Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination in programs that directly receive federal assistance. The federal government began in 1977 to require all institutions of higher learning to sign an assurance of compliance form. Grove City College, a private, coeducational, liberal arts college that did not participate in the regular disbursement system of the Department of Education on grounds of freedom from governmental control, refused to sign the form. The Department of Education determined, however, that since enrolled students of Grove City received direct federal monies, the college was a recipient of federal financial assistance. Funds were cut off to the college until it agreed to comply, and the college and four of its students filed suit. The case was argued before the U. S. Supreme Court on November 29, 1983. The decision of February 28, 1984, placed federal governmental regulation only over the programs that accepted federal monies, not the entire institution. In addition, the Court decided that the federal Pell grants were considered federal aid, and therefore the school’s financial aid office would be subject to federal regulation. The College subsequently withdrew from the Pell grant program and offered its students private programs to replace the federal grants. Congress responded to the Court’s decision by passing the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, which stated that any institution that receives any federal monies is subject as an institution to federal jurisdiction.
—Michele Rutledge
World History
