NEW YORK (AP) — Women's rights attorney Gloria Allred joined students from four U.S. colleges and universities on Wednesday to announce the filing of federal complaints over how the higher-education institutions handle rape allegations.

Students who attended the New York news conference said the colleges and universities had not taken their rape complaints seriously.
Tucker Reed, a sophomore at the University of Southern California, said she was raped by a fellow student and when she brought the matter to the attention of the person charged with investigating sexual misconduct she was told she "should not expect them to punish my rapist — that their process was educative, not punitive."
Allred said complaints were filed Wednesday against UC Berkeley, USC, Swarthmore College, and Dartmouth College.
"We are asking the Department of Education to open an investigation into these complaints and take appropriate actions to force these colleges to comply with the law or risk losing their federal funding," she said in a statement.