The system colleges rely on to investigate allegations of sexual assault and rapes on campus is failing alleged victims and the accused alike, a special Post report can reveal.
Legal experts, alleged victims and accused students all told The Post that lives have been ruined by years of badly managed investigations, false allegations, and “equality” officers who lack proper training.
Under current Title IX regulations, federally funded colleges must address sexual harassment, violence, and retaliation claims through specialized Title IX offices and determine internal discipline based on evidence.
This was never part of the original 1972 Title IX legislation, signed into law to prevent sex-based discrimination in educational institutions. In 2011, President Obama issued guidance expanding the definition to include instances of sexual violence. Then in 2020, President Trump introduced regulation requiring “live hearings” for complaints, much like a real court.
Except, of course, it isn’t. It’s a limited system whose rules and regulations successive presidential administrations have repeatedly rewritten.
And it’s coming under even greater scrutiny following allegations that seven fraternity brothers at Cornell University drugged and gang-raped a student.
One of the accused students later alleged in a lawsuit that a panel hearing member drove for roughly 45 minutes during live Zoom testimony from a “critical witness” to his defense and argued that her “repeated inattention” “irreparably compromised” the proceeding.
But beyond Cornell, students and experts point to several glaring problems with this equality-driven system, including Title IX officers with inadequate training, potential institutional bias, countercomplaints, and investigations that can drag on for months or years.
Although all universities operate under the same federal law, they have considerable discretion over investigations, and the qualifications of the individuals handling them can vary enormously.
Currently, no national professional license or standardized exam exists for Title IX investigators. Required training lasts just a few days, is available to anyone regardless of background or prior experience, and can vary in depth and detail. No minimum number of hours or frequency of the training is required.
Yet these individuals make decisions that can alter students’ lives.
While federal rules have shifted throughout political eras, the complaints The Post examined span changing administrations and raise many of the same concerns: why investigators aren’t subject to more consistent oversight and ongoing training in the only system we have to protect students against sexual assault.
“Two schools can have identical facts in terms of a situation involving a sexual assault, but there can be different outcomes,” New York-based sexual assault attorney Megan Thomas told The Post.
“It was an eye for an eye”
Golda Daphna was a virgin when she reported a male student for allegedly raping and physically abusing her during her senior year at Columbia University in 2021.
The former biomedical engineering major, now 27, grew up in an Orthodox Jewish community and intended to wait until marriage to have sex. Coming forward, she feared, could threaten her standing in that community.
“For me to go out and to come out and say that I was raped and go to the police didn’t make me look good in my own community,” Daphna told The Post. “There was a lot that I had to lose.”
But she filed a police report in December 2021, and police later found no probable cause to arrest.
She then reported the allegations to Columbia anyway, triggering a university investigation.
What followed was a months-long tit-for-tat battle in which nearly every allegation she made was met with a countercomplaint — including what she described as retaliatory accusations that she had also sexually assaulted him.
One complaint even characterized her asking him for a hug as harassment.
Under Title IX procedures, schools cannot simply disregard counter complaints because they come from the person already accused; they must assess allegations under the same process and afford both students comparable procedural rights—even if a police investigation discounts them.
“It was really an eye for an eye,” Daphna said, describing a process she felt had become a mockery of the system meant to protect students.
Even a no-contact order offered little comfort as the pair continued crossing paths around campus. Though Daphna filed it, the no-contact order applies both ways.
“I went to the kosher dining hall. He was there so that I couldn’t eat there anymore,” she recalled.
With graduation approaching and the investigation still unresolved, Daphna said officials encouraged mediation.
“I just wanted my life back,” she recalled, also concerned a lack of conclusion could jeopardize her diploma, which, under school policy, is subject to the school’s disciplinary authority.
Exhausted and out of options, she ultimately signed a mutual release of claims and non-disparagement agreement, ending the dispute without a formal determination.
“It was a lot of internal politics,” she said. “I was just an Orthodox girl from Long Island. I really didn’t stand a chance.”
Columbia declined to comment on Golda’s case, citing FERPA, but said it generally investigates cross-complaints alongside the original complaint and that retaliation is prohibited. The university also said students sign privacy agreements during investigations, but stressed those are not NDAs.
“I asked for a hearing, we never got one”
At California’s Saddleback College, Aurora Knight believes university officials misread her son’s attempts at social interaction as threatening behavior and then gave administrators too much discretion in deciding his fate.
Her son Marcus, 18, who has autism and cerebral palsy, faced complaints from two female students in 2017 alleging that he followed them, took photos, and made unwanted physical contact, according to court records.
One student said he tried to put his arm around her and place her hand on his thigh; another said he repeatedly sought selfies, followed her and forcefully placed a hand on her shoulder.
“The woman involved wasn’t the one who reported him; it was someone else,” Knight told The Post. “I was never given information as to who even filed the original complaint.”
Title IX requires schools to respond to allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct while also affording accused students procedural protections. Critics say the difficulty lies in a system that must investigate each claim seriously and fairly.
But Knight didn’t find the case against her son fair. She disputed key parts of the allegations and argued that Marcus tried to make friends by taking selfies. She also accused the school of failing to account for his disabilities.
“I asked for security footage, I asked for a hearing, we never got one,” the mother recalled of the unfair campaign against her son, which she believes was rooted in discrimination.
Saddleback initially considered suspending Marcus but ultimately issued only a written reprimand.
Marcus challenged the process, arguing he was entitled to a live hearing and cross-examination. A trial court agreed, but a California appeals court reversed in 2021, finding the school’s process sufficient given the lesser punishment.
Aurora maintains that Marcus was unfairly targeted because of his disabilities and that the process devastated his education and emotional well-being, causing him to become a recluse and gain 40 pounds.
“If you are at the mercy of one individual, they can end up thumbs up or thumbs down, based on who you are, how you look, and your demographic, or where you come from, and if they like you or not,” she surmised about what she still insists was a smear campaign against her son.
Aurora Knight believes the current Title IX process gives university administrators too much power, which can let them manipulate the system to get what they want.
“I think that Title IX should be separate from the administration of the school,” she said.
Saddleback College declined to comment on the case, citing pending litigation and student privacy concerns, and offered no further insight into how it handles investigations.
“I left feeling like I was the problem”
At Texas A&M, a former Corps of Cadets member says she followed the Corps protocol after allegedly being sexually assaulted by a fellow cadet in 2024.
The cadet, who asked for anonymity, underwent a rape exam and reported the assault to a senior Corps official responsible for discipline.
Instead of helping, she claims she was blamed for her drinking, something she had no prior issue with, and warned that another incident could land her in alcohol rehabilitation.
“Someone had sexually assaulted me, but I left feeling like I was the problem,” the former student told The Post.
Worse, the official failed to notify the Title IX office, a mandatory-reporting violation Texas A&M later substantiated, according to documents The Post reviewed.
Two months later, she says she was assaulted a second time by the same cadet, all while continuing to face disciplinary proceedings within the Corps.
“Why did I keep feeling like I was the person the system needed protection from?” she asked.
Her attorney described the Corps, where cadets live and train together under a military-style hierarchy, as an insular organization that operates by its own rules, much like a fraternity.
When her case reached the Title IX office, her alleged assailant filed a countercomplaint against her. His complaint form specifically identified his desired outcome as an agreement to have her withdraw her original case.
The former student said she was still being investigated for months afterward.
Texas A&M said it “reviewed and addressed appropriately” the allegations but declined to discuss specifics, citing privacy laws. The university said it investigates mandatory-reporting violations and prohibits retaliation.
The student ultimately signed a resolution agreement in order to graduate but believes the process itself was used against her, significantly impacting her mental and physical health.
“My evidence was redacted”
When Shailey Ostlund reported her former boyfriend for alleged sexual assault at Indiana University in 2015, she was told the investigation would take six weeks. It lasted six months.
With no physical evidence from the night- only a video she had recorded of herself reminding her of the attempted assault- going to Title IX was her best option.
However, she did obtain a protective order through the Bloomington Police Department in 2017.
Ostlund said university personnel changed repeatedly, communication was nearly impossible, and they redacted much of her evidence. Her former boyfriend, a prominent young jazz musician, was also allowed to testify, along with multiple character witnesses.
“They would tell me what I was allowed to add. I would compile the evidence. I would check over it with them, and then I would submit the evidence,” she told The Post. But when she returned to review her case file, she said, “The majority of the evidence that I submitted ended up being redacted.”
“I never got a clear answer as to why,” she said.
Ostlund recalled constantly chasing answers and pushing the investigation forward herself, describing an obstacle course where the university kept changing the finish line.
“They’re making these people who are deep in the recent trauma be the ones that have to advocate for themselves, and that’s nearly impossible to do,” she said
Sexual assault attorney Megan Thomas called the lack of clear regulations for how cases are handled on campus “extremely problematic.”
“Schools are making those decisions unilaterally,” Thomas said.
IU ultimately suspended Parker for sexual assault and served him with a suspension and no-contact and no-trespass order, which barred him from returning to campus, and violating the order would result in expulsion.
Ostlund said he repeatedly violated those restrictions, including returning to record music for a radio broadcast, which several other former Indiana University students confirmed to The Post.
Indiana University did not follow through; instead, it imposed another suspension, and he eventually completed his degree virtually.
She suspects his standing in Bloomington’s jazz community and his family’s prominence influenced how IU handled the violations.
A former IU professor, Monika Herzig, called Parker a “victim of a bunch of weird circumstances,” and even questioned the school’s right to squash his potential, especially given his talent.
Following his suspension in 2022, Indiana students protested against the soft suspension, urging the school to “hold predators accountable.”
The Post reached out to Chris Parker, who did not respond.
Angela Reddock Wright, an attorney and former Title IX investigator, said schools may face competing interests when prominent students are involved.
“Maybe the discipline is not as strong because there’s a level of wanting to protect that person because of their purported contributions to that environment,” she said.
Indiana University told The Post it “takes reports of sexual misconduct extremely seriously,” citing expanded investigative staffing, mandatory-reporting training and stronger coordination with law enforcement.
A system in need of reform
Devi Jags was 20 when she reported a male student at Xavier University in Cincinnati who claimed to have a gun after she rejected his romantic advances in 2016.
Her Title IX complaint against him ultimately failed when, despite a no-contact order preventing him from being near her, she kept encountering him on campus.
“It absolutely impacted my education,” she told The Post.
Frustrated by her experience, she decided to become a Title IX officer and serve on a university conduct panel to help make the system fairer.
But she was shocked to learn she received only three days of training.
“Nobody is qualified to be on a university conduct hearing, in my opinion, with that basic level of training,” she said.
Experts like Kayleigh Baker, vice president for practice excellence at TNG Consulting, which manages the Association of Title IX Administrators, said federal requirements don’t explicitly cover practical skills such as detailed credibility assessments, report writing, and trauma-informed interviewing.
“The regulations set the floor for compliance, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they set the best practices,” she said, adding that ATIXA goes above and beyond the current requirements, but not all trainings do.
Baker noted that Title IX personnel also aren’t subject to the same nationwide continuing-education requirements as many licensed professionals — even as federal rules and campus expectations change.
In the case of the Cornell 7, and while not directly tied to the Title IX investigators, Governor Hochul announced yesterday, October 29, she intended to have state police handle all sexual offense complaints in place of campus police — to strengthen trust in investigations.
But for people like Shailey Ostlund, she is left only with bitter experiences from reporting what happened to her to her college.
“It was very much a situation where I was going through the worst period of my life, and I had no support from the Title IX process. I was a teenager.”
“Title IX itself was just a s**t show, a mess.”
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