Education Department Will Review Anti-Male Bias At University Of North Carolina

More than one year ago, a federal complaint was filed against the University of North Carolina (UNC) system, alleging systemic anti-male bias in their policies and procedures relating to campus sexual assault as well as their hiring practices.

The complaint was filed by the National Coalition for Men Carolinas (NCFM), which argued the UNC system deprived male students and employees of due process rights. For more than a year, NCFM Carolinas president Greg Josefchuk exchanged emails with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in an attempt to get the office to make a determination on whether or not it would move ahead with an investigation. On Friday, the organization finally received a formal decision.

OCR dismissed claims that the UNC system engages in systemic bias in its Title IX processes that determine whether a student (almost always a male) violated the school’s policies regarding sexual assault and sexual harassment. The office also dismissed the claim that UNC has an anti-male bias in its hiring practices.

The office will, however, explore NCFM’s claim that UNC’s policies are biased against male students. The office will open a formal investigation into this matter against Appalachian State University and UNC-Asheville. OCR said it would not investigate this claim at UNC-Chapel Hill because it already had a similar investigation open.

Chapel Hill has been the setting of some of the most prominent – and unlikely – accusations against male students. Andrea Pino has become famous for her often changing allegations that the school didn’t investigate her accusation (which she made anonymously with a limited description of the alleged assailant) and didn’t treat her well after she made her claim (which came after she tried to drop a class and was told she couldn’t). 

In 2016, UNC football player Allen Artis was accused of raping Delaney Robinson. At a press conference about the accusation, Robinson’s attorney produced a manipulated photo that appeared to show bruises on her client’s neck. The original photos showed these were simply hickeys. The charges against Artis were dropped last summer.

The College Fix detailed Josefchuk’s dealings with OCR in an article published on February 22, 2019. At times, Josefchuk’s emails to OCR were simply ignored. When they were answered, senior OCR attorney Sara Clash-Drexler would say they were still evaluating his complaint. In one email, from November 2018, Clash-Drexler told Josefchuk, “I have made others aware of your frustration, and I will be sure to update you as soon as I am able.”

By February, when the article was written, Josefchuk hadn’t heard anything from OCR since December. Emails and voicemails were unanswered. In one email, Josefchuk said NCFM Carolinas was “now asking our friends in Congress to look into this matter.”

In a statement to The Daily Wire, Josefchuk praised OCR for finally accepting his organization’s complaint:

We are delighted that after 1 1/2 years from our filing that OCR has found our claim that UNC school sexual misconduct policies are biased against accused male students justifiable and will be opening investigations into the Title IX policies and practices at Appalachian State and UNC-Asheville.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is set to release new guidance for schools adjudicating sexual assault complaints that is supposed to include due process rights for accused students.