The Council of Presidents of the colleges and universities of the N-A-I-A has voted unanimously to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports competitions. Corey Westra is the commissioner of the Great Plains Athletic Conference, which includes Iowa N-A-I-A schools Morningside, Briar Cliff and Dordt Universities, along with Northwestern College. He says the decision was made after a lot of examination.

(as said)”Two years of work in study group at our Council of Presidents level in the N-A-I-A. Our National Council of Presidents is our governing body,” Westra says. Westra has been the co-director of the N-A-I-A national tournaments for women’s basketball and volleyball that have been held in Sioux City the last several years.

(as said)”When you look at the N-A-I-A as a whole, you know, it’s a decision that’s about fairness in competition and this is an organization the N-A-I-A that has been committed and worked very, very hard to promote and grow women’s sports,” Westra says. “That goes back over 40 years back to Title Nine, the N-A-I-A was at the forefront of having women’s sports and having a championship opportunity for women’s sports.” Westra says the new policy expands to cover regular season sports.

(as said)”The prior policy only dealt in championship competition and it wasn’t encompassing of maybe where we are today on this particular issue of transgender athletes participating,” he says. Westra says he supports the decision as a lot of though went into it.

(as said)”It’s a decision that was wise. It was a decision that I think was done with tremendous deliberation,” he says, “this was not a ‘hey we’re gonna just throw something on the table and vote on it,’ not at all. I think you can look at it from many angles, and at the end of the day, I think it’s better to have a clear policy than to not.” The policy takes effect with the start of the 2024-2025 fall ports season in August.