Authors: Patricia Hamill and Lorie Dakessian
The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently published a Letter and Resolution Agreement vindicating a male student we represented in a complaint against Notre Dame. As set forth in the published documents, which OCR redacted due to privacy concerns, OCR found that Notre Dame subjected our client, “Student A”, to discrimination based on sex when it expelled him and failed to provide him a prompt and equitable grievance process in response to a sexual assault complaint filed against him by a female student, “Student B.” OCR found in favor of Student A on his specific complaints about Notre Dame’s process, concluding that the University “failed throughout the process to provide Student A notice of the specific allegations being made against him;” “limited the witnesses interviewed during the administrative investigation in a manner that inconsistently applied the Policy’s definition of a ‘witness to the incident’ in a manner that benefitted only Student B;” did not give Student A “a sufficient or equitable opportunity to prepare for the hearing;” “denied him equitable access to University support during the investigation and hearing process;” and treated the parties differently during the hearing by challenging Student A but not Student B on perceived inconsistencies and allowing character testimony in support of Student B but not Student A. OCR also raised additional concerns based on its interviews of Notre Dame officials, concluding that the Hearing Panel had relied on “irrelevant or improper information that reflected sex stereotypes detrimental only to Student A” and on value judgments that were “not based on the evidence.” The Resolution Agreement required Notre Dame to review and revise as necessary its Title IX policies and procedures, include a letter in Student A’s conduct file acknowledging OCR’s noncompliance findings, and pay a monetary reimbursement to Student A. The Letter with OCR’s findings can be found here and the Resolution Agreement here.
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