The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will be investigating Stetson’s Title IX process after receiving a complaint related to a Spring 2016 sexual assault case. President Libby announced the investigation to the university via email earlier today.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) states that its mission is “to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation through vigorous enforcement of civil rights.” The OCR enforces federal anti-discrimination laws including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex.

In the Campus Climate Survey conducted last spring, 12 percent of respondents indicated that they had received unwanted sexual contact while on Stetson’s campus.

Jennifer*, the student who spoke to The Reporter last semester about her issues with the Title IX process, has informed Hatter Network that she filed a complaint with the OCR after her case’s resolution. In October representatives from the office told her they would likely be launching an investigation.
In a written statement, Jennifer explained that her complaints are not about the details of her assault but have “always been about how Stetson handled my Title IX investigation.”
Jennifer’s assailant was found in violation of the honor code and was initially suspended for the 2016-2017 academic year. After Jennifer appealed the sanction, her attacker was suspended until after her expected graduation date in 2018.

She hopes that by bringing this case to the federal government “no one has to be violated by their school the way that I was. Being raped is traumatic enough, and I think it’s the school’s responsibility to handle it in a way that doesn’t damage you further.”

In her statement, Libby wrote that her administration “is cooperating fully with the Office for Civil Rights in this investigation, and views this as an opportunity to continue to review our Title IX processes, policies and procedures.”
Lua Hancock, Vice President of Campus Life and Student Success, wrote to Hatter Network explaining that the Dean of Students Lynn Schoenberg, herself and other staff members “from the areas of Title IX, Community Standards and Human Resources, will be working on collecting and reporting the requested information in the Office for Civil Rights request.”
Interim Title IX Coordinator Matthew Kurz and Schoenberg did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

Hancock also noted that the university is “in the final stages” of hiring a permanent “Title IX Executive Director/Coordinator” to take over for Kurz. She noted that substantial community feedback will be invited into the hiring process.

Defending Stetson’s process, Libby claimed that the “Title IX Office responds to all Title IX complaints quickly, and conducts a thorough investigation to determine if any Stetson Student Code of Conduct or university policies were violated.”
The president also highlighted efforts taken to prevent sexual violence since the university’s participation in the 2015-2016 Department of Justice Climate Survey. Those efforts include further student development, mandatory development for faculty and staff, and attempting to update university policies “in an ongoing process to stay in compliance and to meet the needs of our community.”
Hancock claims the university has been “able to add educational pieces in an effort to educate the community and adjust culture” in the years since the OCR wrote to universities about sexual assault prevention in 2011. She referenced initiatives such as Take Back the Night, an annual student march protesting sexual violence in DeLand and on campus.
Jennifer’s story sparked outrage among students and faculty, some of whom participated in a protest across campus. The protest ended with a discussion between students, faculty, Schoenberg and then Title IX coordinator Shannon Sheppard. The conversation revolved around details of the case and the general Title IX process, as administrators could not comment on any particular information.

In her statement Jennifer expressed hope that her grievances with the university’s Title IX process would be solved. She stands “cautiously optimistic that this will make the process fairer and less violating for victims in the future.”

*Jennifer’s real name has been changed to preserve anonymity.