Due to the ongoing nature of the three students’ Title IX cases and/or respective legal situations, which could be negatively affected or nullified by their names being shared in this story, at their request and at our own discretion, The Observer has granted all three anonymity.
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Three students came forward to The Observer in the last month to allege a “systematic failure” of the Title IX process at CWU, involving cases they had personally been involved with and claims ranging from prolonged investigations to miscommunication from the Title IX office.
The Title IX office at CWU is responsible for handling cases and investigations “prohibiting sex-based discrimination,” including sexual harassment, sexual violence and gender-based discrimination.
All three students, here labeled Students A, B and C, said they are involved in cases revolving around sexual harassment, violence and/or abuse, and have been in active investigations with the Title IX office following their own reports of harassment or abuse. They provided in-person evidence to The Observer to substantiate their claims.
“No one has had an experience where they felt fully supported by the university … situations where rape allegations weren’t being taken seriously,” Student A alleged. “I have met a lot of women who said that. I feel as if they took my situation seriously because it was so extreme.”
Despite differences in their investigations and timelines, the students each independently shared the same main grievances with the Title IX process: prolonged cases, communication failures, a lack of support and understaffing.
Public allegations against the ability of CWU’s Title IX office to effectively handle cases date back to 2022, when various student experiences led to the creation of a student-run advocacy group, Cats Against Assault, which remains active today.
In 2023, the university created the Gender-Based Violence Prevention Workgroup: CWU SAFE, a working group to address Cats Against Assault’s complaints.
In an email interview with The Observer, CWU’s Director of Civil Rights Compliance and Title IX, John MacArthur, addressed some of the allegations against the Title IX office and took responsibility for others, stating that Title IX at CWU is “immediately” looking to improve their communications.
“I do want to acknowledge, and take responsibility, for long wait times between communications, and this has been an issue that I am working hard on improving immediately,” MacArthur said in the email. “On top of the large caseload our office deals with, and the vacant position that increased workloads on existing staff in our office, CWU recently switched to a new case management system. As a result, I have not been able to adequately track cases and [inform] parties of delays and updating them on the status of their case while we are adjusting to the transition and setting up new processes.”
“I want the campus community to know that I am committed to doing better, and I believe our new case management system will actually help us address those issues,” MacArthur continued.
Student Claims
Student A stated that she was in a situation in which she was physically, sexually and emotionally abused by a past partner, while she was underage. She claimed that she submitted photo evidence to Title IX of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that she had found on the accused’s phone.
Further, Student A said she reported the CSAM immediately to PATH, a campus office which provides confidential advocacy and support for students who have experienced sexual harassment, stalking, intimate partner violence, domestic violence or sexual assault. She said PATH put her in contact with the police and the Title IX office. “I am still in an ongoing investigation with Title IX since November, over someone who has committed felony charges and is now waiting on prosecution,” Student A said.
Student A added that she felt the police handled her case really well but noted that “legal repercussions and academic repercussions are two separate entities.” Student A claimed that so far there have not been nearly the same academic repercussions against the individual as there have been legal repercussions. “The most disciplinary action that did come out of this was a suspension,” Student A said. “But they [CWU] have yet to decide if an expulsion even makes sense, which, for me personally, I don’t think it is reasonable to allow pedophiles to not be expelled.”
Prolonged Cases
All three students who came forward with their stories alleged that they had faced prolonged Title IX cases in which resolutions were not provided in a timely or “supportive” manner.
“All of the other women I’ve talked to who have also had Title IX cases, it is the consensus that it is completely unfair how much time we [CWU] take to conduct these investigations, especially when there’s explicit evidence,” Student A said. “I had screenshots of all of the things I have found and even with that, it was not substantial for the university to conduct an expulsion yet, which is so ridiculous.”
Another student involved with Title IX, Student B, said, “With my case, because there was such a gap in communication, I didn’t hear anything until late January, after the report was initially filed in November.”
Due to the alleged 2.5-month delay in communication, Student B said, their situation escalated and what they originally reported to Title IX as a fear became a reality, with their case progressively getting more severe as they awaited support from the Title IX office. Student B claimed harassment from their stalker increasingly got more aggressive over the time of the alleged pause in communications.
“It shouldn’t have had to escalate, because the whole reason that I filed the report was to prevent exactly what ended up happening from happening, but because it took so long to get back, the entire reason that I filed the report ended up happening anyways,” Student B continued. “[It’s] not that I expected an immediate fix or conclusion, I knew it was gonna take some time, but to even just get the process started, two and a half months is just a crazy wait time for any kind of correspondence.”
Student A shared a similar sentiment, stating that her problem wasn’t just with the timeline of their case, but with the lack of action being taken by CWU’s Title IX department.
“The reason I wanted to speak about my story is the fact that they [Title IX] haven’t taken nearly as much action as they should have,” Student A stated. “This person [the accused] had, I think, six other Title IX cases against them that I had no idea about when I was in the relationship with them, and the fact [is] that each case was getting progressively worse and worse until my situation, [which] was when the university took initiative. So my issue isn’t with being heard, it’s with taking action.”
MacArthur responded to the allegations about prolonged cases, stating, “Our goal for Title IX cases for the entire investigation and resolution process is 90 calendar days. For non-Title IX discrimination cases, the investigative timeline is 20 working days for student complaints and 30 working days for employee complaints.”
“However, the length of the investigation often depends on the complexities of the case,” MacArthur continued. “We try to give some flexibility for complainants, respondents and witnesses to have the opportunity to participate with their schedules … but we have recently made the decision to enforce more strict deadlines for parties to participate to reduce the amount of time in the interview phase. We must always balance being prompt with being thorough.”
Communication Failures
All three students alleged a lack of communication, or ineffective or inaccurate communication, from the Title IX office that led them to feel unsupported by the process.
“They [Title IX] are supposed to notify me when said person does go on campus, and also the other people who have Title IX cases with this person,” Student A said about the accused in her case, but “they haven’t alerted us properly when he is and isn’t on campus.”
“He was on campus sometime about three months ago, and he had contacted Central police to escort him around, but with his suspension, Title IX is supposed to reach out to all of us and let us know that he will be on campus as he has committed such violent acts against so many people,” Student A continued. “They only notified us a week after he had been on campus … and they apologized in their notification to all of the Title IX holders against this person saying, ‘Oh, we apologize. We did not let the people know who needed to know. That was a failure on the university’s part.’ But it did feel like they were sweeping it under the rug that they had just made a mistake.”
Student B and another student with an active Title IX case, Student C, cited similar scenarios.
“The exact same thing happened to me as well,” Student C said. “We were supposed to be notified of this person who had been trespassed from campus for being a dangerous individual. [The person had] submitted a request through Housing to clean out their apartment, and I was notified about it a few days after it had happened, not before it had happened. So if I had been on campus at that time, I may have encountered this person just out and about, even though they were technically not supposed to be on campus.”
MacArthur commented on a lack of communication and potential miscommunications. “Students who are currently involved in a case are often still attending classes on campus. If a student were to be trespassed, they are required to contact the university and receive approval to come on campus and would be accompanied at such time by university staff and/or CWUPD.”
“Regarding the claim about conflicting information being provided by different members of the Title IX office, this is difficult to address without knowing the specifics,” MacArthur continued.
“Our office follows, and is guided by, our campus policies and procedures, and we make a point of walking parties through both so they are fully informed about their rights and options throughout our processes.”
Lack of Support
All three students shared similar sentiments about what they deemed a lack of support from the Title IX office, stating they did not feel that their cases were taken seriously as quickly as they should have been, and asserting that they’ve spoken to people with less extreme cases who have faced similar struggles having their cases taken seriously.
“I’d like other women to be heard, first and foremost, to have their stories taken seriously again,” Student A said. “Had stories been taken seriously before it got to me, [my case] wouldn’t have been as severe as it was. And I’d like more academic disciplinary actions … If they were only willing to do a suspension for a case as severe as mine, I could only imagine how less taken seriously everyone else is.”
Student C echoed this sentiment about their own personal case, stating that in the beginning it felt like there was almost nothing they could do to have their situation taken seriously. “It legitimately felt like the only way to get them to take my case seriously would be for him to shoot me in the face in a public place,” Student C said. “I was reporting him going to my work trying to get me fired from my jobs, harassing me, defaming me online, recording all of those things, being like, ‘I do not feel safe.’ I have had to get a taser. I’ve had to get a security camera. I can’t walk home alone at night. And they [the Title IX office] were just like, ‘Dang, that’s crazy.’”
Student B also shared that they felt there was a lack of empathy throughout the whole process which left them feeling uncomfortable and nervous to continue their case. “I understand that when investigations are initially happening and the process is getting started, remaining impartial is important,” Student B said. “But also people who are making reports, that’s a lot for them, and that’s a big process … To just go in there and feel like you’re being interrogated … it’s just a very big lack of support.”
“People going through Title IX especially, that’s messed up stuff, especially to the point where they felt like they needed to go and report it,” Student B continued. “And it feels like there’s just a lot of hoops that you have to jump through, so many different meetings to go to, just to get very basic answers for anything. And that’s just answers, not even a solution.”
Staffing Shortage
All three students alleged that the understaffing of the Title IX office, including vacant positions, led to their feelings that the Title IX process had “failed” them.
“Understaffing has been a huge issue,” Student B said. “It sucks because it’s rarely a specific person’s fault. You can’t pinpoint blame on anyone. It’s just really a part of a bigger systematic failure from the school, because clearly, something’s up if they can’t keep staff.”
Student A stated that the most help they were able to get was through PATH, which, according to Student A and Student C, is also understaffed.
“I definitely think that more resources should be given to the Title IX case team,” Student A stated. “The only person who interacts with students on campus is just one person who works at PATH, and she is wonderful and lovely, but because they are understaffed and under-resourced, they don’t have the amount of support that they need for their students. And if anything, more resources should be put that way to get more staff on PATH’s team.”
Student C also said that they hope the Title IX office will get a bigger staff, along with better training and a better understanding of how it feels to be a victim in these situations. Specifically, Student C said that they should train Title IX employees on “how to speak to victims and what they’re going through, and help them have a bit more empathy for the situation.”
In his email response, MacArthur said, “The investigation timelines are not an uncommon problem for Title IX offices, both locally and nationally… However, I want to be clear that it is still our responsibility to ensure that our cases are resolved as promptly as possible, that our office is aware of the investigative lengths, and that we are doing our best to reduce the time it takes for the formal resolution process.”
“Unfortunately, our office has a vacant Civil Rights Investigator position that resulted in more workload on existing staff, which has ultimately resulted in longer resolution times,” MacArthur continued. “Thanks to President Wohlpart’s commitment to ensuring our office has the necessary resources to address the university’s needs, the Office of Civil Rights Compliance is very well staffed compared to similar Title IX offices (some only include a single Title IX coordinator) … We have also contracted with external investigators as needed to help with any additional workload.”
Hope for Change
All three students expressed that they still have hope for change within the Title IX process, but that they have never heard a positive experience come out of the current system.
“I have never spoken to another person on campus who has been through a Title IX investigation at Central and had basically anything positive to say about how they handled their case,” Student C said. “It feels like an overwhelming amount of the weight of getting anything actually done with the investigation is put on the victim, and absolutely none of it is put on the person being investigated.”
Student B agreed. “There’s just so much pressure put on the victims, and they’re already in such a pressing situation that so many people end up just dropping the case entirely or dropping from school because they just can’t handle it.”
“It’s way too common of something to be happening for every single one of them [the cases] to be handled as poorly as they are,” Student B added. “Not a single person [I’ve talked to] has had anything exceptional to say about the process.”
Both Students B and C stated that if they did not have so many friends, clubs and activities tying them to CWU that they would have dropped out or transferred universities, and that they know people who have done so allegedly because of a mishandling of Title IX cases.
“If I didn’t end up getting moved [away from the accused], I fully intended on transferring at the end of the quarter, which sucks, because I love this school,” Student B said. “I’m really glad that I’m here, but there’s a lot of things where you’re making it really hard to love this school as much as we do. Especially being really involved on campus, … you see the absolute best, and then you also see the absolute worst when you’re involved with stuff like this.”
Student C offered advice for others in similar situations. “If someone is reading this article and they’ve had something happen to them, I don’t want this to be a deterrent for them to report something. If you feel like that is going to be something that will help you, especially if you are actively in a position where you don’t feel safe, report it. Once you get to the people you need to be with, they will do their best to help you. It’s just wading through the bureaucracy of everything that can be really difficult, but there are resources like ASPEN (Abuse Support and Prevention Education Now) and PATH.”
