May 3, 2014
Obama administration named 55 colleges and universities nationwide for a federal investigation into their handling of sexual abuse allegations by student victims.
Obama administration orders a nationwide federal investigation across universities on how sexual allegation victims are handled by School
May 3, 2014
Obama administration named 55 colleges and universities nationwide for a federal investigation into their handling of sexual abuse allegations by student victims.
Obama administration orders a nationwide federal investigation across universities on how sexual allegation victims are handled by School
WASHINGTON: In an unprecedented move to curb predatory sexual behavior on college campuses, the Obama administration on Thursday named 55 colleges and universities nationwide, including President Barack Obama's alma maters (Harvard University, University of Chicago, and Occidental College), Princeton University, Carnegie Mellon and Dartmouth among others, for a federal investigation into their handling of sexual abuse allegations by student victims.
The Department of Education announcement, coming during a week when college admissions in America are in full swing, stunned the academic world, although the issue of aggressive and destructive sexual behavior has been a hot button issue for several months now. There have been increasing instances of predatory sexual assaults on campuses, including a high-profile case last year at Vanderbilt University where five college athletes were accused of raping an undergraduate.
Elite Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Princeton are not an exception to the growing sexual assault epidemic either, with over 100 cases reported in the last three years. In fact, Harvard College students are reported to have filed formal complaints in late March to the Education Department saying the college did not respond promptly to reports of sexual violence that students were subjected to a sexually hostile environment, and that in some cases assault victims were forced to live in the same residence buildings as their alleged assailants.
According to a 2007 Campus Sexual Assault Study conducted for the Justice Department, one in five women in US college campuses are sexually assaulted before they graduate, a figure that both President Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden have cited while addressing the issue. In recent months, students have flocked to advocacy groups such as End Rape on Campus and Know Your IX, forcing the administration to act on the matter.
The 55 schools named by the Obama administration are facing investigation into possible violations of what is called Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex at institutions that receive public funds. The education department released new guidance this week outlining federally funded schools' responsibilities to address sexual violence and other forms of discrimination. All schools – from K-12 to universities – must comply with Title IX or risk losing funding and Justice Department action.
"We hope this increased transparency will spur community dialogue about this important issue," Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon said while making the announcement, adding that a school's inclusion on the list "in no way indicates at this stage that the college or university is violating or has violated the law." Eventually though, schools found to have violated the law could lose federal funding.
Although the administration did not disclose, much less detail, specific incidents, it is believed that the probe has been triggered by complaints that the government has received or by internal compliance reviews conducted by the agency's Office for Civil Rights. Nearly 100,000 Indian students study in US colleges and universities at any given time.
