The first conclusion to a four-year federal probe of sexual violence at the University of Virginia was issued in secret, and it stood for just four days.
Among its findings was that U-Va. “abdicated” its legal responsibility to act on reports of sexual violence within the school’s powerful Greek system and took a “hands off” approach, relying instead on fraternities to police their own membership in cases of alleged rape and other sexual assaults. It also detailed numerous accounts of alleged sexual assault on the Charlottesville campus, tallied more than 150 cases of possible sexual harassment or sexual violence during a six-year period and said the university failed to identify and address a “sexually hostile environment.”
That stern criticism of Virginia’s flagship public university was part of a 39-page letter to U-Va. officials presenting the findings of a U.S. Education Department Office for Civil Rights investigation that began in June 2011. The Aug. 31, 2015, letter came amid weeks of feverish maneuvering behind the scenes, with Virginia’s governor and two U.S. senators lobbying on behalf of the school amid concern about the effects of a lashing from the federal agency.
Then, the letter was buried.
Read more at The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/in-secret-letter-feds-sternly-criticized-u-va-for-handling-of-sexual-violence/2016/03/01/297e9b3a-d728-11e5-9823-02b905009f99_story.html
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