Title IX Review Cites Campus Police Officer’s Sexual Assault of Student
The school’s response to allegations against the officer was one of several Title IX violations referenced in the agreement.
Frostburg State University has taken several steps to improve it's sexual assault response since the OCR's investigation began.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has entered into a Title IX agreement with Frostburg State University after finding the school in violation of the law.
Frostburg State, which is part of the University System of Maryland, did not officially acknowledge that any of its policies or procedures failed to comply with Title IX.
The OCR, however, reported finding several violations, including FSU’s handling of a student’s report that she was sexually assaulted by a campus police officer in the officer’s campus safety vehicle. The university failed to conduct a Title IX investigation into that incident despite the fact that the officer later plead guilty to related charges in court.
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Another violation identified by the OCR included the university’s informal resolution of a complaint against an alleged perpetrator. The accused person in that instance had been cited in at least two previous complaints. Another complaint took 10 months for university officials to resolve.
Overall, the OCR cited the following deficiencies in FSU’s handling of Title IX complaints:
- Required reporting by mandatory reporters that were not made even though they had notice of an alleged rape.
- Reported off-campus incidents and incidents involving non-student victims or perpetrators that were not investigated or were not fully investigated.
- Repeated violations of a no-contact order that were not properly addressed and adequate steps to safeguard the victim were not taken.
- Sufficient interim measures that were not provided to victims.
- Requests for confidentiality that were not balanced against the need to keep the community safe.
- Title IX investigations that were not launched due to an improper reliance upon local or campus police investigations and reports.
Since the OCR began investigating complaints, the university has adopted policies and procedures to correct many of the deficiencies. The resolution specifically mentions FSU’s change to the “preponderance of the evidence” standard to investigate sexual assault and sexual violence allegations.
Other changes FSU has or will implement were detailed in a statement from the university. They include:
- FSU created the Office of Gender Equity that is staffed by the Title IX coordinator, reporting directly to the University’s president. She is an attorney with an extensive Title IX compliance background. The office is also staffed by a full-time deputy Title IX coordinator who is responsible for investigating complaints of gender-based harassment and violence.
- FSU expanded the options for reporting incidents of gender-based harassment and violence, including creating an anonymous tip line and online reporting system.
- The University is in its fifth year of a comprehensive, mandatory program of instruction for all incoming students that incorporates online and in-person training. The online training component is expanded to all students for the current year.
- Title IX policies and practices have been updated for clarity and compliance with Department of Education standards, and to incorporate updates to the University System of Maryland policies.
- FSU conducted campus climate surveys in 2015 and 2016, and follow-up focus groups with students to help inform FSU’s policies, practices and services.
- FSU committed funding to make improvements to its record keeping and documentation procedures and will continue to review them for Title IX compliance.
- FSU’s Gender-Based Harassment and Violence Elimination Task Force, formed in 2011 under a previous name, proactively serves the campus community and guides program and policy development, and implementation of prevention strategies.
- FSU entered into an MOU with local law enforcement in 2012, and will continue to review the MOU to ensure appropriate communications and response to sexual assault complaints.
- FSU continues to strengthen its relationship with its local rape crisis center, which provides services and programing on FSU’s campus for students.
- Comprehensive training will be held for all members of the University community during the coming year to ensure all students, faculty and staff constituencies have the knowledge needed to respond to concerns of sexual misconduct.
FSU also agreed to offer reimbursement to the complainants for some expenses related to their complaints. Read the full resolution agreement here.
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