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Civil rights activist Mark Perry said the Department of Education has ignored more than 70 requests for updates
The U.S. Department of Education has not been responding to questions about a backlog of complaints, including nearly 400 from civil rights activist Mark Perry alleging race and sex-related discrimination in higher education.
Some disability rights organizations have also expressed frustration with the office, agreeing its response time is slow.
Perry flags programs that are open only to female students, or only to students of color, in violation of federal civil rights laws.
Perry (pictured) has contacted the Office for Civil Rights more than 70 times over the past several years to ask for updates on 375 outstanding investigations or requests for evaluation he has filed, according to a January email he shared with The Fix that he sent to more than a half-dozen OCR officials.
“I am sure you’ll agree that a certain amount of frustration with these delays is understandable, especially given that 44 colleges and universities continue to violate Title IX despite being under a federal civil rights investigation for an average of 5 years,” Perry’s email to officials stated.
Some of these investigations have been open since 2018, Perry said. The retired University of Michigan-Flint economics professor’s email addressed what he called “OCR’s unacceptably long delays in processing, investigating, and resolving clear and unambiguous violations of federal civil rights laws.”
“In all of my complaints, I present clear, overwhelming, and unambiguous evidence,” Perry told The Fix via email on Feb. 14.
The office refuses “to complete their evaluation process because completing the evaluation would result in opening a federal civil rights investigation, and the schools would have to stop violating Title IX,” Perry said.
Department of Education and Office for Civil Rights officials did not respond to requests for comment from The Fix.
Examples of alleged Title IX violations ignored by the OCR include a complaint from Perry six years ago against the University of St. Thomas, which still hosts its yearly “Science, Technology, & Engineering Preview Summer” for middle school and high school girls.
St. Thomas’s public relations office told The Fix in an emailed statement on Feb. 17 that the school is “aware of the charge and can confirm the Office of Civil Rights previously contacted the university about this case,” however, “the university has not received a decision.”
Perry told The Fix in reference to this case that it is “frustrating that schools like UST receive formal and legal notice from OCR that they are under a federal civil rights investigation, and yet they continue to engage in illegal sex discrimination.”
Other longstanding complaints that Perry highlighted in his email to The Fix included three cases filed in 2020: one against the University of Chicago for various female-only grants; one against Palm Beach Atlantic University for its annual Women of Distinction luncheon; and one against Marquette University for a single-sex, female-only faculty award.
The Fix reached out to the media relations offices at all three universities via email on Feb. 16 and Mar. 3, requesting comments or updates on these complaints, but none responded.
Perry also referenced an investigation into the University of Michigan, opened in early 2019, saying, “I stopped requesting updates many years ago, and am now just waiting to see if it ever gets resolved.”
Other activist groups have also complained about the office’s backlog and case dismissal rate. They suggested that one reason for the delays is a lack of staff. A recent Government Accountability Office report cited the Trump administration’s cuts to the civil rights division as a reason for some delays.
The Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund said “the work of OCR cannot be done without adequate, trained and consistent staff.”
“OCR’s enforcement of all civil rights laws is important to students with disabilities because students with disabilities are often students of color and transgender students may have disabilities and need accommodations,” Jinny Kim, an attorney with the group, told The Fix via a media statement.
Similarly, The Arc, a disability rights’ group, criticized the Office for Civil Rights’ high rate of dismissal of complaints.
But Perry said that the job cuts are not to blame — the Department of Education’s “inexcusable nonfeasance and neglect of my complaints were long-standing practices of OCR and had been ongoing well before the staff cuts in 2025.”
The America First Policy Institute also previously told The Fix the problems predate the job cuts under Trump.
Michael Chires, vice chair of education opportunity at API, said the backlog “was fueled by the Biden Administration’s poor policies,” particularly its “redefinition of sex under Title IX.”
His group is still waiting on a resolution to a 2024 complaint against UC Berkeley for allegedly excluding white people from a community garden event.
