Lewis Hall, center left, with Templin Hall at right.

Two and a half years after a University of Kansas student who said she was raped on campus filed a complaint, the federal government is still investigating KU’s response to sexual assault.

KU was first added to a widely publicized list of colleges being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education for their handling of sexual violence cases on July 16, 2014, when the department’s Office for Civil Rights opened its first investigation of KU. The USDE opened a second investigation of KU — stemming from the same woman’s complaint — on July 20, 2015. Findings, when they’re reached, should indicate whether KU responded appropriately.

The woman, who said she was raped in Lewis Hall by a fellow freshman she’d gone to a party with, sparked local protests and drew national media attention to KU when she went public with her story (read our coverage here) in 2014.

When the USDE started its investigation list in May 2014, there were 55 open cases nationwide. That number has ballooned to 300 open cases at 221 schools, according to this week’s list.

KU is not the only Kansas institution under investigation. The USDE has four open cases at Kansas State University and one open case at Washburn University, according the list.

The status of all seven Kansas investigations has not changed since a year and a half ago, when I wrote a story analyzing the USDE sexual assault investigation backlog. (At that time, the USDE had cleared just 11 cases since May 2014 and had 134 open — with the average case age being 13 months. USDE’s Office for Civil Rights guidelines call for investigators to resolve cases in 180 days, or about six months. The USDE had requested an extra $30.7 million in funding, mostly to hire more staffers to keep up with the increased caseload.)

The crackdown on campus sexual assault — through enforcement of federal Title IX and campus-level culture changes — got extra attention this week when the Obama Administration released the final report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. Vice President Joe Biden shared an open letter urging campuses to continue prioritizing enforcement and education.

“Every fall, thousands of parents drop their children off at your colleges with enormous hope and expectation. But deep in the pit of every parent’s stomach is a nagging fear?–?will my child be alright?” Biden’s letter says. “… As leaders of our nation’s colleges and universities, you have a legal and a moral obligation to combat sexual violence on your campuses?–?and that starts with changing the culture on your campuses.”

The task force’s final report actually mentions KU: It’s listed as one of nine grantees receiving money from the Department for Health and Human Services’ $6 million College Sexual Assault Policy and Prevention Initiative announced in July “to influence and implement campus policies and prevention strategies based on the recommendations from the Task Force.” The White House on Thursday also released a 14-page guide for campuses to combat sexual assault. The guide states federal laws and best practices regarding sexual violence policies, education, climate surveys and transparency.

The Chronicle of Higher Education called Thursday’s White House actions “a sort of swan song for an administration that has been uncommonly active on the issue of sexual assault at colleges,” adding, “It could be read as a signal that this administration expects the incoming Trump administration to relax efforts at enforcing the gender-equity law Title IX.”

Regardless, sexual violence and Title IX enforcement are sure to remain a newsworthy topic at KU in 2017. In addition to the USDE investigations, there are multiple sexual violence and sexual harassment related civil lawsuits against KU that also remain open and continue moving through federal and county courts.

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.