EQUAL RIGHTS For College Males. DoED Investigates TIX Claims Against Women’s Programs
At home in Turkey, Kursat Pekgoz considered himself a feminist. In the world of American higher education, where he is now pursuing a doctorate in English literature, the 30-year-old activist says it is men who are being treated unfairly. Arguing that campus resource groups for women and women’s studies programs amount to discrimination against men, Pekgoz has filed federal complaints against several universities. The Education Department is taking the complaints seriously. Over the last year, its civil rights division has opened investigations into Yale, Princeton, the University of Southern California and Tulane University to determine whether their women’s programs violate Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at schools that receive federal funding. The department also has received complaints against Georgetown, Northeastern and the University of Pennsylvania. With more women attending and graduating from college than men in America, Pekgoz says women no longer need additional support. The complaints under investigation by the Education Department describe opportunities that appear to exclude men. The Yale Women Innovators, a weekly event series, is discriminatory, Pekgoz argues, because it says it is open to “all Yale women and non-binary femme students, alumni, faculty staff, and community members.” At Princeton, he said in another complaint, the university treats male students unfairly by offering a course on defending against sexual assault only to women. “Everything should be available on a gender-neutral basis,” Pekgoz said. The Education Department is also looking into whether the Cagney and Lacey Fellowship at the University of Southern California shows prejudice against male applicants because it is awarded to “a returning woman. The Education Department said in a statement that it enforces Title IX so that “all students, including men, have equal access to educational opportunity and can go to school without fear of sex discrimination.”
apnews.com By Maria Danilova nytimes
