Title IX

In February, a male swimmer from Fishers, Indiana was allowed to compete in the state swimming championship meet despite three accusations of sexual harassment by female members of his own swim team. At most high schools, boys’ and girls’ swimming teams practice together and compete at the same meets. But the reason he was allowed back into the pool was…

Federal Law Gives Your Student the Right to His or Her Student File Be aware of both your rights and their limitations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). If you are familiar with FERPA in the context of grade school and high school, things change in college. Parental rights under FERPA terminate when the student becomes a…

Marshall University of West Virginia has settled a lawsuit with a former freshman student who alleged that the university’s Title IX judiciary bungled her complaint of a rape that occurred in her residence hall. A witness, also in the room, corroborated the student’s account that she withdrew consent by repeatedly telling her assailant to stop. He told her, “you just…

A study conducted every three years by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute shows that professors throughout the United States are deeply concerned about discrimination and bias on campus. At the same time, the HERI survey shows that professors do not believe they are prepared to deal with these kinds of conflicts among their students. This is a volatile combination. Universities…

Colleges and universities often walk a fine line when it comes to free speech. Institutes of higher education promote themselves as places where students go to debate and refine ideas and opinions. Ideally, this creates an enriching experience for all involved. But many schools place limits on acceptable discourse in an effort to encourage civility and respect. “Speech codes” at…

The Attorneys General of 18 states collectively submitted an extensive 72-page comment opposing rules proposed by the Department of Education for Title IX, the federal statute prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in education.  Led by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Josh Shapiro), California (Xavier Becerra), and New Jersey (Gurbir S. Grewal), these chief legal officers of their respective states…

Allen Law LLC has sued Syracuse University on behalf of a graduate student following his expulsion for alleged sexual misconduct. The plaintiff, referred to anonymously as John Doe, claims the Title IX investigation was biased and that the sanctions imposed were unfair. Filed on Monday, Feb. 12, this is the fourth lawsuit alleging that SU conducted biased, overzealous prosecutions during…

Connecticut College has a unique Honor Code in which a select group of students disciplines their peers. However, a self-standing quasi-judiciary handles Title IX sexual misconduct violations under a separate system. College enrollment is just over 1,800 students. Despite this small student body, Conn College received 12 reports of rape, five of dating violence, and two of stalking in the…

Campus judiciaries and campus codes of conduct intervene as never before in the private life of students. Therefore, parents should take the time to review how a school’s policies dictate the handling of misconduct cases. Universities and colleges today operate very differently from how they were run a few decades ago. This is true even if you are an alum…

Arguments over statistics and Title IX are nothing new, but researchers rarely focus on what is effective in preventing sexual assault. Now a recent study by social scientists at Columbia University suggests an effective way to counter sexual assault on campus along with student misconduct policies and Title IX. The Columbia study shows that learning how to say “No” to…