Dive Brief:
- Senior officials at Occidental College agreed to undisclosed settlements with at least 10 current and former students involved in a Title IX complaint alleging that the school mishandled their reported sexual assaults.
- The settlements come with the condition that the women, among 37 represented by prominent attorney Gloria Allred's firm, refrain from speaking publicly about the alleged mishandling.
- According to the complaint, the liberal arts college "fostered a hostile learning environment through decisions designed to bury the true number of sexual assaults on campus," and that students were misled about their rights and faced retaliation for speaking out.
Dive Insight:
It comes as no surprise that Occidental would want to make sure those paid off not speak publicly about this issue—the sooner the college can put this issue in the past, the better for it, right? To its credit, however, it has since adopted new policies and hired an abuse advocate. It's also not the only higher education institution to face federal complaints over this matter, either. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Swarthmore, Yale and others have all faced lawsuits and federal investigations in the last year.