Let’s Work Together to Challenge the Selective Double Standard for the Enforcement of Title VI and Title IX in Higher Education

by Mark J. Perry, @Mark_J_Perry

Higher education has a major civil rights problem, and it’s so widespread that it’s nothing short of systemic and structural. The discrimination on the basis of sex and race that takes place on almost every college campus in America is not only illegal according to federal civil rights laws, but it’s highly unethical, unprincipled, and corrupt. It’s been going on for decades, but the violations of Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination and Title VI’s prohibition of discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin have increased in recent years, despite the ongoing efforts of myself and others to challenge the systemic sexism and racism that exists in higher education today. The two goals of this post are (1) to bring greater public awareness to the widespread hypocritical and selective double standard for the enforcement of federal civil rights laws on college campuses and (2) to suggest a “call to arms” for a coordinated national effort to expose and challenge the illegal violations of Title IX and Title VI that exist at most colleges and universities. 

Background: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin at educational institutions that receive federal financial assistance, which includes Federal Pell Grants, Federal Student Loans, and federal funding for scientific research. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects all people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. Therefore, colleges and universities are legally required to actively and uniformly enforce Title VI and Title IX to protect the civil rights of all students, faculty, and staff, regardless of their sex, race, or ethnicity as a condition of receiving federal (more accurately taxpayer) funds. In fact, colleges and universities are required to regularly certify to the Department of Education that they are actively enforcing Title VI and Title IX to continue receiving federal funding. 

Emphasizing the importance of 1972’s landmark civil rights legislation (Title IX)  President Biden issued an Executive Order in March of last year stating that (bold added): “It is the policy of my Administration that all students should be guaranteed an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex. For students attending schools and other educational institutions that receive Federal financial assistance, this guarantee is codified in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Following Biden’s Executive Order in March, Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona issued a statement in June 2021 titled “Title IX the 'Strongest Tool' in Protecting Educational Opportunities Free from Sex Discrimination,” where he stated (bold added): “Today marks 49 years since the passage of Title IX, the strongest tool we have to protect every student’s right to equal access to educational opportunities free from sex discrimination…. As Secretary of Education, I am committed to ensuring Title IX works for all students and provides equal access to opportunities that will enrich students’ educational experiences and their futures.”

Although Biden and Cardona’s statements last year referred to Title IX and its prohibition of sex discrimination to protect the civil rights of all students, faculty, and staff, I’m sure that it is also the policy of Biden’s administration that all students, faculty, and staff should be protected from discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin as guaranteed by Title VI. 

Despite the clear legal standards mandated by Title VI and Title IX that prohibit discrimination and the strong statements from the Biden administration guaranteeing an educational environment free from discrimination, it’s disappointing that colleges and universities across the country are apparently either ignorant of federal civil rights laws or they are unconcerned that they routinely violate the civil rights of some of there their students, faculty, and/or staff. Over the last three years of dedicated research efforts, I have uncovered more than 1,200 violations of Title IX and Title VI and I keep finding more violations all the time. The significant and troubling frequency of violations of federal civil rights laws in higher education demonstrates unaddressed systemic sexism and racism that needs greater awareness, exposure, and legal challenges. 

Typical and frequent illegal violations of Title IX that have gone unchallenged for many decades include various single-sex female-only scholarships, fellowships, awards, study spaces, mentoring, tutoring, special freshman orientations, industry meetings, summer STEM programs, summer STEM camps, coding clubs, leadership programs, entrepreneurship programs, gym hours, etc. that operate exclusively for women while illegally excluding and discriminating against boys and men. Over the last several years, it has also become increasingly common in higher education for universities to introduce illegal, racially segregated, or racially preferential events, affinity groups, theater performances, campus housing, course sections, music programs, scholarships, summer internships, and other academic programs that violate Title VI. 

Those violations of Title IX and Title VI reflect what is a clear, hypocritical, and selective double standard in higher education for the enforcement of federal civil rights laws. The civil rights of certain preferred groups are vigorously protected – women and persons of color – while the civil rights of un-preferred groups are routinely violated – men, whites, and Asians. Schools have routinely engaged in illegal discrimination on the basis of race and sex against the un-preferred groups in violation of Title VI and Title IX for many decades with impunity because the violations of their civil rights are rarely questioned or challenged. That has changed in recent years following my research that uncovered thousands of Title VI and Title IX violations and led me to file federal civil rights complaints with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against almost 300 colleges and universities to hold them accountable for their thousands of violations of federal civil rights laws. 

Based on more than 433 individual complaints with the OCR against 300 schools (multiple complaints have been filed against many schools including 12 against the University of Minnesota, 8 vs. UT-Austin, 7 vs. Harvard, and 5 vs. University of Illinois), the OCR has opened 218 federal investigations to date at colleges and university for hundreds of civil rights violations, and 133 of those investigations have been resolved, mostly in my favor. There are still several hundred of my complaints being reviewed and about 100 ongoing federal investigations and I expect most of them to be resolved in my favor, given the clarity of Title VI and Title IX and the clear and obvious violations. I expect many more investigations and resolutions in my favor in the future as my complaints slowly work their way through the sluggish federal bureaucracy at OCR.    

The main goal of my ongoing civil rights efforts is to work towards ending the historical selective enforcement of federal civil rights laws (Title VI and Title IX) for only certain preferred groups and work towards a future where the civil rights of all faculty, staff, and students are protected as required by Title VI and Title IX. Title VI and Title IX both say that “No PERSON in the United States....shall be subjected to discrimination on the basis of sex or race,” and it’s my goal to perfect and enforce that federal guarantee that protects the civil rights of ALL students, faculty, and staff in higher education, and not just some. And it’s not just that higher education is engaged in illegal discrimination that motivates my time-consuming efforts, but also that I find the widespread discrimination at colleges and universities to be personally offensive, immoral, and unethical.   

While I would categorize my civil rights efforts as largely successful – more than 100 colleges and universities have been forced by the OCR to end illegal discrimination by terminating or revising discriminatory programs in the last several years – more work is needed to combat the systemic sexism and racism in higher education. Universities continue to vigorously promote diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE) efforts, which frequently involve the introduction of new programs that illegally discriminate on the basis of sex or race. 

My research of Title VI and IX violations has involved meticulous searches of university websites for keywords “female STEM,” “girls STEM,” “female award,” “female fellowship,” “female scholarship,” “women of color,” “men of color,” “women leadership,” “affinity groups,” “BIPOC,” “persons of color,” etc. But there are many discriminatory programs that I’ve missed because they might not appear on a university website available to the public, and there are always new discriminatory programs being introduced. When those new illegal programs are introduced it’s usually the faculty, staff, and students who are the first ones to learn about these programs from emails from deans, department chairs, provosts, presidents, diversity officers, public affairs officials or student organizations. Parents and alumni are also frequently notified of new discriminatory programs and scholarships.      

That is why it’s important for others to help expose Title VI and Title IX violations at your affiliated institutions – because you often have access to inside information that I and other outsiders won’t be able to easily discover by website searches. To solicit your help, let me outline some of the ways that you can assist in the efforts to expose the systemic sexism and racism in higher education. When you become aware of programs that discriminate on the basis of sex or race in violation of Title VI and IX, here’s what you can do:  

1. If you are willing to challenge a discriminatory program at your affiliated institution using your name, you have two options. 

a. You can file an internal complaint by email with your university’s Title IX Office (they also handle Title VI complaints) and simultaneously with your university’s legal office, usually called the Office of General Counsel or Office of Legal Counsel. In your complaint, you should provide as much evidence as possible to support your allegation of sex or race discrimination including any emails you have received, university documents, links to websites of the discriminatory program(s), specific dates if applicable when a discriminatory event was held or is planning to be held, university calendars that promote a discriminatory event, university press releases that provide details of a discriminatory program, statements from university officials, news reports, and any other documentation that helps support your allegation. Anticipating the typical bureaucratic inefficiencies in higher education and resistance to change, you could request a response to your complaint in a reasonable amount of time (e.g., 90 days) before stating that you will pursue other legal options including filing a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights. 

To support your internal complaint, you could cite the specific language from the Department of Education’s website for Title IX (“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”) and Title VI (“No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”). You could also cite your own university’s official Statement of Non-Discrimination (every university has one), like this one from the University of Chicago:

The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, status as an individual with a disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law (including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972).

Note that if you can claim that you personally have been discriminated against, e.g., you are a male faculty or student who is excluded from a female-only STEM program, fellowship, award, scholarship, etc., you therefore have “legal standing” and can claim an individualized injury that makes your case much stronger. One of my earliest civil rights victories came in 2017 when I successfully challenged five discriminatory faculty awards at my own institution -- the University of Michigan-Flint. Three of the awards were for only female faculty in violation of Title IX and two awards were for only “minority faculty” in violation of Title VI. Following my internal complaint, all five of those faculty awards were subsequently opened to all faculty regardless of sex or race.   

Here is a recent example of a successful internal complaint:

Several weeks ago, University of Chicago Professor Dorian Abbot became aware that his university was planning a racially segregated event in violation of Title VI’s prohibition of discrimination on the basis of race and color. Specifically, the university’s “Center for Identity + Inclusion’s” “Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA)” was planning to host an “OMSA Study Break” on March 17 that invited “students of color to stop by for dinner and to make a finals kit” (see graphic below). 

Professor Abbot expressed his concerns about the university’s violation of Title VI to the University of Chicago’s Title IX Coordinator/Affirmative Action Officer Bridget Collier. He also posted a Tweet where he wrote, "Students of color are invited..." This UChicago event violates Title VI’s prohibition of discrimination on the basis of race and UChicago's Non-discrimination Statement. I notified the Title IX, etc. coordinator. Be on the lookout for events like this.”

Shortly after Professor Abbot’s internal complaint and Tweet, the university quickly revised the eligibility requirements for the OMSA Study Break and changed the calendar listing to say, “Students are invited to stop by for dinner….” (see graphic below). 

The University of Chicago’s quick correction of its Title VI violation following an internal complaint and publicity on Twitter is an example of an all to frequent and troubling occurrence in higher education today. Like I mentioned above, colleges and universities are constantly demonstrating that they are either unaware of their legal obligations to enforce Title VI and Title IX, or they purposefully and deliberately violate federal civil rights laws to promote their commitment to the flawed trilogy of “diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE)” under the assumption that nobody will notice or complain. Whether it’s an unacceptable unawareness or a deplorable indifference to enforcing Title VI and Title IX, the longstanding history of schools violating Title VI and Title IX with impunity illustrates the necessity for increased efforts like those of Professor Abbot to challenge and expose the thousands of examples of civil rights violations on campuses across the country. The University of Chicago’s quick reversal of its Title VI violation also illustrates the effectiveness of internal challenges by faculty, staff, and students when they become aware of programs that violate the civil rights of a significant number of members of the campus community. 

Kudos to Professor Abbot for his willingness to challenge an obvious Title VI violation on his campus that successfully forced the University of Chicago to correct their illegal discriminatory practices. If there were at least one professor at every college or university who was willing to challenge new discriminatory programs as they are frequently being introduced (along with existing programs), schools might finally start to take their Title VI and Title IX obligations seriously that legally require them to protect the civil rights of all faculty, staff, and students, not just some preferred groups on campus.   

b. If your university fails to respond or responds but is unwilling to properly correct its civil rights violation(s), you can then file an external Title VI or IX complaint with one of the Department of Education’s Offices for Civil Rights (OCR). At this link, you’ll find a list of the 12 regional OCRs, the states under their jurisdictions, and their email addresses. You can file a Title VI or IX complaint by email where you would provide as much information and evidence as possible to support your allegation of discrimination on the basis of sex or race with internal emails, internal documents, links to websites, press releases, news reports, statements from university officials, etc. There is no charge to file a complaint and complaints usually must be filed within 180 days of the date of the alleged discrimination unless there are extenuating circumstances, e.g., a discriminatory program or event was postponed due to COVID.

As with internal complaints, your case is strengthened significantly if you can claim that you have personally been illegally excluded from a discriminatory program, e.g., as a white male faculty you are ineligible for a female-only faculty fellowship, award, or professorship or a BIPOC-only faculty fellowship, award, or professorship.  

As a guide, here are examples of Title VI/IX complaints that I filed vs. the University of Louisville and Howard University for violating both Title VI and Title IX and vs. the University of Michigan for violating Title IX (still in the evaluation process) and you can use those complaints as a template.  

After processing your complaint, the OCR will send you a “Letter of Acknowledgement” of your complaint by email within a few weeks or a month, along with an assigned 8-digit case number. If you haven’t heard from the OCR in about a month, it’s a good idea to follow up by email and request an update on your complaint (forward your original complaint to OCR in your email). Once your complaint is assigned a case number it then goes into an evaluation process, which can range from several weeks to more than a year. At some point, the OCR will have to either dismiss your complaint for a valid reason (e.g., the program has been discontinued) or open it for investigation. Once an investigation is opened, the OCR will send you a notification as the complainant and will simultaneously notify the institution, usually the president of the college or university. Then it’s a long waiting game and the investigations can sometimes drag on for years before finally being resolved depending often on the relative willingness or stubbornness of the institution to correct its violations. In cases where schools are relatively honest and realize they were violating Title VI or IX, the corrections and resolution of the complaint can take place fairly quickly, sometimes within a few months. However, a 1-2 year period for an investigation to be resolved is more typical.      

2. If you become aware of a federal civil rights violation at your affiliated institution but are unwilling to file an internal or external complaint under your name due to the risks 0f any adverse consequences you might face from your college or university, you are welcome to contact me and I will be happy to file the complaint with the OCR under my name only to eliminate any risk to you. (Please note though that it is illegal for universities to “intimidate, threaten, coerce, or retaliate against anyone” who files a complaint or who cooperates with an investigation.)  At least several dozen of the 400+ complaints I have filed under my name were on behalf of students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni, or concerned citizens who contacted me with information about Title VI or IX violations but wanted to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. I stand ready to assist any concerned individual by filing a Title VI or Title IX complaint under my name only.   

Conclusion: To continue challenging the systemic and structural sexism and racism in higher education it would be very helpful to have an informal national network of concerned faculty, staff, students, parents, and alumni who are watchful and vigilant and willing to help expose federal civil rights violations and hold colleges and universities accountable for their legally-required Title VI and Title IX obligations. On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, it’s a great time to increase our joint efforts to end the selective double-standard for the enforcement of federal civil rights laws and force colleges and universities to protect the civil rights of all students, faculty, and staff and make Title VI and IX work for everybody. With your help, I can continue my civil rights advocacy and change the direction of the future of higher education towards a future where all persons are protected from illegal discrimination on the basis of sex and race.  In closing, please don’t hesitate to contact me for an opinion on whether a program violates Title VI or Title IX, for help filing a complaint under your name, or to file a complaint under my name to protect your anonymity.     

Carpe Diem,

Professor Emeritus Mark J. Perry