Dive Brief:
- Seven current and former University of Connecticut students filed a federal complaint against the university Monday.
- Four of the women were accompanied by civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred at a press conference Monday, in which they told the stories that led to the filing of the Title IX complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.
- According to the complaint, UConn both failed to protect the women from on-campus sexual assaults and to respond adequately to reports.
Dive Insight:
The stories echo those of women at other institutions facing Title IX violations in recent years. According to the victims, they were told that their alleged offenders would be expelled, only to find that they had returned just weeks later, or campus police said they didn't believe reports involving male student athletes. Student Carolyn Luby notably faced online harassment and threats of sexual violence after writing an open letter to university president Susan Herbst regarding acts of violence against women allegedly perpetrated by the school's student athletes. The ball is now once again in the university's court, though it only recently adjusted its sexual assault policy in July.