Recent allegations against former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman involving privately outrageous conduct toward a number of women are stark reminders of the courage that can be required of victims to reveal the truth that power tries to conceal.

A few courageous young women at the University at Albany and their former coach have also stood up to the wrongful treatment of female student-athletes by the university's powerful athletics department and its director, Mark Benson. They discovered how brutal insidious discrimination could be only when their own champion varsity tennis team was shockingly terminated in 2016. Recently supported by more female UAlbany student-athletes from a successful off-campus women's crew team, they sued last September to force UAlbany's athletics department to provide proportionate intercollegiate athletics opportunities — teams and roster spots — to men and women, as Title IX requires.

Ironically, as it now appears, UAlbany's athletics department is defended in this case by none other than New York's attorney general. That office has inexplicably refused even to acknowledge the legitimacy of the women's claims. The athletics department administration has already been found guilty of violating federal anti-discrimination law under Title IX, by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in 2017. And yet the discrimination goes on, with females deeply disadvantaged.

There is no question that the AG's office has great power to stonewall these young women in the hope that they will just graduate and go away quietly. The question is whether it should.

Gordon C. Graham

Albany

Former head coach, SUNY Albany women's varsity tennis, and a plaintiff in the lawsuit

Todd Rutecki

Rensselaer

Co-founder and head coach, Friends of Albany Rowing Inc.