The U.S. Department of Education has launched a Title IX investigation into Yale University amid allegations that the institution offers educational programs and scholarship opportunities that exclude men.
According to a letter dated April 26, the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating seven Yale initiatives, including the Yale Women Faculty Forum, the Working Women’s Network, the Yale University Women’s Organization, and the Yale Women’s Campaign School.
“Yale University violates Title IX by funding/sustaining programs which practice discrimination in their admission/election practices.”
These initiatives allegedly provide, to varying degrees, scholarships, professional development, academic opportunities, and summer programs exclusively to female students and professors, the complaint alleges.
The investigation was launched after Kursat Christoff Pekgoz, a lecturer at the University of Southern California, alleged in a February 18 complaint that the Yale initiatives provide unfair advantages to women.
“Yale University violates Title IX by funding/sustaining programs which practice discrimination in their admission/election practices,” Pekgoz wrote in a complaint to the OCR, a copy of which was obtained by Campus Reform.
His complaint also pointed out that male students are increasingly a minority on college campuses, and that, from an ethical perspective, they deserve equal access to academic opportunities.
“Men are a minority at Yale University (48%) and nationwide enrollment rates for men are even lower (42.8%),” his letter asserted, adding that “men are even less likely to graduate from college after initial enrollment.”
“Therefore, affirmative action for women in colleges is irrational: indeed, it would only stand to reason to implement affirmative action for male students,” he argued, though he noted that he only hopes these opportunities will become gender-neutral instead.