Sofie Karasek

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that three women who were allegedly sexually assaulted while undergraduate students at UC Berkeley may sue the school for a policy of indifference to reports of sexual misconduct.

UC Berkeley alumnus Sofie Karasek accused former Vice President Joe Biden of harassment in a Washington Post op-ed published Thursday.

The new rules, made public by The New York Times on Wednesday, would extend beyond federal guidance for college sexual misconduct cases to include a narrower definition of sexual harassment and the steps campuses are legally required to take to address it.

The complaint was filed by former UC Berkeley student Aryle Butler, and it alleged that she had been sexually assaulted in the summer of 2012 when she was still a UC student, studying at the Wildlands Studies program in Alaska.

UC Berkeley will review eight sexual misconduct cases after a four-year federal investigation found that the campus violated Title IX policies.

After Sofie Karasek filed a sexual assault complaint with the UC Berkeley Title IX office in 2012, she didn’t hear back for eight months.

As many of the 113 investigations detailed in UC documents released Tuesday unfolded, the University Office of the President pushed for systemwide changes to UC sexual misconduct policy.

On July 28, a federal judge dismissed with leave to amend two civil cases brought against UC Berkeley that claimed campus administration had not adequately addressed two separate incidents of sexual assault under Title IX law.

With the help of 50 sexual assault survivors, including two UC Berkeley-affiliated individuals, Lady Gaga performed her Oscar-nominated song “Til It Happens to You” at the Academy Awards on Sunday night.