Roxbury Community College, in Massachusetts, on Wednesday released a report that chronicles years of lax oversight by current and former administrators that led the college to violate federal campus-safety laws, according to The Boston Globe.
The report, based on an inquiry led by Wayne A. Budd, a former federal prosecutor, drew on dozens of interviews and more than 100,000 documents. Broadly, it identifies “serious deficiencies” that left the college “ill equipped” to handle criminal incidents. Administrators lacked knowledge of their obligations under federal campus-safety laws, the report says, and those weaknesses played a significant role in the college’s failure to respond properly to allegations that college employees had engaged in sexual misconduct.
Several administrators mentioned in the report are no longer employed by the college, including its former president, Terrence A. Gomes, who stepped down last summer amid investigations into the alleged administrative lapses. A memorandum from the college’s Board of Trustees announcing the report’s release said an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education was continuing. The state’s governor, Deval L. Patrick, replaced most of the college’s board last summer, and the new board has pledged to undertake reforms in response to the report’s findings, the newspaper said.
