Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Education on Thursday released the names of 55 colleges and universities under investigation for possible Title IX violations due to their handling of sexual violence or sexual harassment complaints.
• The move is seen as an attempt to step up the pressure on higher education institutions regarding the widespread sexual assault problem and to make the department’s enforcement efforts more transparent, although details of the cases were not revealed.
• In the past, the Department of Education would confirm individual Title IX investigations, but it will now provide the full list and update it regularly.

Dive Insight:

The list includes three Ivy League schools — Harvard University, Princeton University, and Dartmouth College — as well as other prestigious private schools like Emory University, the University of Southern California, and Amherst and Swarthmore colleges. Massachusetts was the state with the most schools on the list at six, followed by Pennsylvania with five.