Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Education has found Southern Methodist University in violation of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting gender-based discrimination, because of its response to sexual harassment and sexual assault.
• The department reported that the Dallas university failed to properly respond to a male student’s complaints of sexual assault by another male student, or to retaliatory harassment from other students that ultimately forced the victim to drop out. SMU’s policies also didn’t comply with Title IX.
• The university has agreed to take specific steps to meet compliance with Title IX, including revising grievance procedures, training employees on how to support students who report sexual misconduct, and developing an information-sharing process between campus police and the university’s Title IX coordinator.

Dive Insight:

Since at least May, SMU was known to be on the Department of Education’s long list of colleges and universities — now totaling around 87 — under investigation for their handling of sexual misconduct cases. The university, which has 11,000 students, has a head-start on Title IX reforms from steps it has taken since appointing a task force in 2012, after the Dallas County district attorney challenged the school for how it was handling sexual assault complaints. In 2013, SMU implemented new sexual harassment and sexual misconduct reporting procedures, conducted outreach about prevention, and trained students and parents. Under the agreement with the Department of Education announced Thursday, SMU will track harassment reports, investigations, and resolutions; conduct annual assessments to determine other proactive steps to take; and review sexual harassment and violence complaints since 2012 to determine if they were properly addressed.