After months of controversy surrounding Baylor University’s handling of sexual-violence cases, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights said on Wednesday that it had opened a Title IX investigation there.
Dorie Nolt, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement emailed to reporters that the office, known as OCR, had opened the investigation “after receiving a complaint from the former Baylor Title IX coordinator.” The coordinator, Patty Crawford, went on national television this month and accused Baylor administrators of sidelining her in efforts to bring about reforms and of retaliating against her. At the time, Baylor said that it was surprised by Ms. Crawford’s statements, given what it said was her past praise for the university’s Title IX efforts.
“Consistent with federal privacy statutes, OCR typically does not identify the specific parties, including complainants, involved in our civil rights cases,” Ms. Nolt said in the statement. “In this instance, the complainant has given permission for OCR to identify her and has spoken publicly about her complaint.”
The department also said it had opened another Title IX investigation at Columbia University. Counting the new cases, there are now 281 open sexual-violence investigations at 215 colleges and universities:
