Robin Potera-Haskins' Title IX Story
Robin Potera-Haskins was hired as Montana State (MSU) Bozeman’s basketball coach in 2001. MSU officials specifically told her that her job was to turn the women’s basketball team into a winning program. In her first two seasons, she did just that, winning back-to-back Big Sky Championships, the first MSU coach to do so. she also encouraged her students to excel in the classroom, which they did, posting a 3.0 or better GPA.
Her reward was to receive less pay, fewer benefits and overall worse treatment than similarly situated coaches at MSU. In addition, the female athletes on her team didn’t get the same access to trainers, weight-training facilities, access to sponsorships or access to resources to promote attendance to games as the boys’ team did. Coach Potera- Haskins reported this to the assistant Athletic director and the Athletic Director, the appropriate authorities. No changes were made. Soon after, the situation was exaserbated when the Athletic Director (AD) insisted that Coach Haskins recruit his daughter from a Division II team and provide her with a scholarship. Coach Haskins strongly rejected this idea because the player was not on par with the rest of her Division I team. But after receiving intense pressure and fearing termination for herself and other coaches, Haskins complied and added his daughter to the team. She couldn’t keep up in practice, but when told of this, she complained to the vice president of the University. In the meantime Potera-Haskins complained to the President of the University that the AD was in violation of Title IX by deemphasizing the winning aspect of the program relegating it to an intramural-type mentality. Her efforts eventually resulted in her being terminated in 2004 and replaced by a less qualified male coach. The MSU female basketball program did not repeat the winning seasons that Potera-Haskins enjoyed.
The discrimination didn’t stop with her termination. Derogatory comments were presented to at least two prospective schools where she applied for coaching jobs. Left with no alternative, coach Potera-Haskins sued Montana State University-Bozeman for sex discrimination and retaliation for complaining about sex discrimination in violation Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Montana Human Rights Act, and for retaliation for complaining about sex discrimination against the women’s basketball team in violation of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972.
Contact AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund cases for more information on this and other cases.