Ypsilanti: Eastern Michigan Settles Title IX Lawsuit for $6.85 Million
The lawsuit claimed at least three former male students committed off-campus rapes between 2015 and 2019 and the school covered them up.
Photo: Araki Illustrations - stock.adobe.com
YPSILANTI, Mich. — Eastern Michigan University (EMU) has settled a Title IX lawsuit filed in 2021 by two dozen former and current students who allege the school mishandled their sexual assault complaints.
The alleged victims filed the lawsuit against the university, several officials, and the local and national chapters of the Alpha Sigma Phi and Delta Tau Delta fraternities, claiming at least three former male students committed off-campus rapes between 2015 and 2019 and the school covered them up, The Detroit News reports. The allegations sparked multiple protests by students and three men faced criminal charges in connection to the accusations.
The school, which has denied any wrongdoing, settled the lawsuit for $6.85 million, according to the Detroit Free Press. Officials declined to reveal specifics of the settlement, citing a confidentiality agreement as part of the deal.
In Sept. 2020, the school hired Philadelphia-based law firm Cozen O’Connor to review its policies and how it responded to the allegations. The report, released in May 2022, found EMU knew there were allegations of sexual assault against the three former students but the reports were either anonymous or the reported victims chose not to participate in a formal Title IX investigation.
The report did show that record-keeping in EMU’s Title IX office was so incomplete that it did not allow investigators to “provide as full and complete a picture of the university’s response as might have been possible had the Title IX coordinator and the Greek Life coordinator maintained more complete and contemporaneous documentation.”
In a statement issued on Feb. 2, EMU said it has made several improvements, including moving its Title IX office to the student center and changing its structure to report to the school’s chief diversity officer. Its Title IX website also features training and model syllabus language for instructors to include in their classes.
In addition to implementing revamped policies “to better serve both students who come forward to report potential Title IX violations,” the school received a grant to distribute Title IX resources, including a handbook and additional materials for campus community members.
“We have invested in additional training for our Title IX staff and the EMU staff who serve on hearing panels that are part of our Title IX grievance process,” the school wrote.
If you appreciated this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!
About the Author
Amy Rock, Executive Editor
Amy is Campus Safety’s Executive Editor. Prior to joining the editorial team in 2017, she worked in both events and digital marketing.
Amy has many close relatives and friends who are teachers, motivating her to learn and share as much as she can about campus security. She has a minor in education and has worked with children in several capacities, further deepening her passion for keeping students safe.
Related Content
Leading in Turbulent Times: Effective Campus Public Safety Leadership for the 21st Century
This new webcast will discuss how campus public safety leaders can effectively incorporate Clery Act, Title IX, customer service, “helicopter” parents, emergency notification, town-gown relationships, brand management, Greek Life, student recruitment, faculty, and more into their roles and develop the necessary skills to successfully lead their departments. Register today to attend this free webcast!
It is hard to tell from this reporting whether the failure on the part of victims to cooperate or the schools response, reporting and action protocols were at base fault. But again had the “victims” reported their allegations to off campus LE authorities the question would probably be irrelevant. Interesting that the details of the settlement were not disclosed. Why not? It does seem, from this article, that the Title IX machinery was defective. Lots of questions left to explore such as why was the school held responsible for the actions of “former” students?