In an unprecedented move, today the US Department of Education released to the public a list of all of the 55 (that’s a deliberate two fives, not me accidentally hitting 5 twice) American colleges and universities that are currently under investigation for violating Title IX over their piss-poor handling of sex assault investigations. Did your school or alma mater make the list? Find out here!
Some on the list aren’t a surprise at all (HEL-LO, Occidental College! LOVELY TO SEE YOU, FLORIDA STATE!) but other inclusions and omissions are. I was surprised that my alma mater, The University of Notre Dame, wasn’t listed, because they’ve been famously shitty about handling some high profile sexual assault cases in the last decade or so. I was also shocked by how many gigantic public schools were on the list. Being terrible about rape appears as endemic to American high education as barfing on the quad.
Here’s the full list, alphabetically by state. Would-be donors (or attendees), take note:
Arizona State University
Butte-Glen Community College (CA)
Occidental College (CA)
University of California-Berkeley
University of Southern California
Regis University (CO)
University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Colorado at Denver
University of Denver
University of Connecticut
Catholic University of America (DC)
Florida State University
Emory Universtiy (GA)
University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Idaho
Knox College (IL)
University of Chicago
Indiana University- Bloomington
Vincennes University (IN)
Amherst College (MA)
Boston University
Emerson College (MA)
Harvard College (MA)
Harvard University- Law School
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Frostberg State University (MD)
Michigan State University
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Guilford College (NC)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Minot State University (ND)
Dartmouth College (NH)
Princeton University (NJ)
CUNY Hunter College (NY)
Hobart and William Smith Colleges (NY)
Sarah Lawrence College (NY)
SUNY Binghamton (NY)
Denison University (OH)
Ohio State University
Wittenberg University (OH)
Oklahoma State University
Carngie Mellon University (PA)
Franklin and Marshall College (PA)
Pennsylvania State University
Swarthmore College (PA)
Temple University (PA)
Vanderbilt University (TN)
Southern Methodist University (TX)
The University of Texas-Pan American
College of William and Mary (VA)
University of Virginia
Washington State University
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Bethany College (WV)
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
Here’s more on the list, from the DOE’s accompanying press release:
“We are making this list available in an effort to bring more transparency to our enforcement work and to foster better public awareness of civil rights,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon said. “We hope this increased transparency will spur community dialogue about this important issue. I also want to make it clear that a college or university’s appearance on this list and being the subject of a Title IX investigation in no way indicates at this stage that the college or university is violating or has violated the law.”
The DOE isn’t releasing further specifics on individual school’s cases beyond when the investigation began. But here’s hoping that now authorities are naming and shaming colleges who privilege their reputation with recruits and donors over the safety of their students, schools will have the fire lit under their ass they need to actually do something. People are paying attention, and this isn’t going away.