When the University of Oregon shared in March that its Kalapuya Ilihi residence hall would be closed for a second consecutive school year, the announcement brought yet another blow to the UO women’s beach volleyball team, who had sued the university for Title IX sex discrimination in late 2023. 

The closure of Kalapuya forced the university to keep the 64-year-old Hamilton residence hall open for another school year, pushing back the prospect of a new on-campus women’s beach volleyball facility.

In the second step of the three-phase Hamilton Walton transformation project, Hamilton Hall was initially set to be demolished in September 2023 and replaced with large green spaces and, notably, a women’s beach volleyball court. 

But when the university announced in July 2023 an emergency closure of the Kalapuya Ilihi Hall due to “engineering defects,” the loss of an estimated 650 student housing rooms forced the delay of the Hamilton Walton project. 

In an email statement to the Daily Emerald in September, UO Assistant Director of Issues Management Eric Howald said that repairs to Kalapuya were currently estimated to conclude in March 2025 and that the demolition of Hamilton would begin in June 2025, when students moved out. 

Under this timeline, Howald said the volleyball court would finish in early September 2025.

Howald shared that it was an idealistic timeline, stating in part, “[there are] still lots of moving parts, so don’t be surprised if any of that changes.”

In September 2023, UO sued the architecture company, engineering company and construction company involved with building Kalapuya for $7.5 million, citing the significant costs the university would incur repairing the hall.

The complaint was later amended in February 2024, raising the prayer sum to excess of $10 million, citing higher than anticipated construction costs. The companies involved denied any liability for the repairs needed to Kalapuya. 

Title IX Lawsuit Drags On 

The university faced a lawsuit of its own three months after suing the Kalapuya Ilihi construction companies when 32 female athletes of the UO women’s beach volleyball team and women’s club rowing team filed a federal Title IX lawsuit against UO on Dec. 1, 2023.

The athletes alleged a variety of sex-based discrimination in comparison to men’s sporting teams at UO. The complaint alleged that the university deprived female athletes of equal athletic financial aid benefits and treatment in comparison to men’s sports. 

Title IX is a federal statute passed in 1972 that prohibits sex discrimination at all academic institutions receiving federal funding. The law requires them to provide equal treatment to both female and male student-athletes. 

In August, the university offered Eugene native Gwen Fife a historic scholarship, making her the first scholarship recipient in Oregon women’s beach volleyball history. 

Arthur Bryant, the lead counsel representing the women in the Title IX suit, expressed some satisfaction with UO’s response but implored them to do more, citing an alleged annual financial gap of $900,000 for female athletes. 

“Since the University of Oregon created the beach volleyball team a decade ago, it has not provided one penny of athletic financial aid to any of the team’s members,” Bryant previously stated to the Emerald in August.  

In an October phone conversation with the Emerald, Bryant said, “That’s one of the reasons this Title IX lawsuit was filed. It is wonderful and not a surprise that Oregon is finally providing at least some athletic financial aid to at least one member of the team, but that is nowhere near enough. Women at Oregon are still being deprived of nearly $900,000 a year in equal financial aid. Oregon needs to fix that.” 

Following steps indicating the university was taking actions to rectify decades of the alleged injustice faced by female athletes, UO filed in July 2024 seeking to dismiss and/or limit the scope of the lawsuit. 

UO argued that progress was being made and that the allegations were “time-barred” under the law, citing Oregon state law, which has a one to two year statute of limitations on Title IX offenses. The university contended that the deadline had passed and, therefore, the case should be dismissed.

The university further argued that the plaintiffs had focused “on comparing men’s football and women’s beach volleyball to each other and then analogized that to all other sports, both men’s and women’s, rather than showing intentional discrimination or that they were treated less favorably than [a] similarly situated male.”

 “We believe that the university’s motions are utterly meritless. They misrepresent the facts and the law and we are confident that they will be denied,” said Bryant. 

On Nov. 7, Bryant responded on behalf of the plaintiffs, calling UO’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit “meritless” and vowed to continue the legal battle. 

“UO’s argument rests entirely on its mistaken assertion that the Complaint alleges nothing more than differences between UO’s football and beach volleyball teams,” Bryant’s response said. “The argument ignores the actual allegations in the Complaint. Plaintiffs’ Complaint clearly alleges with specificity—that UO’s liability for depriving women of equal treatment and benefits in violation of Title IX turns on a comparison of UO’s treatment of its male and female athletics programs overall.” 

UO has a deadline of Dec. 9 to respond to the plaintiffs. A court hearing between UO and companies named in the Kalapuya hall lawsuit is scheduled for Jan. 24, 2025.