After a federal investigation found the University of Maryland, Baltimore County failed to protect students from sexual harassment by a former swim coach, the school plans to set aside $4.14 million for settlements for those impacted.
The settlement money requires approval by the Maryland Board of Public Works, which will vote on the matter at its April 3 meeting, according to agenda documents.
The U.S. Department of Justice concluded a three-year investigation into the school for its handling of the swim coach’s behavior and a hostile environment on the swim team on Monday. The Justice Department determined that UMBC violated Title IX, a federal law barring gender discrimination in education.
The university and the Maryland attorney general’s office are asking the state spending board to approve “up to” $4.14 million to settle the claims of “two groups of individuals identified” by the investigation, according to the agenda. It would be part of the school’s settlement with the Justice Department.
“If this settlement is approved, the Department of Justice will inform the individuals of the availability of the specific settlement payments to settle all claims against the University arising out of or related to sex discrimination,” read the agenda for the board, which includes Gov. Wes Moore, Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Treasurer Dereck Davis, all Democrats.
Kacey Hammel, chief of staff to UMBC’s president, said in an email that the university could not immediately provide additional details about the settlement payments. But the agreement will become public “in the coming days” after it is executed by both sides, Hammel wrote.
“UMBC has cooperated with the DOJ every step of the way and is committed to meeting the terms of the agreement, including the financial relief for individuals,” Hammel wrote. “Subject to BPW approval, the payment of funds under the agreement will have no impact on student services, activities, or programs, nor on any aspect of the academic enterprise.”
Rignal Baldwin V, an attorney representing six former UMBC swimmers who filed suit together against the school, said the settlement amount was a “good start.”
“I think it’s progress, and I eagerly await the details of the possible settlement,” he said. “But if it doesn’t work for my clients, we’re going to keep going.”
Accepting the funds likely would put a stop to current or future litigation, but impacted swimmers would have the option to turn down the funds, Baldwin said.
The Justice Department found that, between 2015 and 2020, UMBC failed to respond to allegations that swim coach Chad Cradock, now deceased, filmed students while showering and touched male students on the pool deck and in the locker room. The university’s athletics department also failed to report dating violence by male swimmers against female teammates from 2016 and 2020, the department found.
“Too many school officials and administrators knew something for UMBC to have done nothing,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release Monday.
Cradock died by suicide in 2021, months after resigning amid a university investigation into his conduct.
Investigators wrote that, despite the university’s recent attempts to improve its Title IX procedures, it was still falling short. For instance, the university has failed to hire a victim support coordinator, and shares Title IX staff with the university’s Office of the General Counsel, which handles its legal affairs.
“Despite numerous lawsuits, outside consultants, a campus-wide Title IX review, and two re-brandings of the Title IX Office, our investigation found that the University has yet to take the necessary steps to reform how it responds to sex discrimination, including sexual harassment,” investigators wrote.
The university plans to sign the settlement agreement proposed by the Justice Department altering its Title IX procedures, university officials said. In a video posted Monday afternoon, UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby apologized to the students.
“Let me be very clear: We take full responsibility for what happened and I am committed to addressing these failures through our words and actions,” she said.
The Justice Department has proposed a settlement agreement with UMBC that will change how the university complies with Title IX in the future, in addition to providing financial compensation for any affected students.
UMBC said it expects to sign that agreement and make it public within the next few weeks.