## Facts

- Grove City College, a private Pennsylvania college, declined direct federal institutional aid but enrolled students who received federal Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (BEOGs).
- BEOG funds were awarded to students and used to pay educational costs, including tuition and fees at the College.
- The Department of Education informed the College that it had to execute an Assurance of Compliance with Title IX regulations because BEOG recipients attended the College.
- The College refused to sign, arguing it was not a “recipient” of federal financial assistance under Title IX.
- The agency initiated proceedings to terminate BEOG eligibility for Grove City students based on the College’s refusal to provide the assurance.
- An administrative law judge concluded the College was a recipient of federal financial assistance and that termination could be directed to the relevant program.

## Issues

1. Whether a college is a “recipient” of federal financial assistance under Title IX when it accepts no direct institutional funds but enrolls students who receive federal grants used to pay tuition.
2. Whether Title IX applies institution-wide or only to the specific “program or activity” that receives federal financial assistance.
3. Whether the Department may terminate federal assistance to the covered program based on refusal to execute an Assurance of Compliance, absent a finding of actual sex discrimination.
4. Whether conditioning participation in student-aid funding on Title IX compliance violates the First Amendment rights of the college or its students.

## Decision

- The Court held that Title IX coverage was triggered because student BEOG funds functionally provided federal financial assistance to the College when used to pay tuition and fees.
- The Court held that the covered “program or activity” was the College’s financial aid program, not the entire institution.
- The Court held the Department could require an Assurance of Compliance and could terminate federal assistance to the financial aid program if the College refused to provide the assurance, even without a finding of actual discrimination.
- The Court rejected the First Amendment challenge, reasoning that the College could avoid the condition by declining participation in the federally funded aid arrangement.

## Legal Principles

- Federal student grants used to pay educational charges at a school can constitute federal financial assistance to the school for Title IX coverage purposes.
- Title IX enforcement and fund-termination authority is limited to the “particular program, or part thereof” that receives federal financial assistance and is found noncompliant, rather than necessarily extending institution-wide.
- Agencies may condition participation in federal financial assistance on execution of a compliance assurance implementing Title IX and may enforce refusal to comply through program-level termination of assistance.
- Conditioning voluntary receipt of federal financial assistance on nondiscrimination compliance generally does not violate the First Amendment when the recipient can decline participation.

## Conclusion

The Court concluded that Grove City’s participation in student grant-funded tuition payments subjected its financial aid program to Title IX, permitted the Department to require a compliance assurance and to cut off program assistance for refusal, and limited Title IX’s reach to the aided program rather than the entire college.


Grove City Coll. v. Bell, 465 U.S. 555 (1984)