Elmira Resolution Announced Today

Today the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights announced a resolution agreement with Elmira College in New York, after finding the college in violation of some of Title IX's requirements governing its sexual assault response. OCR's investigation was prompted by the complaint of a student who reported to campus officials in November of 2013 that she had been sexually assaulted by a fellow student. (Specifically, she reported that he had become"forceful" and she agreed to have sex with him "out of fear.") After investigation, the final investigative report concluded that the respondent committed sexual misconduct, but did not engage in sexual assault, and sanctioned the respondent with a no-contact order. OCR determined that while the college's response was equitable, the fact the it did not start investigating the complainant's November report until February of the following year was not sufficiently "prompt." It rejected the college's argument that such delay was reasonable in light of Thanksgiving break, final exams, winter break, and a one-week illness of the complainant.

Alone this violation may not seem like a big deal, and even OCR noted that the delay did not seem to result in the further harassment of the complainant.  But the agency also pointed out that when it looked at 16 other sexual harassment/misconduct complaints resolved by Elmira between 2012 and 2016, it found some "violation or concern" in all but one of them, "including instances where the college failed to provide prompt and equitable investigations and took insufficient measures to assess and address the impact of harassment and possible hostile environments." In other words, a pattern of getting it not-quite-right.

As a result, OCR and Elmira agreed that Elmira would commit to training for its Title IX coordinator and other staff members who play a role in the grievance process. The college must also review its own investigations that have occurred more recently than OCR's investigation, to ensure that they were conducted in a prompt and equitable manner.

Five More Universities Under Investigation

The Department of Education announced today that it has opened five additional investigations into  campuses policies and practices surrounding sexual violence, bringing to 60 the previous tally of 55 that had been announced by the Department earlier this month.  The five institutions are: University of Akron, the University of Alaska system, University of Delaware, Elmira College in New York, and Cisco Junior College in Texas.

Huffington Post had earlier reported about a complaint filed about Akron, which contained allegations that that its sexual assault policies were copied from another school's and, as a result, contained references to offices that did not even exist at the university. That complaint also charged the university with delay and careless investigation practices. Otherwise, we know little about the specific nature of these investigations, such as whether they were initiated by a complaint or were undertaken by the agency's own initiative. 

HuffPo is keeping track of all of the sexual assault-related Title IX investigations and pending complaints on a handy Google map.