by Alexa Schwerha
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating Stanford University after it received complaints that the school allegedly discriminates against men by offering organizations exclusively for women, Forbes reported.
Kursat Pekgoz, CEO of the Turkish real estate company Doruk, and James Moore, a Stanford alumnus and emeritus professor at the University of Southern California, filed the complaint alleging that the university does not offer groups exclusively available to men like it does for women, according to Forbes. The pair argue that the discrepancy violates Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
The complaint lists alleged “exclusionary programs” sponsored by Stanford since October 2018 and implored the OCR to “request information regarding all women-only spaces, scholarships, fellowships, initiatives, departments, programs, lectureships, committees, groups, and events that are currently active.”
The OCR investigation, however, will look into five, including Stanford’s Women in Business, Women in Stanford Law, Stanford Women in Design, Stanford Society of Women Engineers and the Gabilan Provost’s Discretionary Fund.
“OCR does not comment on open investigations,” an Education Department spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The complaint claims that the groups are unnecessary since women have recently surpassed men in enrollment.
“Women are the overrepresented sex among college students nationwide,” the complaint reads. “They are also the majority of law students and medical students.”
The complaint asks that all “discriminatory language” are removed as well as “the elimination of affirmative action practices for women.” It also demands all single-sex organizations are made gender neutral.
“If such conversion occurs, the names of the programs must be changed into gender-neutral titles, and the programs must begin to actively recruit male students and professors,” the complaint reads.
It also requests Stanford University create scholarships and programs exclusively available to men.
The OCR gave Stanford a Nov. 28 deadline to respond to the allegations and will issue a decision after considering the provided data, according to Forbes.
Pekgoz filed similar complaints against Yale University, the University of Southern California, and Harvard University.
Education Initiative Data issued a report that claimed 65.2% of American women older than 25 have pursued higher education compared to only 61.1% of men older than 25. Similarly, 50.4% of women hold a minimum of one degree while the same can be said about only 46.1% of men.
“Women are 6.71% more likely to enroll in higher education than men are and 9.33% more likely to earn a degree,” Education Initiative Data reported.
Pekgoz, Moore, OCR, Stanford’s Women in Business, Stanford Law School, Stanford Women in Design, Stanford Society of Women Engineers and Stanford University did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Gabilan Provost’s Discretionary Fund deferred to the university.
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Alexa Schwerha is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Stanford University” by Stanford University.
