Patrick Henry College Is Accused of Mishandling Sexual-Assault Cases

Chronicle of Higher Education
February 19, 2014

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/patrick-henry-college-is-accused-of-mishandling-sexual-assault-cases/73171

An article in The New Republic details allegations that the administration of Patrick Henry College, an evangelical Christian institution in Purcellville, Va., has mishandled several female students’ reports that they were sexually assaulted during their time at the college.

The college does not accept federal money and, as a result, is not subject to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a gender-equity law, or the Clery Act, a campus-crime-reporting law, though Patrick Henry says it tries to follow the principles of those statutes.

The college disputed the article’s assertions in a five-page response to the magazine. The college said it was “firmly committed to honoring and protecting the dignity of all of our students, male and female alike.”

The college said the actions it had taken in the cases cited in the article were done “with the students’ best interests at heart and with a conscientious intent to resolve each matter justly, objectively, and on its merits.”