Department of Education Says Tufts University Sexual Assault Policy Violates Title IX

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has found
Boston-based Tufts University
to be out of compliance with Title IX due to its handling of
student sexual assault on campus. The case highlights what’s become
a common and controversial
application of Title IX—the statute designed to prevent
sex-based discrimination in education—as well as the ED’s increased
meddling in
matters of campus sexual assault and harassment. 

The ED’s Office for Civil Rights, which handles Title IX
enforcement, is currently investigating
the Univesity of Chicago,
Harvard,
Columbia University, and Tufts for allegations of mishandling
sexual assault cases. The Tufts case stems from a complaint filed
by a female student in September 2010. From
The Boston Globe: 

The unnamed Tufts undergraduate … (said) that the school had
discriminated against her on the basis of gender in how it
responded to her report that she was sexually assaulted by her
boyfriend at that time. She also said the university retaliated
against her by threatening to remove her from a selective
leadership program if she refused to attend weekly seminars with
her alleged attacker, according to a letter the Office for Civil
Rights sent Monaco Monday.

Ultimately, in June 2011, Tufts found there was insufficient
evidence to sustain her allegations. She was put on probation after
a finding that she had fabricated a letter about her medical
conditions and had not been truthful with university officials,
according to the Office for Civil Rights.

The accused student was also put on probation for having
misrepresented himself as a Tufts medical student to obtain
confidential medical information about his accuser.

In a Monday ruling, the ED did not fault Tufts’s ultimate
decision in the case, nor did it find that Tufts retaliated against
the accusing student. But it did decide that Tufts is not complying
with federal guidelines on how schools should address sexual
assault cases.

Specifically, it faulted Tufts for waiting six months to launch
an investigation into the student’s assault complaints, not issuing
a decision for another 12 months, and allowing potentially
prejudicial information in the disciplinary case. That’s no doubt
inexcusably shoddy handling of the situation from the
university—but a form of “gender discrimination?” 

Routine bureaucratic incompetence and oversight could also fit
the bill.

Failure to “reach an agreement” with the Office for Civil Rights
could result in Tufts losing all federal funding. But though Tufts
listed an array of improvements it had made in sexual assault
policies since 2010 (and agreed to compensate the student), it
objected to the ED’s finding that it’s in violation of Title
IX.

“Tufts’ refusal to go along with the Office for Civil Rights may
be the beginning of a backlash from universities against what some
see as excessive government intervention,” The Globe
notes. 

Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council
on Education, said many colleges believe that the Office for Civil
Rights often fails to negotiate in good faith, with Washington
officials frequently vetoing agreements hammered out by regional
government lawyers.

He saw the action against Tufts as posturing prior to a White
House event planned for Tuesday, when the findings of a task force
on sexual assault are expected to be released.

Since 2011, the ED has investigated dozens of American
colleges—including
Yale, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and

Occidental College—on allegations of Title IX violations based
on handling of sexual assault cases.