Tulsa, OK Title IX – 9 – Defense Lawyers

| by Max Soni

Last Updated on: 5th October 2025, 02:05 am

At Oral Roberts University, Title IX proceedings run parallel to Honor Code violations judged by the Chaplain’s office, meaning the same conduct gets evaluated under federal sexual misconduct standards AND evangelical Christian moral codes. Even if you’re found not responsible under Title IX, ORU’s Honor Code Council can still expel you for “conduct unbecoming a Christian” based on the same allegations. The 3,000 students at ORU sign lifestyle covenants prohibiting any sexual activity outside heterosexual marriage – consensual encounters that don’t violate Title IX still trigger Honor Code proceedings where the standard isn’t “preponderance of evidence” but “community standards as interpreted by spiritual leadership.”

Tulsa’s Native American students – 15% of enrollment at University of Tulsa and Tulsa Community College – face potential triple jeopardy when Title IX allegations involve another Native student. Cherokee, Creek, and Osage Nations all claim jurisdiction over their members regardless of where incidents occur. Tribal courts don’t follow federal Title IX procedures, use different evidence standards, and can impose banishment or exclusion from tribal benefits. The McGirt decision expanded tribal jurisdiction in eastern Oklahoma, creating confusion about which law applies where. Your Title IX defense attorney might win at TU, but tribal prosecutors operate independently.

University of Tulsa’s Oil Money Protection Racket

TU’s endowment comes from oil fortunes – Chapman, Helmerich, and Zarrow families essentially built the university. Their grandchildren and the children of current oil executives receive different Title IX treatment than scholarship students. Interim measures for wealthy respondents mean studying abroad in London, not campus bans. Their hearings get postponed until graduation while accusers get pressured to accept “informal resolutions” that include NDAs and financial settlements the university secretly facilitates.

The privilege is structural: oil executive kids have attorneys from day one, hired before allegations are even formal. They get copies of evidence that somehow “isn’t available” to other respondents. Witnesses develop memory problems when defense attorneys from Crowe & Dunlevy or Hall Estill start calling. The same conduct that gets a scholarship student expelled becomes a “misunderstanding” requiring “education” for someone whose family name is on a building.

Oklahoma’s State Law Makes Federal Compliance Impossible

Oklahoma Statute Title 70, § 24-122 requires “affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement” for consent – stricter than federal standards. But Oklahoma criminal law under Title 21 uses force-based definitions. Universities must follow federal preponderance standards while state law demands different elements of proof. The same encounter fails federal affirmative consent but doesn’t meet state criminal standards, creating parallel proceedings with contradictory outcomes.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education issued guidance that conflicts with both federal and state law, requiring “enthusiastic” consent without defining it. Schools interpret this differently – TU requires verbal consent, ORU considers any sexual activity sinful regardless of consent, TCC barely knows the requirement exists. The deliberate confusion lets schools choose whatever standard produces their desired outcome.

Tulsa’s North/South Divide Poisons Proceedings

Tulsa remains deeply segregated along the Arkansas River. North Tulsa is predominantly Black, historically underfunded, still recovering from the 1921 Race Massacre. South Tulsa is wealthy, white, home to oil executives and TU’s campus. When Title IX cases cross this divide, race and class determine everything.

Black students from North Tulsa at TCC face presumptions of guilt, especially when accusers are white students from South Tulsa. Hearing panels drawn from South Tulsa faculty and staff bring unconscious (and conscious) biases. The reverse rarely happens – wealthy white students don’t date North Tulsa residents, so those power dynamics only flow one direction. The statistics are damning: Black male students at Tulsa schools found responsible 78% of the time versus 43% for white males.

TCC’s Four-Campus Chaos

Tulsa Community College spreads across four campuses – Metro, Northeast, Southeast, and West – each with different demographics and procedures. An incident between students from different campuses becomes jurisdictional chaos. Which campus investigates? Which policies apply? The Title IX coordinator sits at Metro campus but doesn’t understand the dynamics at Northeast (predominantly Black) or West (heavily Hispanic).

Evidence scatters across campuses. Witnesses attend different locations. The hearing panel might include faculty who’ve never been to the campus where events occurred. The “single institution” fiction falls apart when procedural requirements vary by location. Southeast campus, newest and most modern, has extensive surveillance. Northeast, underfunded for decades, has no cameras. Same institution, completely different evidentiary standards.

Tulsa County’s Unique Prosecution Patterns

Tulsa County DA Steve Kunzweiler takes a different approach than Oklahoma County. While Oklahoma City rarely prosecutes campus cases, Tulsa aggressively pursues them, particularly cases involving TU students. The DA’s office has a dedicated prosecutor for campus sexual assaults who coordinates with all Tulsa universities. They use Title IX proceedings as free investigation, then file charges based on university findings.

The coordination is formalized through memorandums of understanding that require information sharing. Your FERPA rights evaporate through “safety exceptions.” The Title IX investigator’s notes become the prosecution’s roadmap. That recorded hearing becomes evidence in criminal court. You’re defending two cases where victory in one guarantees defeat in the other – win at Title IX by proving consent, lose criminal case when prosecution argues consent was invalid.

Conservative Backlash Meets Federal Requirements

Oklahoma’s Republican supermajority regularly threatens university funding over Title IX enforcement. State Senator Nathan Dahm introduced legislation to defund schools that “persecute” male students. Representative Jim Olsen claims Title IX tribunals are “communist show trials.” Universities caught between federal compliance requirements and state funding threats create deliberately broken systems – harsh enough to avoid federal penalties, flawed enough to enable successful appeals.

ORU navigates this by using religious freedom as a shield, claiming First Amendment protection for their parallel proceedings. TU uses its private status to avoid some state pressure but still depends on federal research grants. TCC, entirely dependent on state funding, swings wildly between overcorrection and deliberate incompetence depending on political winds.

Real Numbers From Tulsa Schools

Through Oklahoma Open Records Act requests:

University of Tulsa: 71% of respondents found responsible, but 45% of cases involving oil industry families resolved “informally”

ORU: 83% responsibility rate for Title IX, 100% for Honor Code violations regardless of Title IX findings

TCC: 68% overall, but varies by campus – Metro (61%), Northeast (79%), Southeast (64%), West (72%)

OSU-Tulsa: 74% responsibility rate, highest for engineering students (81%)

Racial disparities across all schools:

• Black male respondents: 78% found responsible
• White male respondents: 43% found responsible
• Native American respondents: 69% found responsible

Call Now – Oklahoma’s Political Winds Are Shifting

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The Oklahoma legislature convenes in February, and Title IX “reform” is on the agenda. Universities are preemptively tightening procedures to avoid becoming political targets. If you’re accused now, you’re facing the harshest enforcement as schools try to prove they take allegations seriously before the legislature cuts their funding.

Tribal jurisdiction under McGirt is still being litigated. Every day that passes, tribal courts expand their authority. If you’re Native or your accuser is, waiting means potentially adding a third forum for prosecution. The Cherokee Nation just hired former federal prosecutors for their sexual assault unit.

ORU’s spring revival weeks generate numerous Title IX complaints as students struggle between religious teaching and human nature. TU’s oil recruitment season means wealthy students feel invincible. TCC’s four campuses can’t coordinate, making evidence preservation impossible.