Sixty-four colleges and universities are under federal investigation over concerns about how they handled sexual assault cases on campus.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights began disclosing all colleges under review for their handling of sexual assault cases following a White House task force on campus rape. The Department of Education faced pressure from activists and members of Congress for greater transparency, as colleges typically refrained from discussing or disclosing their federal investigations unless asked about them.
When the Department of Education published the full list for the first time on May 1, there were 55 schools facing federal scrutiny.
Since then, OCR has opened inquiries into the University of Alaska system of higher education, Berklee College of Music, Missouri University of Science & Technology, Elmira College in New York, the University of Akron, Cisco Junior College in Texas, James Madison University and the University of Richmond.
The Department of Education is not disclosing specifics about what prompted the investigations, but is specifying whether they are due to complaints or are proactive compliance reviews initiated by OCR. The agency has emphasized that compliance reviews are not random, and are more comprehensive investigations than those sparked by complaints. OCR has also told The Huffington Post it faced a steady increase in the number of complaints about how colleges handle sexual violence, leading to a rise in the number of investigations.
Colleges are required under the gender equity law Title IX to investigate and respond to reports of sexual assault and harassment on campus. If OCR were to determine a college was not compliant with Title IX, it could yank federal funding from the school, something it has never done with a higher education institution.
OCR may be conducting additional Title IX investigations related to sexual violence, but those inquiries are not being disclosed because they are not tied specifically to investigations of sexual assault cases. They may instead include concerns about Title IX retaliation or failure to designate a Title IX coordinator, among other things.
The full list of colleges and universities under Title IX investigations for handling of sexual assault cases is printed below, sorted by state, with the date the inquiries began.
- University of Alaska system of higher education -- 5/5/2014
- Arizona State University --1/26/2012
- Butte-Glen Community College District -- 2/27/2013
- Occidental College -- 5/2/2013
- University of California-Berkeley -- 3/25/2014
- University of Southern California -- 6/26/2013
- Regis University -- 4/30/2013
- University of Colorado at Boulder -- 6/18/2013
- University of Colorado at Denver -- 4/29/2014
- University of Denver -- 12/12/2013
- University of Connecticut -- 12/6/2013
- University of Delaware -- 5/8/2014
- Catholic University of America -- 1/8/2014
- Florida State University -- 4/3/2014
- Emory University -- 12/13/2013
- University of Hawaii at Manoa -- 5/28/2013
- University of Idaho -- 4/18/2013
- Knox College -- 1/2/2014
- University of Chicago -- 6/28/2013
- Indiana University-Bloomington -- 3/12/2014
- Vincennes University -- 3/20/2014
- Boston University -- 12/16/2013
- Emerson College -- 12/23/2013
- Harvard College -- 4/24/2014
- Harvard Law -- 12/21/2010
- Amherst College -- 1/6/2014
- Berklee College of Music -- 6/19/2014
- University of Massachusetts-Amherst -- 6/30/2011
- Frostburg State University -- 9/18/2013
- Michigan State University -- Case 1: 7/21/2011; Case 2: 2/18/2014
- University of Michigan-Ann Arbor -- 2/21/2014
- Missouri University of Science & Technology -- 5/21/2014
- Guilford College -- 11/18/2013
- University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill -- 3/1/2013
- Minot State University -- 2/26/2014
- Dartmouth College -- 5/31/2013
- Princeton University -- 12/15/2010
- City University of New York - Hunter College -- 2/8/2013
- Hobart & William Smith Colleges -- 4/24/2014
- Elmira College -- 5/12/2014
- Sarah Lawrence College -- 12/4/2013
- State University of New York at Binghamton -- 12/31/2013
- Denison University -- 3/7/2014
- Ohio State University -- 6/23/2010
- University of Akron -- 5/6/2014
- Wittenberg University -- Case 1: 8/25/2011; Case 2: 4/18/2013
- Oklahoma State University -- 4/10/2014
- Carnegie Mellon University -- 1/13/2014
- Franklin & Marshall College -- 3/26/2014
- Pennsylvania State University -- 1/23/2014
- Swarthmore College -- 7/12/2013
- Temple University -- 8/9/2013
- Vanderbilt University -- 3/12/2014
- Southern Methodist University -- Case 1: 8/17/2011; Case 2: 4/19/2013; Case 3: 4/19/2013
- Cisco Junior College -- 5/7/2014
- University of Texas-Pan American -- 4/21/2014
- College of William & Mary -- 4/18/2014
- University of Virginia -- 6/30/2011
- James Madison University -- 6/4/2014
- University of Richmond -- 6/12/2014
- Washington State University -- 1/15/2013
- University of Wisconsin-Whitewater -- 2/14/2014
- Bethany College -- 4/28/2014
- West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine -- 3/25/2013