March 26, 2021

To President Katsouleas,
Director of Athletics Benedict, and
Members of the Board of Trustees:

We join with other former UConn student athletes UConn to express our shared concerns
regarding the announcement made on June 24, 2020 by the University of Connecticut to cut four
of its 22 Division I athletic teams, including the UConn women’s rowing team, and request that
UConn reinstate all four sports.

We are writing separately as the team with the proud history of fighting for gender equity at
UConn. In 1978, after a successful year as a club program when our request for varsity status
was denied, our team filed a Title IX complaint with the Department of HEW (now OCR)
requesting that UConn add a women’s soccer program because UConn was out of compliance
with Title IX. After much hard work by many in the UConn community—including men and
women; students, faculty, and administration; parents of female high school soccer players; and
local community leaders—in 1979, UConn added the varsity sport of women’s soccer to resolve
the HEW complaint. Since then, UConn women’s soccer has had a successful program, with a rich
tradition of winning and launching women leaders across diverse contexts in their careers and
personal lives.

It is disappointing that UConn, like many other institutions, has not yet achieved true gender
equity in athletics more than 48 years after the anniversary of Title IX. Without the community
support our team enjoyed when fighting for equity more than 40 years ago, we likely would not
have been successful in getting the varsity soccer program. We each know how important our
UConn soccer experience was to us during our college careers helping us navigate college and
succeed academically. Our UConn soccer experience was instrumental far beyond academics in
shaping us to be successful after college, and in giving us valuable lifelong connections with
teammates and coaches that have enriched and continue to enrich our lives in so many ways.
We want to add our voice to the fight for gender equity and support the immediate
reinstatement of the women’s rowing program as others did for us when we were fighting for
these important civil rights.

We further ask that you do not eliminate any sport due to budget concerns. Instead we ask you
to work with the entire UConn community to explore and implement a solution that includes a
fiscally sound restructure for UConn athletics that permits UConn students to enjoy the benefits
of these educational opportunities for years to come. We are certain that the UConn community
includes people with expertise in these areas that would welcome the opportunity to be involved
in such a worthy project and we hope that you will draw on the experiences, insights, expertise
and judgment of your alumni to create a sustainable athletics program that allows all students to
enjoy and benefit from this educational program which will enable them to become more
successful alumni.
We believe that UConn should be proud of its current student-athletes’ commitment to gender
equity and courage to step forward and voice their concerns regarding such an important public
policy issue. We hope that UConn will work with all constituent groups to do the right thing
and reinstate the four sports and develop a comprehensive plan for its athletics program.

Sincerely,

UConn Women’s Soccer Alumna

Catherine Schroeder Halkett ‘81 Kristin Hart ‘92

Jo Ann (Patterson) Noiset ‘81 Mary Beth Pickering (McNichol) ‘93

Marylou Breen ‘82 Karen Ferguson-Dayes ‘93

Jana Duffy ‘83 Michelle Corrigan ‘94

Mary Schneider ‘83 Arne Montana ‘94

Phyllis Clapis ‘83 Tracy Mennig ‘95

Susan Lavigne ‘83 Darcie Perkins ‘95

Tara O’Sullivan ‘84 Jill Gelfenbien ‘95

Susan Lauer ‘84 Karen Warner ‘95

Laura Skaza-Majer ‘85 Chrisy Rich ‘98

Missy Morrone-Taintor ‘86 Farrah Schultz ‘98

Lisa McAdam Donegan ‘88 Casey Zimny ‘04

Nancy Economou ‘88 Karlyn Mott ‘05

Margarita Haidous Galey ‘88 Ashley Heidelberger ‘09

Kimberly Walsh ‘90 Annie Yi ‘10

Jennifer Atwell ‘92 Michael Servedio ‘10

Tricia Erpelding ‘92 Gianna Roma ‘15

 Andrea Danforth ‘15

Brianna Butler ‘16

Megan Hunsberger ‘16

Gabby Cuevas ‘16

Samantha McGuire ‘16

Toriana Patterson ‘16

Madison Damm ‘17

Carla Sikand