Title IX update: OCR opens investigations against UC-Berkeley and Rice University

Article here. Excerpt:

'In response to my requests for federal civil rights compliance reviews, the San Francisco and Dallas Offices for Civil Rights (OCR) recently opened investigations against two more universities for offering, promoting, sponsoring, and hosting single-gender, female-only programs that potentially violate Title IX‘s prohibition of sex discrimination:

1. The University of California-Berkeley is being investigated by the San Francisco OCR for the following single-gender, girl-only programs:

The Girls in Engineering (GiE) Camps is a series of four summer camps at UC-Berkeley that have historically openly discriminated based on gender, openly excluded some students from participation in those programs based on gender, and openly denied some students from the benefits of those programs based on gender, in violation of Title IX. Eligibility for GiE Camps is restricted to “Girls entering 6th, 7th, or 8th grade and living in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

2. Rice University is being investigated by the Dallas OCR for the following two gender-discriminatory, single-gender, girl-only (no boys allowed) educational programs:

Design, Connect, Create: Physics for Young Women is an annual free, two-week day camp for current 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th grade girls [only] that was last held June 17-29, 2019.

Rice University IBB Girls STEM Initiative is an extensive preparatory program for economically disadvantaged female [only] high school rising sophomores.'