Submitted by Hope Loudon
In 2015, I was walking to my car from the library on campus at the University of Nevada, Reno, at night, when I encountered a group of men. My eyes drifted to their still, unnatural faces, and I realized with horror that they were cartoonish masks of former presidents, causing me to perceive the group as potential assailants. I ran back to the library, screaming, “Call the police!” breathlessly to the front-desk attendant.
When the police came to the scene, they verified I was one of many scared people with similar complaints. They essentially told me a variation of, “Oh, that’s our secret society of frat boys. They are harmless and do charity work; boys will be boys! Next time, smile and wave!”
Police were prepared with Coffin and Keys’ flier (pictured at right), and asked if I wanted to keep it as “a souvenir” of my perceived attempted assault. Police walked me to my car (as then-UNR police Director Adam Garcia emphasized in defense of their response), and I started the engine in total shock and disbelief at how surreal what had just happened was. Too scared to go home alone, and too high on adrenaline to sleep, I went to a friend’s house and wrote up the entire incident, which I sent to the Reno Gazette Journal.
I kept Coffin and Keys in the news for the next several months, filing a Title IX complaint and publicly beseeching my alma mater to do something to ensure the protection of women and minorities from the frequently criticized group and its practices.
Coverage was everywhere, and The Nevada Sagebrush even did a political cartoon depicting me as an older woman in a skirt and heels running from a gang of ghouls. UNR hid behind Coffin and Keys’ “freedom of speech” and “expression” to justify doing essentially nothing, although the title of one article was: “UNR to address masked men; read Coffin & Keys’ statement.” I was told that the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX would investigate. The last article about it reported that an investigation was possible, but I never heard anything from UNR after that.
In December 2022, UNR finally provided me with the outcome of my 2015 complaint in response to a public records request. The report shows my complaint was closed three years, three months, and six days after I filed it, citing a lack of jurisdiction and stating that the conduct alleged would not constitute a violation of discrimination policies (all of which they would have known right away if true). A Washoe County School District employee contacted the office to support my complaint with her experience, but she was apparently never interviewed due to a supposed scheduling mistake.
It was no surprise that UNR earned USA Today’s dishonorable mention as number six on its list of universities that withheld even the most basic Title IX enforcement information from journalists. In 2021, I filed yet another complaint with UNR’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX involving my allegations of discrimination, retaliation, due process violations and free speech stemming from my time in their MA of Counseling program.
Within the last year, I discovered through searching the internet that UNR’s history of alleged misconduct regarding Title IX and other laws is so spectacular that there is an Amazon best-seller – “1,000 Showers” by former UNR soccer coach and whistleblower Terri Patraw – about lack of enforcement and retaliation against those who report. I read the book with horror, as it felt both familiar and explanatory.
Nevada System of Higher Education’s problems appear to have become blatant as even the most promising accountability efforts failed. Melody Rose, the first female Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) chancellor in 20 years, allegedly faced undermining and abuse, including Title IX violations, and was paid $610,000 attached to a nondisparagement agreement to leave.
Multiple alleged victims have pending cases in federal court, including Fei Fei Fan whose case involves alleged human trafficking and sexual exploitation taking place with the administration’s tacit permission and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX’s alleged help to protect UNR from liability. One of the cases mentioned in the GoFundMe, Gaillard v. Nevada System of Higher Education, appears to indicate that very similar things to Fan’s case have happened at UNR before, only the student was French. UNR President Brian Sandoval was the judge in the Gaillard case.
Not enforcing Title IX, civil rights and the Constitution undermines safety, freedom and equality of opportunity, and fundamentally threatens the foundations of our democracy. If Nevada’s alleged perpetrators remain emboldened by impunity at taxpayer’s expense, then the protective laws are not worth the paper they are printed on in practice.
We are way past needing reform; the solution is vigilant oversight. In a seemingly rigged system, the alleged victims courageously filing expensive and lengthy lawsuits at their peril, in a seemingly-rigged system, should not be the only thing standing between the rule of law and lawlessness.
We should fight like people’s lives depend on it because they do. I genuinely fear that vulnerable Nevadans (e.g., people of color, women, the disabled, religious minorities, etc.) will wake up one day soon without any rights or protections due to constant undermining by state institutions. I have not backed down after two years because the implications of this injustice persisting are staggering, and this could be our last chance. I would love to hand you the torch if you will take it. Please help in any way you can.
Hope Loudon is an activist, writer, and consultant who holds an MA of Public Policy from Central European University and a BA of International Affairs from the University of Nevada, Reno. She has a background in journalism, nonprofits and advocacy.
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