LOGAN, Utah — After Utah State University has made significant changes to how it responds to sexual misconduct — particularly in taking action to address the “sexually hostile culture” in its football program — the school is starting to see the end to some of the federal monitoring it has been under for the past five years.
The Logan school announced this week that it received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice that partially terminated some of the ongoing federal oversight.
USU, according to the February letter from the DOJ, “has demonstrated substantial compliance” in addressing concerns the department had around how the university responded to cases of sexual assault on campus. That includes major efforts from the school to overhaul its Title IX office and train students on preventing sexual misconduct.
It’s a big step for USU, which was originally supposed to be done with the agreement after the 2022-2023 school year but saw it extended several times. Some of that was due to delays and impediments during the COVID-19 pandemic. And part of it was because of changing federal requirements around Title IX, the law that charges universities with ensuring students receive education without sex-based discrimination.
But USU also continued to have issues with fulfilling the required reforms that it pledged to in a 2020 settlement after the DOJ investigated the northern Utah schooland found it repeatedly mishandled cases, failed to respond when it knew about misconduct and ultimately “rendered additional students vulnerable” to attack from repeat perpetrators.
In August of last year, the university was slapped with a notice of noncompliance for failing to take “prompt, equitable and effective steps to remedy an ongoing hostile environment within its football program.”
That came after the school was once again in the headlines for how former football coach Blake Anderson allegedly responded after a player on his team was arrested in 2023 for domestic violence, according to the noncompliance letter. USU has said that Anderson failed to promptly notify the school of the allegations, allowing the player to continue with the team and conducting his own fact-finding mission that allegedly included contacting the victim to determine what happened.
Then-Utah State President Elizabeth “Betsy” Cantwell,who stepped down last month after a year and a half at the helm, fired Anderson and other athletics staff for violating Title IX. That caused an uproar.
Anderson has sued the school for $15 million, saying USU used the “sham” allegations to purposefully get out of having to pay him a $4.5 million buyout with his coaching contract and used him as a scapegoat with the DOJ.
The DOJ also cited a second concern in the August letter that USU football players “collectively jeered, snickered, laughed, and repeatedly interrupted” a presenter who was delivering a training to the team about sexual misconduct prevention.
Now, the DOJ says, USU has “satisfactorily addressed the issues” in the football department raised in that August notice of noncompliance, including by firing Anderson and the other employees.
The school has also worked to rectify other issues the DOJ uncovered, including a toxic environment in its piano program, a culture of assault in its fraternities and sororities and additional reports with its football program — first brought to light by The Salt Lake Tribune — that ultimately led to the conviction of former player Torrey Green on charges of sexually assaulting six women while at USU.
The DOJ said in its most recent letter that the school has fulfilled its obligations under the settlement for hiring a Title IX coordinator, creating policies for responding to cases, providing training to students and staff, improving the “educational climate” at the school and improving its reporting provisions for tracking cases of assault.
Because the latest notice from the DOJ is only a “partial termination,” the school continues to be under monitoring for a few remaining provisions. Those are: maintaining a collaborative relationship with local law enforcement, continuing other efforts with the “educational climate” and enforcement of policies.
There is no end date provided in the letter for those last pieces.
The letter simply states: “We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with USU as it strives to comply with the remaining requirements in the agreement.”
When it released the letter this week, USU detailed its plans for addressing the final parts. That includes a cooperative agreement with Logan’s police department and the Cache County Sheriff’s Office. When those agencies respond to a case with a USU student, they will now give individuals a “USU victim resource card” that alerts them to what tools are available on campus.
Officers will also share reports “when appropriate” by using the same records management system. And the school’s police force is also now using a centralized dispatch system that covers the county, so it can identify possible criminal patterns in the community.
“Strengthening the relationship with local law enforcement and focusing on collaboration has been a focus of mine since joining USU,” said the university’s police Chief Jason Brei, in a statement this week. He took the top cop job at the school in July 2023.
For the last four years, the school has also held an annual conference in northern Utah aimed at ending sexual violence. It’s attended by USU employees, local police officers, victim advocates, social workers and staff from surrounding K-12 school districts.
It continues, too, to train staff, students and athletes, and it’s currently in the process of conducting its biennial sexual misconduct climate survey that asks students how safe they feel on campus.
