The former student claimed that both he and the sexual-assault complainant were intoxicated, and that Vassar discriminated against him by only taking the complainant’s incapacitation into account and by giving her preferential treatment. The judge found that Vassar had not violated state or federal laws regarding gender discrimination.
The case is one of more than 50 lawsuits pending nationwide over colleges’ handling of sexual assault claims. The number of such lawsuits has increased 500% since 2011, when the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights told colleges that, to find a student accused of sexual assault responsible, there must be a better than 50-50 chance that the accused is to blame.