Williams v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

Williams (plaintiff) was a female student at the University of Georgia (UGA) (defendant). Williams was sexually assaulted by three student athletes inside a dormitory. One perpetrator, Cole, a basketball player, instigated the assault by inviting Williams to his dormitory room and then encouraging two other athletes to assault her. Williams filed a complaint with the UGA police and withdrew from UGA. The three athletes were charged with disorderly conduct under the UGA Code of Conduct. Approximately one year after the incident, a UGA disciplinary panel held a hearing and decided not to sanction any of the three athletes. Cole had been involved in other disciplinary and criminal incidents prior to his assault on Williams. Prior to enrolling at UGA, Cole had been dismissed from two other colleges following allegations that he had sexually assaulted or harassed women and had been involved in several other violent incidents. Harrick, the UGA head basketball coach, Dooley, the director of the University of Georgia Athletic Association (UGAA) (defendant), and Adams, the President of UGA and UGAA, knew of the prior incidents when they recruited Cole to play basketball at UGA. Williams filed a lawsuit against UGA and UGAA, alleging a violation of Title IX. Williams alleged that not only did UGA officials know of Cole’s past sexual misconduct when recruiting and admitting him to UGA, they had also received suggestions from other student athletes that coaches needed to inform their athletes about UGA’s sexual-harassment policy. The district court granted UGA’s motion to dismiss Williams’s complaint, and she appealed.