The Brief: Feds Review Campus Sexual Assault Complaints
by Madlin Mekelburg and John Reynolds, The Texas Tribune
Nov. 17, 2015
The Big Conversation
Three Texas universities — Texas A&M University, the University of Houston and Trinity University — are facing federal scrutiny over their handling of sexual violence allegations.
But as the Tribune’s Matthew Watkins reports, the Texas A&M case is getting particular attention. He writes:
Such federal inquiries have generally been spurred by accusations that universities didn’t do enough to punish students accused of rape or harassment.But at least one of the Texas campuses currently under review — Texas A&M — is being investigated for the opposite: a claim that administrators went too far when they suspended a male student accused of assaulting a female classmate.That focus surprised officials at A&M, a university that has been praised by student groups and even NASA for its work to curb sexual violence on campus.
Universities face potentially harsh penalties if they don’t take seriously the directive to investigate sexual assault allegations.
“If the universities don’t, they risk violating Title IX, the federal statute that requires schools to provide equal education opportunities to both men and women. … In the worst-case scenario, the department can cut off federal funding for universities that don’t play by the rules — a potentially crippling move. But it hasn’t gone that far in previous cases,” Watkins writes.
Disclosure: Texas A&M University is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. The University of Houston was a corporate sponsor in 2013. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2015/11/17/brief-nov-17-2015/.
