Marshall University Students Protest Title IX Practices

Marshall University students protested Friday and called on the university’s leaders to do more to protect students from sexual assault on campus, WBOY.com reported.

The rally was held to shed light on the West Virginia institution’s controversial handling of 2016 rape of a female student by a male student who was an alleged serial rapist. The rape was recently chronicled in a detailed article by USA Today, which described it as “a case study into how, five decades after the passage of the landmark Title IX law banning sex discrimination in education, schools continue to fail women.” The article prompted concern among many students.

A group of students met with university president Brad Smith Friday morning to discuss ways to protect students.

“Even though it happened several years ago, we’re still students here today right now,” Bex Law, a Marshall student, said of the protest in an interview with Channel 13 News. “We still deserve to have protection right now. There are students that came before us, and there are students that will come after us.”

Law and other critics of how the case was handled by the university’s Title IX Office want more transparency and better communication with students about university administrators’ plans to restructure the office. She said a better system is needed for protecting students from sexual misconduct and assault, providing them with ways to report it and information about where to get help on campus.