Dive Brief:
- Grinnell College is officially under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights after being denied a request for review earlier this year.
- OCR’s investigation will follow up on complaints filed by six students in February, before Grinnell originally asked for a campuswide review.
- The complaints allege that Grinnell did not impose adequate consequences for students who were accused of sexual assault, administrators improperly revealed the identity of a victim, and one student was retaliated against for her views relating to Grinnell’s response to sexual assault on campus.
Dive Insight:
On July 29, the Office of Civil Rights had open investigations into 128 colleges and universities. A handful date as far back as the summer of 2011. Since the Department of Education made institutions’ responsibilities clear when it comes to sexual assault and Title IX, a flood of complaints have created a backlog within the Office of Civil Rights that legislators so far have not been inclined to alleviate with additional funding.
While the OCR aims to wrap up investigations within six months, most of the open cases have been ongoing for longer than that. Michigan State University, Wittenberg University, and the University of Virginia all have open investigations that began in 2011 and continue to keep students and the institutions from moving forward.