College Park and Title IX, Really?
The University of Maryland, like all other Big Ten schools – along with virtually all colleges and universities in the US – maintains an active and robust Title IX Office for investigation and adjudication of alleged student sexual misconduct. After years on the job, Kevin Anderson, resigned as Maryland’s Athletic Director last year amid a storm of on and off campus controversy. The Washington Post and the Diamondback, the University’s student newspaper, recently published articles alleging Anderson used thousand’s of dollars from the AD’s discretionary budget to hire private counsel for two of the school’s football players accused of sexual misconduct by the University’s Title IX Office.
As a lawyer with many years of experience in handling Title IX allegations against student clients at College Park and at a number of other Maryland colleges and universities, I find it hard to understand how the University of Maryland AD was allowed to even become involved in the work of the Title IX Office on campus. I can tell you that in all my years representing students accused of sexual misconduct on and off campus (cyberstalking, etc.) this is an extremely unusual turnabout in what is normally the school’s otherwise very aggressive handling of alleged Title IX misconduct.
