UPDATED: March 2, 2017, at 8:52 p.m.
The federal government opened a third Title IX campus sexual violence investigation against Dartmouth on Feb. 22, according to documents released by the Department of Education Thursday. This is the third such investigation into the College within the past four years.
Dartmouth's first sexual violence investigation was initiated on May 31, 2013 and related to the College’s response to sexual harassment claims, as well as the designation and notice of a Title IX coordinator. On Aug. 21, 2015, a second investigation was opened in relation to an individual complaint against the College. Both of these cases are still open.
Dartmouth is one of 227 postsecondary institutions under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights for how it responds to sexual violence claims and one of 14 schools with more than three open Title IX sexual violence investigations. The 14 institutions include Stanford University and the University of Chicago as well as fellow Ivy League schools Columbia University and Cornell University, which has more active Title IX investigations than any other college or university with six. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex. As of Wednesday, there were 311 cases of sexual violence under investigation at these 227 institutions.
In an email, College spokesperson Diana Lawrence wrote that the College intends "to cooperate fully with the [OCR] as it conducts its investigation." She said that Dartmouth followed all relevant laws, including Title IX, in matters related to the new investigation.
An open case does not confirm a Title IX violation by a college or university but indicates that an investigation is underway to gather additional facts.
