Baylor faces civil rights investigation
Federal officials want to know if university violated Title IX law
The U.S. Department of Education has opened an investigation of Baylor University — which has been at the center of a sexual assault scandal involving its football players — to determine if the college violated the federal civil rights law known as Title IX, after the administrator in charge of ensuring compliance resigned abruptly this month.
The Education Department confirmed late Wednesday its Office for Civil Rights launched the investigation based on a complaint filed by Patty Crawford, Baylor’s former Title IX coordinator who resigned Oct. 3.
Crawford alleged Baylor violated the federal law that outlines steps universities must take to protect students against gender-based violence, harassment and discrimination. She said administrators at the Waco university took away her job duties and responsibilities, failed to assign her enough investigators and cut her out of the loop, said Rogge Dunn, her lawyer.
“It is significant that the Department of Education opened a formal investigation, which indicates that
the Office of Civil Rights found Patty’s complaints credible and warranted further investigation,“he said via email.
Dunn said the university undermined Crawford, in part by taking actions against football players accused of sexual assault without telling her.
Attention on Baylor and its handling of assault complaints leveled against its football players came under intense scrutiny earlier this year, after two former players were convicted of sexually assaulting women.
In May, the summary of findings by the law firm Pepper Hamilton, which was commissioned by Baylor to conduct an independent investigation of the complaints, revealed a systemic failure at the university to properly handle sexual assault compaints. The law firm’s 13-page report said administrators discouraged reporting of complaints and found football coaches and other athletic department officials knew about reports of sexual assault by multiple football players and sought to “actively divert cases from the student conduct or criminal process.”
Shortly after the report was made public, the university fired head football coach Art Briles, and athletic director Ian McCaw resigned. Baylor President and Chancellor Ken Starr was demoted and remained a law professor until leaving the university altogether in August.
Full cooperation
David Garland, Baylor’s interim president, said Wednesday night the university has completed or made progress on more than 90 percent of 105 recommendations Pepper Hamilton made for improvement and will fully cooperate with the federal investigation.
“Should the OCR (Office for Civil Rights) identify additional areas of improvement, we will work on those immediately,” Garland said in a statement. “We are wholeheartedly committed to cultivating a safe and supportive environment for all members of the Baylor community.”
An investigator with the civil rights office interviewed Crawford last week. Meanwhile, the university has countered Crawford’s assertions, saying Baylor has the built a strong Title IX office to handle rape and sexual assault cases. The school also accused Crawford of seeking a $1 million buyout from her job and demanding book and movie rights regarding the swirling sex assault scandal.
The Education Department has “really stepped up” its national enforcement as more students make allegations against their schools, said Neena Chaudhry, director of education and senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center. Schools must comply with Title IX to receive federal funding. Baylor, the nation’s largest Southern Baptist university, is now one of 10 Texas colleges the department’s civil rights office is examining as part of Title IX sexual violence investigations.
“This is in large part a response to the fact that many more students are stepping up and coming forward,” Chaudhry said. “It’s a real movement by students who have the courage to say this is not OK.”
The Office for Civil Rights may choose a narrow or broad scope in its Title IX investigation, focusing on particular sexual assault or more generally examine how schools respond to reports, Chaudhry said.
The end of an investigation brings a finding of wrongdoing or a settlement with the university, she said. No matter the outcome, she said institutions must align their procedures with federal law to avoid the loss of federal funding, “the ultimate threat.”
Separately, there are four Title IX civil lawsuits pending against Baylor. One of the suits represents six different alleged sexual assault victims.
Assault victim reacts
Each suit describes how Baylor struggled to provide timely counseling, didn’t push for charges or additional protections for the victims, and failed to offer support to manage daily college life.
“I’m glad this is finally getting the legal attention that it deserves,” one sexual assault victim who asked not to be identified said. “Athletics was where we first uncovered it, but time has shown us that the problem runs far deeper than the football team. Pretending it begins and ends with the football teams does a disservice both to survivors and to the school trying to show it’s reformed.
“Maybe the lawsuit will give us the answers that the (Baylor) Board of Regents repeatedly refuse to.”