university 10 calendar days to come into compliance or “face enforcement action,” including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice and the loss of federal funding. The administration has not said which federal funding, or how much, the university stands to lose.
Since he took office in 2025, President Donald Trump has passed a slew of anti-transgender executive orders, including executive orders that only recognize two sexes, limits gender-affirming treatments for youth and prohibit transgender players from participating in sports.
His administration has also cracked down on K-12 schools and universities across the country for policies that support transgender individuals, including several investigations into California schools, the California Education Department and the California Interscholastic Federation.
In June, the administration determined the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation also violated Title IX laws by allowing transgender athletes to participate in sports. Similarly to San Jose State, California refused to comply with the administration’s demands, citing state law requiring public schools to allow students to participate in school activities, including sports, consistent with their gender identity.
The battle between California schools and the Trump administration puts school leaders in a tricky place — risking federal funding if they don’t agree to the government’s demands and state funding if they do. Gov. Gavin Newsom warned California university leaders in October that schools will lose billions in state funding if they cave to President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI, anti-transgender agenda in exchange for additional federal funding.