Title IX complaint against U. likely to be resolved this month
Ruby ShaoThe Department of Education will likely resolve the ongoing complaint against the University for alleged violations of Title IX within two weeks, according to New England School of Law adjunct professor Wendy Murphy, who was responsible for filing the complaint. Murphy opened cases against the University and Harvard Law School under Title IX — the law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational institutions that receive federal funding — for sexual violence complaints in fall 2010. The Department of Education included these institutions on a list of higher education institutions under federal investigation released last Thursday. In sending the cases to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, Murphy said she wanted the agency's headquarters to issue global guidelines so that all schools could improve their sexual assault and Title IX policies, as the problems at the University and Harvard Law School were allegedly systemic in higher education.OCR responded by releasing a Dear Colleague Letter in April 2011 that explained "schools’ responsibility to take immediate and effective steps to end sexual harassment and sexual violence" under Title IX regulations. However, a few weeks after the letter's publication, legislators filed a new federal law called the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, referred to as SaVE, that reduced the standards for helping sexual assault victims, according to Murphy. "It in effect gives Harvard and Princeton and all schools federal authority to mistreat sexual assault victims on campus," she explained.
