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Berklee is subject of sexual-assault investigation

Berklee College of Music is the latest local school under investigation by the federal Education Department for its handling of a sexual assault complaint.

The investigation into the college began June 19, according to Education Department officials who declined to release more details about the case.

Berklee president Roger H. Brown said the school has been notified that a complaint had been filed.

“We will comply fully, and we welcome any counsel on how we can improve,” Brown said in a statement Monday.

“We have attempted to work with members of our community in a compassionate, fair and expeditious manner to deal with incidents of this kind,” he added. “We have worked extremely hard to educate our students in order to prevent incidents of sexual violence on our campus and in our community.”

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In May, the department took the unprecedented step of identifying every college and university in the country under investigation for possibly violating rules governing the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints. Those rules are outlined in Title IX, a federal law that mandates gender equality in campus life.

That initial list named 55 campuses, including six in Massachusetts: Amherst College, Boston University, Emerson College, Harvard University’ undergraduate college, Harvard Law School; the University of Massachusetts Amherst; and the University of Connecticut; and Dartmouth College.

The list has since grown to 64 schools.

Earlier this spring, Tufts University initially denied, then accepted findings from an Education Department investigation that the university was not complying with Title IX rules around handling sexual assault cases.

Activism around the problem of campus sexual assault has heightened in recent months, and the White House recently unveiled new guidelines for schools to follow in their efforts to address the issue.


Matt Rocheleau can be reached at matthew.rocheleau@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrochele.

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