Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Q2: Are there any ethical reasons for justifying affirmative action for women?
A2: No. Women are a solid majority in American colleges: their numbers are increasing, not
decreasing.1 Also, younger women are making more money than men.2 Offering special
opportunities to an ever-increasing majority is irrational.
Q3: Can you summarize the legal situation concerning racial affirmative action, compared to
affirmative action for women?
A3: The specific scope of affirmative action on the basis of race is covered by Supreme Court
rulings. The Supreme Court has found affirmative action on the basis of race to be
constitutional, if for a limited time period, while finding racial quotas to be unconstitutional.3
Some states have banned it nevertheless.4 There is no Supreme Court basis for affirmative
action for women. The Supreme Court has clarified on multiple occasions that discrimination
against men is unconstitutional.5 While the Department of Education circulated a Dear
Colleague Letter (2015) which justified sex-selective scholarships for the “underrepresented
sex,” this Letter is now of dubious value because women are no longer the underrepresented
sex in colleges.6
Q4: My educational institution offers initiatives and programs which are available to women
only. What can I do about this?
A4: You have multiple choices.
You can file an internal Title IX complaint with your University. Title IX is a federal
law which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
You can file a Title IX complaint with The Office for Civil Rights [OCR], a function
of the Department of Education. It might make sense to attempt to solve the problem
with your University first; if they dismiss your concerns, do file an OCR complaint.
State law remedies may be available.
1
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_322.20.asp
2
http://fortune.com/2016/04/12/women-are-out-earning-men
3
Grutter v. Bolinger and Gratz v. Bollinger.
4
For example, California.
5
Craig v. Boren (1987) and Sessions v. Morales-Santana (2016).
6
The Dear Colleague Letter does not cite adequate case law and it was in violation of the
Administrative Procedure Act.
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Q5: Can I file a complaint about any program if men are excluded?
A5: There are certain exceptions in which sex-selective programs are allowed.
Athletic scholarships and resources are subject to a different inquiry.
Fraternities and sororities are exempt from Title IX.7 This may seem obvious, but
there are activists who want to abolish the Greek system.
A program that is entirely external is not covered by Title IX. The program/initiative
must either receive money from the University, or it must be using campus space,
in order to qualify as receiving “significant assistance.”
Q7: Who can file a Title IX complaint with the Office for Civil Rights?
A7: Anyone can file a complaint against any institution. You do not have to be a lawyer to file
a Title IX complaint against your institution, or any institution. This has been official OCR
policy during the Obama administration, i.e. not a new rule.
7
As per an internal memorandum from 1989.
8
https://www.wsj.com/articles/meet-the-student-whistleblower-who-pushed-stanford-to-
rethink-financial-aid-1517425678
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Q8: Do I need to spend money?
A8: OCR will not charge you for filing a complaint.
Q12: Do you have a template that I can use in order to file such a complaint?
A12: Yes. Please e-mail me at titlestudentadvocacy@gmail.com.
Q13: The Department of Education has dismissed aspects of your complaint. Is this decision
final?
A13: No. These are complex legal issues. If additional evidence of disparate treatment
emerges, I will amend the complaint accordingly. Please contact me at
titlestudentadvocacy@gmail.com if you possess such evidence. Other persons who possess
such evidence may be able to abolish more programs in other institutions. In addition, state
laws may be more restrictive than federal law in terms of abolishing such programs (for
example, California’s Unruh Act).
9
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/complaintform.pdf
10
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-releases-2015-16-civil-
rights-data-collection
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