USA Today

USA TODAY asked more than 100 of the nation's top public universities for data showing how they handled sexual misconduct complaints under the landmark federal law known as Title IX.

Six of those schools refused to provide it.

They shared no information about the number of sexual misconduct complaints they investigated, how many students they found responsible or what types of sanctions they issued to those students.

They opted to leave the public in the dark about their track record of complying with a key mandate under Title IX, which turned 50 years old this summer. The law is supposed to ensure students' right to an education free from sexual harassment and gendered violence. It put the onus on colleges to build robust systems for investigating allegations, protecting complainants and disciplining perpetrators.

While some schools provided the information willingly within days or weeks, others took months or more than a year. When schools declined to provide the data voluntarily, USA TODAY filed public records requests, which compelled most holdout schools to disclose data that was at least partially responsive.

Here's how each of the six universities that refused to provide any data responded to USA TODAY's requests:

1. Auburn University
USA TODAY emailed questions to Mike Clardy, Auburn's assistant vice president for communications, in April 2021. He did not respond. A subsequent email to Clardy and two other Auburn communications officials that June also went unreturned. As did additional emails to Auburn President Chris Roberts, Title IX coordinator Kelley Taylor, vice presidents Kelli Shomaker and John Morris, and Clardy in June and July 2022.

The news organization filed a public records request for the information in June 2021. Auburn's records office denied the request, saying it was not "able to locate any existing responsive records." That office did not respond to a subsequent request in September 2021 seeking annual reports containing the information. It denied a third records request this October for only the sanction information, saying it could release it at its "discretion" but chose not to.

2. Ball State University

3. Florida International University

4. University of Georgia
USA TODAY emailed questions to Gregory Trevor, Georgia's associate vice president for communications, in April 2021. He did not respond. Trevor and two other communications officials, Sara Freeland and James Hataway, ignored a subsequent email in June 2021. Subsequent emails to Trevor, Hataway and two more communications officials, Kathy Pharr and Rod Guajardo, in June and July 2022 were also ignored.

The news organization filed a public records request for the information in June 2021. Georgia's open records office declined the request that July, saying it was not required to create records that do not exist. USA TODAY filed another request later that month for only the sanction information over a partial time period, 2016 to present. The office said gathering and reviewing the records would take more than 200 hours of staff time and it would charge $7,590 to complete the task.

5. University of Memphis

6. University of Nevada, Reno

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