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Assistant Dean of Students Pressured to Under-Report Sexual Assaults

Andy Thomason and Caitlin McCabe at the University of North Carolina’s Daily Tar Heel report on a complaint lodged by Melinda Manning, former Assistant Dean of Students at the University, alleging that the University Counsel’s office told her the number of sexual assault cases in her report for 2010 was “too high” then lowered the total by three cases without her knowledge before submitting it to the Department of Education.

Manning also claims that she was passed over for promotion by the university’s Vice Chancellor Winston Crisp because of her gender:

In 2010, when Crisp was promoted from dean of students to vice chancellor for student affairs, Manning met with Crisp to ask him about applying for the vacant dean of students position.

“Vice Chancellor Crisp told her that he would ‘never hire her because she had a young child at home’ and what that could mean,” according to the complaint, which cites the action as a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender.

According to Manning, the man eventually hired for the position, Jonathan Sauls, behaved in an aggressive and retaliatory manner to her throughout the remainder of her time at the university.

On separate occasions, Sauls reprimanded Manning for reaching out to Chancellor Holden Thorp and the Office for Civil Rights regarding UNC’s handling of sexual assault, the complaint states.

“She was told by Dean Sauls that she should ‘never contact the Office for Civil Rights again,’” the complaint says.

The complaint also states Sauls told Manning she would suffer consequences for writing to Thorp. Though at the time Sauls did not specify what the consequences would be, the complaint says he later rated her as “needs improvement” in her annual review and told her that others had suggested he fire her.

How many colleges and universities that receive federal funds will have to under-report sexual assaults and abuse or intimidate the survivors of those assaults before the Department of Education threatens to pull their funding if they don’t shape up?

Via Jezebel.

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