Feds investigate sex assaults at Vanderbilt University
Federal investigators will examine sexual violence at Vanderbilt University in response to a complaint filed in November by six current and former female students.
The Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education decided to open a case to look into possible failings in how Vanderbilt responded to sex crimes, a spokesman told The Tennessean on Tuesday.
The students charge that women were discouraged from going forward with reports of sexual violence, university staff failed to follow through after incidents, education efforts were lacking and help for victims was not readily available.
University officials, who will not be allowed to view the complaint, have vowed to cooperate with federal officials.
The investigation will probe for possible violations of two federal laws — the Clery Act and Title IX — which together require universities to be responsive to sexual assault and to accurately report crime statistics.
Students nationwide have filed a growing number of such complaints, including at Yale University and state universities from California to North Carolina, as well as Amherst, Dartmouth and Swarthmore colleges. As of April 16, the Office for Civil Rights had 53 pending cases.
Investigations can lead to penalties. Yale, for example, was fined $155,000 last year.At
Vanderbilt, the federal filing was organized by Sarah O'Brien, now graduated, who said she was sexually assaulted in 2010. The Tennessean does not normally name victims of sexual assault, but O'Brien has asked to being identified.
"The opening of an investigation means quite a lot to myself and my co complainants," she said. "Specifically, it gives us some peace knowing that other people agree that Vanderbilt does not handle cases of sexual violence and stalking correctly. Similarly, it will bring other things to light in how although Vanderbilt claims they have been trying to fix the issues they have not been."
The students sent more than 70 pages to investigators in November with a wide variety of claims, often drawing on personal accounts. They questioned university staff changes and said the tone of some campus events had been hostile toward women.
They also referred to the June rape of an unconscious female student in a dorm that led Nashville police to arrest four football players on rape charges.
Vanderbilt leaders have said they acted quickly to expel the men accused in the June assault and to support the alleged victim, who remained on campus.
And in interviews with The Tennessean after the June arrests, university officials touted their sexual misconduct policies, prevention programs and victim services as going far beyond federal mandates.
"Vanderbilt is fully cooperating," said Beth Fortune, Vanderbilt vice chancellor for public affairs, wrote in a statement Tuesday. "We understand the Department of Education to be conducting these reviews at a number of campuses across the country."
From 2001 through 2013, Vanderbilt reported 64 rapes and 89 other forcible sex crimes to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, although the agency said some over-reporting may have occurred.
The provisions of Title IX, the federal law on gender-based discrimination, demands that universities investigate assaults, act to prevent recurrences and not dissuade victims from pursuing criminal charges. The Clery Act is a 1990 law requiring colleges to collect and disclose campus crime statistics.
The probe of the university could include reviews of documents, interviews with complainants and campus site visits.
Federal attention
The opening of the Vanderbilt review comes as the Obama administration announces a series of steps it plans to take to try to reduce the epidemic of sexual assault on campuses.
The report from the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, published Tuesday, details plans to launch the website called NotAlone.gov — where enforcement data will be published — as well as an effort to require colleges and universities to conduct anonymous surveys of their student bodies by 2016 to get a better understanding of how frequently incidents happen on campus.
The Department of Education will provide schools with new guidance that clarifies that on-campus counselors — such as those who at sexual assault centers and pastoral counselors — can talk to victims of assault in confidence. The confidentiality question has become an issue on some campuses.
The task force is also providing schools with a checklist to use to draft or re-evaluate their own sexual misconduct policies, and it announced that the Justice Department will later this year develop trauma-informed training programs for school officials and campus and local law enforcement.
Nearly one in five women and one in 16 men are victims of a rape or an attempted rape while in college, according to a 2007 study commissioned by the National Institute of Justice.
USA Today contributed to this report. Reach Tony Gonzalez at 615-259-8089 or on Twitter @tgonzalez.
Protecting students
The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault announced plans to:
• push universities to become more transparent in reporting incidents and launch the website NotAlone.gov — where enforcement data will be published.
• try to require colleges and universities to conduct anonymous surveys of student bodies.
• clarify that on-campus counselors can talk to victims of assault with confidentiality.
• provide schools with a checklist to reevaluate sexual misconduct policies.
• develop trauma-informed training programs for campus officials and campus and local law police.