Simpson v. University of Colorado

06-1184 and 07-1182 (Sept. 6, 2007)[1] was a case in which the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that there was enough evidence that the University of Colorado Boulder was deliberately indifferent [2] under Title IX of not taking appropriate measures to limit sexual assault on their campus despite officials, such as Gary Barnett, having a general knowledge of the harassment and the risk of sexual assault occurring.

[8] It highlighted the need for universities to take a proactive approach to addressing sexual assault, including educating students about consent, providing support to victims, and holding perpetrators accountable.

[9] The district court made the decision based on the evidence in this case that at the time of the assaults on the plaintiffs: "(1) Coach Barnett, whose rank in the CU hierarchy was comparable to that of a police chief in a municipal government, had general knowledge of the serious risk of sexual harassment and assault during college-football recruiting efforts;  (2) Barnett knew that such assaults had indeed occurred during CU recruiting visits;  (3) Barnett nevertheless maintained an unsupervised player-host program to show high-school recruits "a good time";  and (4) Barnett knew, both because of incidents reported to him and because of his own unsupportive attitude, that there had been no change in atmosphere since 1997 (when the prior assault occurred) that would make such misconduct less likely in 2001".

[13] With the decision by the court of appeals a grand jury investigation was prompted and as a result an indictment was made with a former recruiting aid being sentenced to probation after pleading guilty, also the University of Colorado's athletic department faced an overhaul as the resignations of both the athletic director and CU system president quickly followed the indictment.

[14] The settlement that was reached with Simpson also provided a new advisor independent of the university to monitor Title IX compliance and an additional part-time counselor who will work in CU's Office of Victim's Assistance.