Blog Post

In 2015, Vermont Technical College introduced a single-sex, girl-only, no boys allowed program — Rosie’s Girls STEM Leadership Camp — that illegally violates Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination at colleges and universities that accept federa l taxpayer funding, see press release here. Here’s an archived link to the college’s website in 2016 promoting the discriminatory program featuring the photo above and this description (bold added):

Vermont Tech’s summer camps create positive, safe, supportive, girl-centered environments, with teamwork, healthy body image and tons of fun woven in! A place where girls can enhance their leadership skills as well as get their hands dirty, express themselves creatively, explore what the world has to offer them, what they have to offer the world and take positive risks! It’s a great place for girls who have previously participated in Rosie’s Girls Day Camps now entering 9th or 10th grades or who have never participated and want to try something new. This experience helps emerging young women expand their sense of the range of educational, work and career options available to them and offers a follow-up mentoring program.

It’s a violation of Title IX for colleges to discriminate in its educational programs based on sex, it’s illegal to exclude participants from educational programs based on sex, and it’s illegal to deny some students from the educational benefits of programs based on sex. By offering a single-sex, girl-only, no boys allowed program like Rosie’s Girls STEM Leadership Camp, Vermont Technical College was clearly in violation of Title IX because: a) it discriminated against boys, and b) it didn’t offer an equivalent, single-sex, boy-only STEM leadership camp that would have fairly and legally accommodated boys in Vermont entering 9th or 10th grade who were just as interested as their female counterparts in enhancing their leadership skills and expanding their sense of the range of educational, work and career options available to them.

Vermont Technical College also offered another discriminatory, single-sex, girl-only, no boys allowed program called the Coder Camp for Girls, which according to a college website that no longer exists was “designed to give young girls the opportunity to bring their creativity and translate that into an active software coding environment. The Coder Camp for Girls is a day camp designed for girls entering grades 7-11 who want to learn about software development and experience making a program of their own creation.” Like Rosie’s Girls STEM Leadership Camp, the Coder Camp for Girls illegally violated Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination because it operated as a girl-only program and the college didn’t offer an equivalent boy-only Coder Camp for Boys.

As a result of Title IX complaints I filed with the college’s Title IX office and at the federal level with the Office for Civil Rights, Vermont Technical College in recent months has quietly converted both of those discriminatory, illegal programs into legal co-ed, gender-neutral programs that now accommodate students of all gender identities.

The word “Girls” has been removed from the program name, which has been changed to “Rosie’s STEM Leadership Camp.” The program website now includes pictures of both boys and girls (see above) and the program description has been edited and changed as follows:

Vermont Tech’s summer camps create positive, safe, supportive, girl-centered environments.. A place where girls students can enhance their leadership skills as well as get their hands dirty, express themselves creatively, explore what the world has to offer them, what they have to offer the world and take positive risks!

Likewise, the word “Girls” has been removed from the Coder Camp program, and its website has been changed:

Coder Camp is designed to give young girls youth the opportunity to bring their creativity and translate that into an active software coding environment. The Coder Camp for Girls is a day camp designed for girls youth entering grades 7-11 who want to learn about software development and experience making a program of their own creation.

To legally comply with Title IX, universities have two basic options when offering educational programs: 1) offer single-sex programs like STEM camps or coding programs for males and females that are “separate but equal” or 2) offer legitimate co-ed programs that are open to students of all gender identities. But what is generally not allowed is for a university that accepts federal taxpayer funding to offer single-sex, female-only, no males allowed programs (or scholarship, student award, faculty award, faculty fellowship, mentoring, networking opportunity, clubs, campus events, gym hours, conferences, etc.) only, without offering equivalent single-sex, male-only programs. And yet universities routinely engage in illegal sex discrimination and violate Title IX with impunity because they haven’t been challenged and held accountable for violating federal civil rights laws.

And even when universities like Vermont Technical College are challenged and get caught violating Title IX laws, they reluctantly make the necessary changes to stop engaging in illegal sex discrimination, but they never face any real consequences — no fines, no apologies, no admission of guilt, and never any expressions of regret for violating the civil rights of thousands of affected students and faculty.

Bottom Line: That’s why starting in 2016, I have been on a one-man mission to challenge universities across the country that violate Title IX by filing nearly 100 Title IX complaints so far with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. About a dozen of those complaints have been successfully resolved in my favor including the Vermont Technical College complaint, nearly 40 other complaints have resulted in federal investigations of civil rights violations that are ongoing, and about 40 other complaints are currently being reviewed by the Office for Civil Rights.

By exposing Title IX violations that are numerous and almost universally ignored, it is my mission to advance civil rights for all persons in higher education and end the hypocritical, double-standard for enforcement of sex discrimination that has prevailed for so many decades at colleges and universities across the US.