BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The investigation into Minot State University’s handling of sexual abuse allegations is regarding one complaint made by a student last year, the chief of staff for the North Dakota University System said Friday.
Murray Sagsveen said Minot State launched an investigation after a student, who no longer attends the university, filed a complaint alleging a civil rights violation. University and system officials investigated the complaint last year and are working with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on the matter, he said. The Department of Education initiated its own investigation February 26 and announced Thursday that Minot State is among 55 colleges and universities in the country being investigated over sexual abuse complaints.
The college investigations are done under Title IX of a U.S. law, which prohibits gender discrimination at schools that receive federal funds. It is the same law that guarantees girls and women equal access to sports, but it also regulates institutions’ handling of sexual violence and increasingly is being used by victims who say their schools failed to protect them.
“I was in the military for 30 years and I’m just very pleased the Department of Defense and the Department of Education are being proactive with sexual harassment and with sexual assaults,” Sagsveen said.
Minot State spokeswoman Alysia Huck said Thursday the school “is in full cooperation” with the investigation. She declined further comment.
Sagsveen said Friday the university and its system had worked together to produce a full report on the investigation for the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights. He said the report isn’t public record because it includes information about the student who filed the complaint.
“I hope it’s completed very soon so that Minot State can be removed from this cloud,” Sagsveen said of the investigation.
Janelle Moos, the executive director of North Dakota’s Council on Abused Women’s Services, said even though the investigation has not yet found that Minot State violated any rights, the revelation about the investigations nationwide shines a light on sexual assault, which she said often goes underreported on college campuses.
“What’s important is that, yes we know that it is happening on campus, and that by far it’s underreported,” she said.
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