OCR Launches Title IX Investigation into University of Wyoming over Sorority Membership Dispute 

Micah Kamrass, Fraternal Law Partners, mkamrass@manleyburke.com

On June 2, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced it was investigating the University of Wyoming for potential violations of Title IX, the federal law the prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. This announcement came as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s launch of its “Title IX Month.”^[1]

The investigation stems from litigation previously covered by Fraternal Law regarding the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority Chapter at the University of Wyoming’s decision to admit a transgender woman into the sorority. While the still ongoing litigation is against the sorority itself, the investigation focuses on the University and its role in recognizing or otherwise supporting the local Chapter. The announcement states:

OCR launched an investigation into the University of Wyoming after the university allowed a man to join a campus sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG). Members of the KKG sorority chapter sued the sorority itself for allowing a male into the group and permitting him to access living areas of the sorority house that are restricted to women. A school receiving federal funding that supports, sponsors, or promotes a sorority or fraternity, must meet its obligations under Title IX to protect its students from sex-based harassment and sexual assault, regardless of the sorority or fraternity’s policy. A sorority that admits male students is no longer a sorority by definition and thus loses the Title IX statutory exemption for a sorority’s single-sex membership practices.^[2]

            There are a couple of items to unpack within this announcement. First comes the obvious departure from the Obama and Biden administrations’ position that same-sex social organizations may admit transgender members without jeopardizing their single-sex status.

Next—and most perplexing—is the final sentence focused on the statutory exemption. Title IX expressly exempts social fraternities and sororities from the prohibition on sex-based admissions policies, allowing them to remain single-sex. However, the exemption applies to institutions of higher education with respect to their recognition of such organizations; it does not apply to the individual fraternal organization itself. So, if OCR’s position is that the sorority admitted a male, it is unclear how OCR would prove that this then caused the University of Wyoming to violate Title IX. The University of Wyoming (and just about every other major college and university in the country) has countless student organizations they routinely recognize that admit both men and women.

While it feels difficult to imagine that the OCR would prevail in a legal argument of this nature, the most interesting element of this announcement lies with how the University (and others like it) will respond. Some schools may take a proactive stance, conditioning continued recognition of fraternities and sororities on strict adherence to biological definitions of sex. Others may resist, potentially litigating the issue to seek definitive judicial clarification. Until then, this will continue to be a legal question in flux.

[1] U.S. Department of Education Recognizes June as ‘Title IX Month,’ U.S. Dep’t of Educ., (June 2, 2025), https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-recognizes-june-title-ix-month.

[2] Id.