The University of Pennsylvania said on Tuesday that it had struck a deal with the federal government that will limit how transgender people may participate in its athletic programs, bowing to the Trump administration’s new interpretation of the law that bans sex discrimination in education.
The government also said the Ivy League school had pledged to “adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’” that comply with the Trump administration’s reading of Title IX and a pair of executive orders that the president issued this year.
The agreement was tied to a civil rights investigation, conducted by the Department of Education, of a transgender woman’s participation on Penn’s women’s swim team three years ago. In April, the Education Department said that Penn’s support for the swimmer, Lia Thomas, had violated the law governing sex discrimination in most educational settings.
Penn’s president, J. Larry Jameson, noted in a statement on Tuesday that the university had been in compliance with the interpretation of federal law that was in effect when Ms. Thomas swam there. But he said that the Trump administration’s inquiry had left Penn vulnerable to “significant and lasting implications,” a reference to the possibility of a loss of federal funding.
“Penn remains committed to fostering a community that is welcoming, inclusive and open to all students, faculty and staff,” Dr. Jameson said. “I share this commitment, just as I remain dedicated to preserving and advancing the university’s vital and enduring mission.”
Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said in a statement that the agreement was “a great victory for women and girls not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but all across our nation.” She praised the university for “rectifying its past harms against women and girls.”
Ms. Thomas could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, and a lawyer who has represented her in the past did not respond to a message. But the Human Rights Campaign assailed the government for its approach.
“The American people deserve a White House that is laser focused on making sure every student thrives,” Brandon Wolf, the group’s national press secretary, said in a statement. “Instead, this administration is obsessed with making young people’s lives harder and scapegoating transgender people so they can attack independent institutions. This country deserves better.”
It was not immediately clear whether the agreement would prompt the Trump administration to restore $175 million in research funding that it suspended in March. At the time, a White House social media account said the decision was because of Penn’s “policies forcing women to compete with men in sports,” but an official familiar with the decision said then that the funding cuts were not directly connected to the Education Department’s inquiry.
The agreement announced Tuesday, though, appeared designed to limit the threat of additional repercussions for Penn, President Trump’s alma mater.
The deal represented yet another turn in a caustic clash that exploded more than three years ago, after Ms. Thomas joined Penn’s women’s swim team and contended for a National Collegiate Athletic Association title in the 500-yard freestyle.
Ms. Thomas’s participation on the team became a cause célèbre for transgender rights activists and conservative media figures alike.
Ms. Thomas’s place on the roster also stirred deep divisions at Penn itself and within the sport. Some female swimmers spoke in support of Ms. Thomas and other transgender athletes who sought to compete in accordance with their gender identities.
Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, also lined up in support.
“It’s not a women’s sport if it doesn’t include ALL women athletes,” the group posted on social media in 2022. “Lia Thomas belongs on the Penn swimming and diving team.”
But before Ms. Thomas’s title-winning victory at a meet in Atlanta, where she became the first openly transgender woman to win an N.C.A.A. swimming championship, more than a dozen people on Penn’s team said in an anonymous letter to the university that she had “an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category.”
In a statement released by the Education Department on Tuesday, a former Penn swimmer, Paula Scanlan, said the agreement was “a momentous step in repairing the past mistreatment of female athletes, and forging a future where sex discrimination plays no role in limiting girls’ potential.”
Since Mr. Trump took office in January — after a campaign that included an advertisement that asserted that his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, was “for they/them” — his administration has eagerly sought to reduce transgender people’s participation in public life.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order in February, one day after several Penn swimmers sued the university and others over Ms. Thomas’s participation, that said it was “the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.”
That order prompted the N.C.A.A., the marquee administrator of college sports in the United States, to forbid transgender women from competing in women’s events.
In his statement on Tuesday, Dr. Jameson said that Penn acknowledged “that some student-athletes were disadvantaged” by rules that had allowed Ms. Thomas to compete. He also said the university would “review and update the Penn women’s swimming records set during that season to indicate who would now hold the records under current eligibility guidelines.”
Alan Blinder is a national correspondent for The Times, covering education.
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