BALTIMORE — A federal investigation into Johns Hopkins University was spurred by a complaint about the school’s response to accusations that a woman was gang raped at a fraternity house, according to an advocate who helped file the complaint.
University officials said Tuesday that the school was cooperating with federal investigators looking into whether the school violated the Clery Act, a federal law requiring institutions to notify students of incidents on or near campus posing a threat to student and faculty safety, and Title IX, which bars gender discrimination.
Hopkins spokesman Dennis O’Shea said the university does not have any information on the complaint that prompted the federal investigation. But Laura Dunn, a member of the advocacy organization SurvJustice who helped file the complaint in February, confirmed Wednesday that federal officials told her the investigation is in response to that particular grievance. The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights sent Dunn a letter on Aug. 8 alerting her to the investigation.
“SurvJustice is very proud of the survivors who spoke out and decided to break the silence,” Dunn said on Wednesday. “Because of their courage, many other survivors at Johns Hopkins decided to join the complaint. I hope it encourages other students to speak out at their schools.”
The students wrote in a letter to the U.S. Education Department that they believe the school was negligent in its decision not to tell students about a reported “drug-facilitated gang rape” that occurred at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house, also known as PIKE, in the spring of 2013.
Johns Hopkins suspended the fraternity for one year in May for failing to meet “the expectations and standards we all set for ourselves as members of the Johns Hopkins community.” The Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity spokesman did not return a call for comment.
The complaint includes several internal emails between Hopkins administrators in which they voice concerns about whether to notify students of the attack, even though it took place months earlier.
