Yale Under Federal Investigation For 'Sexually Hostile Environment'

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Federal civil rights officials are investigating complaints by Yale University students that the Ivy League university has a sexually hostile environment and has failed to adequately respond to sexual harassment concerns.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights confirmed Friday that it has begun investigating the school. The office gets about 7,000 complaints per year and investigates about one-third of them.

The complaint, sent March 15, alleges that the university failed to respond promptly or effectively to incidents of harassment, resulting in the denial of equal opportunity to education, the office said.

The students cite incidents in which fraternities held up a sign "We love Yale sluts" outside a women's center and chanted "no means yes" on campus last fall. They also say incoming female freshmen were ranked on attractiveness.

The complaints also include allegations that Yale failed to adequately respond to reports of rape or attempted rape and stalking, said Alexandra Brodsky, a Yale junior who is one of the 16 complainants. She would not disclose the number of complaints or the documentation the students filed.

Brodsky said the students and former students who signed the complaints were "really frustrated and disappointed that Yale again and again fails to respond to both public and private acts of sexual harassment and assaults which creates an environment in which women feel devalued."

"It creates barriers to these women participating in all aspects of Yale life and it perpetuates an environment in which these sort of acts are ok," Brodsky said.

Yale said it will cooperate with the investigation and takes such allegations "extremely seriously." Yale officials said they can't respond to the complaint because they have not received it.

Brodsky said the office of civil rights will perform what they call a "climate check" by interviewing complainants, other students, faculty and administrators.

Comments

[scoobydubious]

04:46 PM on 04/05/2011

Well, who would have thought that fraternities would be full of jerks. I mean, what are the odds?
Even at Yale.

Not exactly lawsuit material though.

[loki]

12:11 AM on 04/05/2011

Think about this. At least 85% of the leaders in the most influential companies in America , and politicians in Congress , the Pentagon, and the White House, are either from Yale or Harvard.
Its easy to see why the ivy greed capitalist who control our country , act the way they do. They are not right and pure sociopaths from birth. If not, they are swayed to act like sociopaths in these top ivy greed schools.
Yale gets 500 million + every year in Federal Funds. And Congress wants to cut PBS/NPR budget? Yeah, money better saved cutting the ivy greed schools off.

[Eagleman]

06:48 PM on 04/04/2011

I thought Yale is full of elite beautiful moonbats ?

[MadMadMan]

02:55 PM on 04/04/2011

Every night, hundreds of time on commercial TV programs, men are made to look like complete bone-heads. Beer drinkers are completely dissed as momma's boys and sissies who don't know how to choose a beer ( apparently smart women bartenders think drinking something that taste like pee with hops as long as it has low calories and you can insult a man who is not aware of this) and our society continues to refuse to take a hard look at the fact that boys are failing (in school and thereafter). Gee Whiz - the boys held up a sign on campus and your feelings were hurt. Awwwwww.

[sydneymoon]

12:25 AM on 04/05/2011

I find much of tv viewing of this ilk insufferable and not funny. You can turn the tv off.

Chants of "No means Yes. Yes means anal" goes beyond hurting women's feelings and to dismiss as such is contemptible.

[CorrectU]

01:04 PM on 04/04/2011

wwweeeeehhhhhh. wwwweeeeehhhhh. The girl in the video must have found out she was a "blackout."

[Stacey Jones]

01:43 AM on 04/04/2011

I remember on HLN a couple of months ago on Sunday night their was a special on Rape on College Campuses with Jane Velez Mitchell. Her show interviewed some rape victims whose rapes occurred at college and the administration basically did nothing. On the show a fact was given out that one in five female college students across the country will be raped.

E! Investigates also did a show on college violence not just rape but had an a interesting story about a young woman who was sexually assaulted by a straight A, football player in her apartment. She hesitated to report the rape but later did after it started to mentally effect her. She was treated badly by several students and even coaches for reporting the rape. However he did get punished with 5 years in prison and other females come forward about rapes/assaults he did to them.

[BishopKingPawn]

02:00 AM on 04/03/2011

OMG! Incoming students were rated by their attractiveness! Call the cops!

[bamfBeverly]

08:15 PM on 04/02/2011

What do you libs have to say about this? More than likely it was one of your own.

[GeneralDisarray]

11:56 AM on 04/03/2011

bamfBeverly

Member Since March 2011

[baileywick]

09:08 PM on 04/03/2011

Re-upped with a different user name, huh?

[baileywick]

09:07 PM on 04/03/2011

Bush went to Yale.

[bamfBeverly]

10:05 PM on 04/03/2011

So did Clinton.

[loki]

12:12 AM on 04/05/2011

Bush also went to harvard to get his MBA. He is a double does of the worst Ivy Greed capitalist have to offer.

[rhymeswrachel]

04:46 PM on 04/02/2011

Just another example of the rape culture in our society. It disgusts me when people rationalize this behavior, saying that it's just "normal" for a college campus. Doesn't that tell you something? We need to create a world where sexual assault isn't normal. Where no means no. And to the trolls that are trying to start something, I'm not going to respond, I just want to say that this situation isn't funny. Seeing women distraught over the way society treats them as objects isn't something to get a rise out of. I'm not as much pissed at you as I am disappointed. This is not something we can take lightly.

[sunbeltvoter]

10:52 PM on 04/01/2011

Wow they are still having to clean up the aftershocks 38 years after Clinton left.

[stape45]

06:17 AM on 04/02/2011

Don't you mean Dubya and his Skull and Bones bunch?

[FriendsInHeaven]

09:13 PM on 04/01/2011

"no means yes, yes means anal"

So no one's saying this isn't true in that university environment, only that they don't want it said where anyone from the outside world might hear. Wild guess: nothing will come of this complaint.

[chowda]

12:37 AM on 04/07/2011

Except for multiple criminal charges and fines for violating the Cleary Act.

[Pinkasaurus]

08:23 PM on 04/01/2011

Many insitutions of higher education are sexually hostile environments when it comes to their handling of rape cases. "Oh don't report it to the local law enforcement agency. Let our disciplinary board handle it." Right...

[Al Schrader]

07:56 PM on 04/01/2011

Seven thousand complaints ? Gone are the days when a Yale diploma ment something...Al-

[loki]

12:14 AM on 04/05/2011

a yale ( or harvard) degree means you have earned the right to be welcomed into the world of the ivy greed capitalist, and spit on all the hard working citizens in the USofA.

[Kivahut]

07:27 PM on 04/01/2011