Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Monday 19 noveMber 2018

Ed Department investigates claims against women’s programs

By MARIA DANILOVA and the University of Penn- against women’s activism
Associated Press sylvania. and the #MeToo move-
WASHINGTON (AP) — At With more women attend- ment.
home in Turkey, Kursat Pe- ing and graduating from “They are trying to dress up
kgoz considered himself college than men in Amer- their desire to hold on to
a feminist. In the world of ica, Pekgoz says women power as an equity issue,”
American higher educa- no longer need additional Thomsen said.
tion, where he is now pur- support. The complaints under in-
suing a doctorate in English “Women are the majority, vestigation by the Educa-
literature, the 30-year-old so I really cannot see how tion Department describe
activist says it is men who this is not discrimination opportunities that appear
are being treated unfairly. against men,” said Pekgoz, to exclude men.
Arguing that campus re- a student at the University The Yale Women Innova-
source groups for women of Southern California. He tors, a weekly event series,
and women’s studies pro- studied English literature in is discriminatory, Pekgoz
grams amount to discrimi- Kursat Pekgoz, a PhD student at the University of Southern Turkey and moved to the argues, because it says it
nation against men, Pe- California, poses for a photo on the school’s campus on Oct. 29, U.S. four years ago to pur- is open to “all Yale women
kgoz has filed federal com- 2018, in Los Angeles. sue an advanced degree. and non-binary femme stu-
plaints against several uni- Associated Press “We can’t keep living in dents, alumni, faculty staff,
versities with the backing of its civil rights division has late Title IX, a federal law the past on these issues.” and community mem-
the National Coalition for opened investigations into that prohibits sex discrimi- While the number of wom- bers.” At Princeton, he
Men, an American men’s Yale, Princeton, the Univer- nation at schools that re- en attending college has said in another complaint,
rights organization. sity of Southern California ceive federal funding. The grown significantly in re- the university treats male
The Education Department and Tulane University to department also has re- cent decades, women are students unfairly by offer-
is taking the complaints se- determine whether their ceived complaints against still underrepresented in sci- ing a course on defending
riously. Over the last year, women’s programs vio- Georgetown, Northeastern ence and technology and against sexual assault only
in leadership positions in to women.
higher education. “Everything should be
Scholars say women’s stud- available on a gender-
ies and gender studies, as neutral basis,” Pekgoz said.
fields of academic study, The Education Department
are open to men like any is also looking into whether
other. And advocates of the Cagney and Lacey Fel-
initiatives targeting wom- lowship at the University of
en in particular say they Southern California shows
are crucial to help them prejudice against male
succeed in a time when applicants because it is
women continue to earn awarded to “a returning
less than men and sexual woman student.”
harassment remains wide- Yale and USC said they are
spread on campuses and committed to nondiscrimi-
in the workplace. nation. Princeton said the
The investigations come school is providing the Ed-
at a time when President ucation Department with
Donald Trump’s administra- the necessary information.
tion is pushing ahead with Following the complaint,
a conservative agenda Tulane University is consid-
on other fronts in higher ering how to administer
education. Administration women’s empowerment
officials are endorsing giv- programs “without regard
ing greater rights to those to their sex.”
accused of sexual assault The Education Department
on campus and pushing said in a statement that it
back against race-based enforces Title IX so that “all
affirmative action in admis- students, including men,
sions. have equal access to edu-
Carly Thomsen, a profes- cational opportunity and
sor of feminist studies at can go to school without
Vermont’s Middlebury fear of sex discrimination.”
College, dismissed the It would not comment on
complaints as a backlash specific investigations.q