University of Maine System Found to Comply with Policies Restricting Transgender Sports Participation

The University of Maine System announced on Friday that it was determined to be in compliance with federal and state laws, as well as the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that were revised following President Donald Trump's executive order banning transgender women and girls from competing in female sports.

Previously, the Trump administration claimed that an investigation had found the university system in violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex - based discrimination in educational programs receiving federal funding. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had said it would suspend federal funds to the University of Maine System, which consists of seven universities across the state.

"We are relieved to have the Department's Title IX compliance review behind us. This allows the land - grant University of Maine and our statewide partners to continue leveraging USDA and other essential federal funds to strengthen and grow our natural resource economy and support dependent rural communities through world - class education, research, and extension," Dannel Malloy, the chancellor of the University of Maine System, said in a statement to NBC News. According to the university system, it received nearly $30 million in USDA funding in the 2024 fiscal year.

The statement from the University of Maine System followed an announcement by the USDA on Wednesday, which stated that the university system "clearly demonstrated its compliance with Title IX's requirement to ensure equal opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports, in line with President Donald J. Trump's Executive Order."

Trump's executive order on transgender sports, signed last month, prohibits transgender women and girls from participating in female sports and stipulates that the federal government will revoke funds from educational programs that do not comply. The order, which refers to transgender women as men, argues that allowing transgender women in female sports "is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies them the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports."

The University of Maine System said in a news release on March 11 that the USDA had temporarily suspended its funding. The release also showed that the USDA's Office of the Chief Financial Officer said in an email that it was evaluating "if it should take any follow - on actions related to potential Title VI or Title IX violations." U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a news release last month, "The USDA is committed to upholding the President's executive order. Any institution that chooses to ignore it can expect to lose future funding."

Samantha Warren, the chief external and governmental affairs officer of the University of Maine System, said that Maine's public universities have always complied with state and federal laws and NCAA rules, and the system "remained compliant when the NCAA updated its rules in February."

In 2022, the NCAA adopted a sport - by - sport approach for transgender athletes, deferring to the policies set by each sport's national governing body, subject to review and recommendation by an NCAA committee. Last month, following Trump's executive order, the college sports association updated its policy to limit "competition in women's sports to student - athletes assigned female at birth only."