It’s not okay, but we’re getting there

June 23, 2019
sexual assault sexual harassment Title IX Yale
Alexander v. Yale, Title IX, Yale

He ran from behind me and body slammed the woman in front of me. The boy looked to be about eight or nine years old, white, with the restless energy of a bored kid. Seemingly trying to amuse himself as his family strolled onto the campus of Yale University, he wanted something to do, and he wanted attention. The woman said nothing. Ahead, the father saw none of this, more intent on the camera and a paper map in his hand. The boy ran back, 10 paces behind me, and launched himself again. He zoomed by within inches to my […]

Get ready for more Title IX fireworks

December 31, 2017
DeVos Intersectional OCR Office for Civil Rights Pamela Price People politics race sexual assault sexual harassment Sports Title IX Trump Uncategorized Yale
#metoo, Brodsky, DeVos, Know Your IX, Olivarius, Title IX, Trump, Yale

Happy 2018! In the new year, the backlash against Title IX will make more headlines as the Trump Administration continues to change regulations dealing with sex discrimination in education. Advocates for girls and women will push back and eventually move society two steps forward for every step back. We’ve seen this before, many times. Let’s take a look at the challenges that Title IX faced and overcame at this point in previous decades. It’s been a wild ride toward equity in education. The fun isn’t done. This timeline leaves out a lot, yet you can see patterns and progress: 1968 […]

Title IX case bridged Black, women’s movements

February 10, 2017
sexual assault sexual harassment Uncategorized
Alexander v. Yale, Ann Olivarius, Anne E. Simon, black women, Pamela Price, sexual assault, sexual harassment, Title IX, Yale

Pamela Price entered Yale University in 1974 as a Black nationalist with an Angela Davis-style afro. She’d never heard of Title IX and wasn’t attracted to any of the women’s organizations on campus. She put her heart and energies into the Black community and working for civil rights. By the time she graduated in 1978, though, Price was one of a handful of women at the heart of a pivotal legal case that established for the first time that Title IX covers sexual harassment — Alexander v. Yale. Her involvement bridged the Black rights and women’s rights movements on campus. Thus began a chain […]

National Lawyers Guild honors Title IX shero

December 20, 2015
Consent Pamela Price People sexual assault Yale
Alexander v. Yale, Pamela Price, sexual harassment, Title IX, Yale

Like many of today’s undergraduates who have spoken up about sexual assaults and harassment on college campuses, a sense of outrage drove Pamela Price to complain to Yale University officials after a male faculty member offered her an A grade in exchange for sex. Implying, of course, that he’d lower her grade if she didn’t submit. Her final grade: C. But that was in 1976, and the grade wasn’t the end of the story. Price and her allies filed the first legal complaint against sexual harassment under Title IX. Their years-long legal battle — known initially as Alexander v. Yale before the court reduced it to […]

Uppity women changing UC Santa Barbara

May 18, 2015
Consent People rape sexual assault Sports
2 Comments
Chris Ernst, Lexi Weyrick, Melissa Vasquez, Title IX, UC Santa Barbara, UCSB, Uppity Women changing UCSB, Yale

A nearly 13-hour sit-in by female students and their supporters at the University of California, Santa Barbara produced promises of change from the administration, providing an example of how far we’ve come and how far we’ve yet to go under Title IX. The sit-in happened just as I was watching the 1999 documentary A Hero for Daisy about a dramatic 1976 protest by female students at Yale University who stripped off their clothes in an administrator’s office to reveal “Title IX” or “IX” written in bold letters on their chests and backs. Their leader, Chris Ernst, then read a statement of grievances […]