55 colleges with Title IX sexual violence cases pending: Is yours listed?

In a bid to increase awareness, the US Department of Education, for the first time, released the list of schools under investigation for how they dealt with reports of sexual violence on campus.

[Update: The Monitor requested the latest list of colleges and universities under investigation for possible violations of Title IX's provisions regarding sexual misconduct. The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights provided this list of 86 pending investigations as of Oct. 22.]

As part of its campaign to reduce sexual violence on college campuses, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a first-of-its kind list Thursday of all higher education institutions currently under investigation for possibly violating civil rights law in how they’ve handled complaints of sexual violence and harassment.

“We are making this list available in an effort to bring more transparency to our enforcement work and to foster better public awareness of civil rights,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon said in a written statement accompanying the list, which is based on investigations under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education.

“We hope this increased transparency will spur community dialogue about this important issue. I also want to make it clear that a college or university’s appearance on this list … in no way indicates at this stage that the college or university is violating or has violated the law.”

The schools range from small liberal arts colleges and Ivy League institutions to large state universities. The full list is included below. Investigations are triggered either by complaints brought by individuals or by OCR’s own compliance reviews.

The public can request regularly updated lists from OCR. Previously, OCR would only confirm whether an investigation was under way if asked.

The publication of the list follows the release earlier this week of the first report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, as well as a new document from OCR clarifying schools’ Title IX obligations related to sexual violence.

Here are the schools with open investigations, organized alphabetically by state:

•Arizona State University

•Butte-Glen Community College District

•Occidental College

•University of California at Berkeley

•University of Southern California

•Regis University

•University of Colorado at Boulder

•University of Colorado at Denver

•University of Denver

•University of Connecticut

•The Catholic University of America

•Florida State University

•Emory University

•University of Hawaii at Manoa

•University of Idaho

•Knox College

•University of Chicago

•Indiana University-Bloomington

•Vincennes University

•Amherst College

•Boston University

•Emerson College

•Harvard College

•Harvard University Law School

•University of Massachusetts at Amherst

•Frostburg State University

•Michigan State University

•University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

•Guilford College

•University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

•Minot State University

•Dartmouth College

•Princeton University

•CUNY Hunter College

•Hobart and William Smith Colleges

•Sarah Lawrence College

•SUNY at Binghamton

•Denison University

•Ohio State University

•Wittenberg University

•Oklahoma State University

•Carnegie Mellon University

•Franklin and Marshall College

•Pennsylvania State University

•Swarthmore College

•Temple University

•Vanderbilt University

•Southern Methodist University

•The University of Texas Pan-American

•College of William and Mary

•University of Virginia

•Washington State University

•University of Wisconsin at Whitewater

•Bethany College

•West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine