Dive Summary:
- The University of Montana and U.S. Department of Justice reached an agreement Thursday following a yearlong investigation of sexual assaults at the school, with Montana U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter calling the university's new policies and procedures for reports of sexual assault and harassment "the gold standard" for colleges and universities.
- In the investigation, the DOJ's findings included six UM football players being accused of sexual assault in a three-year period, the school waiting a week in early 2012 to tell police of two sexual assaults on the same night by the same man (who fled the country) and that UM campus police policies on sexual assault had previously been "nonexistent."
- UM's sexual assault problems came to light in December 2011, and Cotter praised UM President Royce Engstrom for "bold and difficult decisions" made to handle a "historical problem" that preceded his tenure.
From the article:
... Women at UM who reported being sexually assaulted or harassed “were unfairly belittled, disbelieved or blamed for speaking up about what had been done to them,” Roy L. Austin Jr., deputy assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said Thursday. ...