UNC violated Title IX anti-discrimination laws in its handling of sexual harassment and sexual assault complaints. That was the determination of the investigation by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights defined in a letter on Monday following a complaint filed in January 2013.
The letter from federal officials detailed areas where UNC failed to comply with regulations, while also acknowledging that the university had implemented policy changes in an effort to come into compliance since the beginning of the investigation.
The university “failed to provide for the prompt and equitable resolution of complaints of discrimination, as required by Title IX,” according to the letter.
Andrea Pino is one of the individuals who brought the complaint in 2013, when she was a student at UNC. Pino and another complainant, Annie Clark, led a nationwide effort through the End Rape on Campus advocacy group the pair co-founded. The two were featured in “The Hunting Ground,” the 2015 documentary that detailed sexual assault on campuses across the country.
Pino wrote on social media Tuesday that, “No student should have to survive sexual violence when seeking an education.”
Carol Folt assumed the duties of chancellor at UNC in July 2013, after the complaint had been filed. A new sexual assault policy was implemented in August 2014.
The Office of Civil Rights wrote in Monday’s letter that the group “acknowledges that the University has already taken affirmative steps to improve its response to complaints of sexual harassment and sexual violence.”
Federal officials reviewed complaints made from the fall of 2011 through the fall of 2015.
The university identified 102 complaints or reports in the two academic years from 2011 through 2013. In that time, the officials wrote, university staff members “were not adequately trained to implement its own procedures, resulting in a failure to respond promptly and equitably to some complaints.”
OCR officials were on site at UNC in June 2016 and reviewed 285 complaints under the newly implemented policy from the fall of 2014 through the fall semester of 2015. Officials wrote that the office’s “review of the records indicated that the University generally conducted adequate, reliable and impartial investigations.” However, they added, due to a lack of documentation the office had concerns “regarding whether the University provided timely resolution of complaints; and, in the context of a complaint’s request for confidentiality, whether the University appropriately and timely weighed such a request against its responsibility to provide a safe and nondiscriminatory environment.”
Folt said at a Board of Trustees meeting earlier this year that providing a safe environment was a key function of the university and a driving force for the policy implemented early in her tenure leading UNC.
“What are we going to do to make people feel safe,” Folt said at that January meeting, “both to express themselves, also if they’re worried and concerned to bring that forward, how do you make sure that there isn’t retaliation.
“And I think we’re looking at the breadth of that.”
Folt added that the policies are under consistent review.
“You never think of [the policy] as complacent. This is part of a philosophy that you are constantly trying to improve.”
UNC and the OCR are now moving forward under a Resolution Agreement. The university does not admit any violation of the law under the document, but it focuses on areas where UNC must meet regulatory requirements moving forward. The focus areas of the agreement include giving clear notice to employees, students and third parties about the policies in place, giving concurrent written notice throughout the grievance process, providing a more refined description of the information resolution process, expressly stating a dean, director or department chair may not reject investigative findings and recommendations or corrective actions and, finally, providing links to descriptions of appeal procedures.
You can read the full report, as provided by UNC, here.
