For the last several years, I’ve been on a one-man mission to challenge the frequent and brazen violations of Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination and Title VI’s prohibition of discrimination based on race and color. As Professor Philip Carl Salzman pointed out recently universities regularly engage in a hypocritical, double standard — “inclusion and equity for females, people of color, LGBTQ++ and Muslims; exclusion and inequity for males, whites, heterosexuals, Christians, Jews, and East Asians.” In the Orwellian tradition that is a central tenet of wokeness, some groups are more equal than others on campus, and Title IX and Title VI are enforced only for the preferred groups and not for unpreferred groups. It’s those frequent, flagrant, and routine violations of federal civil rights laws that have motivated me to file hundreds of Title IX (and some Title VI) complaints against US universities for illegally violating the civil rights of the unpreferred groups. Here’s a summary of civil rights advocacy this year.

1. Complaints. In 2020, I filed 190 Title IX complaints (including some Title VI complaints) with the Office for Civil Rights in which I identified more than 750 violations of Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination at US universities and colleges. That brings the total number of complaints filed to 270 since the fall of 2018 (for more than 1,000 violations), which I think is the greatest number of Title IX complaints ever filed by an individual (call Guinness?). At some universities like Ohio State University, I’ve identified as many as 20 Title IX violations, and I’m sure I haven’t uncovered all of their violations. Complaints for discriminatory, single-sex programs have recently been filed against Michigan State (Women’s Leadership Institute), University of Chicago (Heising-Simons Summer Program, Deborah Jin Fellowship, Elaine K. Bernstein Fellowship for Women in Science and Booth Women Advance), Harvard (Women’s Leadership Initiative), the College of William and Mary (Women’s Leadership Initiative, Women’s Stock Pitch & Leadership Summit and William & Mary Women’s Mentoring), Georgia State (WomenLead at Georgia State University with the preferred pronoun list I posted about here) and West Virginia University (WVU Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) and the M-Power mentorship program for students of color).

2. Investigations. This year, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened federal civil rights investigations at 86 universities mostly for single-sex, female-only scholarships and programs based on my Title IX complaints including Harvard, Syracuse University, Johns Hopkins, University of Minnesota, Middlebury College, University of Virginia, Penn State, Wake Forest, Duke, Yale, and UCLA. That brings the total number of federal OCR investigations based on my Title IX complaints to 121 since January 2019. Partly at least because of that unprecedented number of Title IV complaints for single-sex scholarships and programs, the OCR issued the following statement earlier this year:

OCR has implemented two new issue codes under Title IX for cases received in or after January 2020: “single sex campus programs” (discrimination on the basis of sex in campus programs) and “single sex scholarships” (discrimination on the basis of sex in scholarship programs).

It’s probably the case that in the past there were so few (if any) investigations of single-sex campus programs and scholarships (because they were never challenged) that those rare investigations were classified as “Other.” I’ll take the introduction of the two new “issued codes” as a sign of success and an indication that the increasing number of complaints and investigations for single-sex programs and scholarships has gotten the attention of the OCR to the point that it felt that it was necessary to add two new classifications for investigations. It’s also an indication that universities have violated Title IX with impunity for many decades, and have continued to introduce new discriminatory programs because those violations have gone unchallenged until the last few years. Even tenured full professors have been afraid to challenge the woke “diversity-industrial complex” for fear of being canceled, ostracized, and exiled from the academic tribe.

In (weak) defense of some universities, I heard from an OCR attorney that some universities express surprise when notified that they are being investigated for Title IX violations. They’ve been violating federal civil rights laws for so long (multiples decades in many cases for specific programs), and they see so many other universities violating Title IX that violating the civil rights of half of the faculty, staff, and students doesn’t even seem illegal anymore, even to the large and growing staffs of Title IX officers and other diversicrats (e.g., Ohio State University employs more than 100 “diversicrats”). But in the majority of cases, it’s probably more likely that many universities are aware they are violating Title IX, but just do so with impunity because they’ve never been challenged and because illegal preferences for preferred groups (women and non-whites) are part of universities’ woke missions of social justice. So universities are either ignorant of federal civil rights laws or they think they’re above the law. In either case, it’s a pretty sad indictment of higher education today.

It’s especially troubling because every university and college that receives federal financial assistance (which is every university in the country with the few exceptions Hillsdale College and Grove City College) has to regularly certify to the Department of Education that they are enforcing Title IX and Title as a legal condition of continuing to receive taxpayer dollars. Despite those regular certifications, many (most?) universities routinely violate Title IX, and that is what has motivated me to pursue my civil rights advocacy.

3. Resolutions. Over the last year, the following universities corrected their Title IX violations, either pre-emptively once an investigation was opened or as a result of a Voluntary Resolution Agreement with the Office for Civil Rights at the conclusion of an investigation:

• Vermont Technical College added two equivalent boy-only STEM programs to offset two girl-only STEM programs
• Clarkson University converted a girl-only STEM program to a coeducational program open to all genders
• The University of Central Arkansas opened a girl-only STEM program to all genders
• Highline College (Des Moines, WA) agreed to stop hosting a discriminatory, single-sex, girl-only STEM program
• Grand Valley State University (MI) agreed to convert a girl-only STEM program to an all-gender program
• The University of Rhode Island agreed to discontinue a girl-only chemistry camp
• Wentworth Institute of Technology (Boston) agreed to stop hosting a single-sex, girl-only STEM summit
• Marietta College (OH) converted an all-girl STEM summer program to a coeducational program open to all genders
• The Illinois Institute of Technology agreed to discontinue a single-sex, girl-only computer camp
• Rutgers University opened an all-girl STEM program to all genders
• The University of Nevada-Reno opened an all-girl program to all genders
• Rogue Community College (OR) agreed to discontinue an all-girl STEM camp
• The University of Missouri discontinued an all-girl summer STEM program
• Kansas State University opened an all-girl program to all genders
• The University of Central Oklahoma converted a girl-only summer computer forensics program to an all-gender program.
• Western Washington University agreed to discontinue an all-girl STEM program or convert it to a coeducational program
• Oregon State University opened five female-only faculty/staff awards to all genders
• Duke University signed a Voluntary Resolution Agreement with the OCR to either convert three female-only programs to coeducational programs or discontinue those programs
• The University of California-Berkeley discontinued a single-sex “Women in Science” program
• Eastern Washington University agreed to discontinue a female-only leadership academy or convert it to a coeducation program.

MP: Given the success I’ve had so far having my Title IX complaints opened for investigation by the Office for Civil Rights after being reviewed and with many of those investigations being resolved in my favor without losing any cases so far, I’m confident that the remaining complaints under review will be opened for investigation and that the investigations will continue to be successfully resolved in my favor like the 20 resolutions above in 2020. After many decades of violating Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination with impunity, America’s universities are finally for the first time being held accountable for violating federal civil rights laws that are supposed to protect the civil rights all students, faculty and staff and not just the civil rights of the “preferred groups.”

The year in review: An update on my efforts to challenge Title IX violations in higher education and advance civil rights for all | American Enterprise Institute – AEI