Complaint against Baylor filed with feds

4:05 PM ET

The U.S. Department of Education has received a Title IX complaint about Baylor University’s handling of allegations of sexual assault and violence by students, including athletes, Outside the Lines has confirmed.

A Baylor alumna filed a formal complaint with the federal agency this week, the latest in a series of Baylor developments that includes the pending firing of head football coach Art Briles; the dismissal of several athletic department officials; the demotion of former university president Kenneth Starr; and the decommitment of several top football recruits. Starr resigned as chancellor on Wednesday.

The fallout at Baylor comes after the university’s board of regents received a report from a law firm that investigated the school’s response to sexual assault and violence allegations in recent years.

“This investigation revealed the university’s mishandling of reports in what should have been a supportive, responsive and caring environment for students,” Richard Willis, chairman of the Baylor board of regents, wrote last week in a statement. “The depth to which these acts occurred shocked and outraged us.”

Despite being a private school, Baylor is required by the federal Title IX statute to investigate such allegations thoroughly and to provide security, counseling services and academic help to those who report assaults. Part of the law’s goal is to help keep victims in school.

Outside the Lines has reported on multiple occasions that school officials either failed to investigate, or failed to adequately investigate, such allegations. In many cases, officials did not provide support to those who reported assaults, in apparent violation of Title IX law. Baylor took more than three years to comply with a federal directive to hire a full-time Title IX coordinator, which it eventually did in November 2014.

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The U.S. Department of Education indicated last week that it would investigate Baylor if it received a complaint within its jurisdiction, but a spokesman said Wednesday it could take up to a month to confirm whether a complaint meets the criteria to start an investigation. Anyone, even someone who hasn’t been a victim of Title IX discrimination, can file a complaint to trigger an investigation by the agency’s Office of Civil Rights.

Holly Snyder, a 2001 Baylor graduate who lives near Kansas City, Missouri, said she filed such a complaint late Tuesday.

In her complaint, which she shared with Outside the Lines, she wrote that she came forward, “on behalf of all women to make [sure] that Baylor is investigated to the full extent regarding …

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