Equity & Justice

We’d like to hear about your experience with misconduct on campus, or if you were subjected to it but did not or could not file a report. We need help understanding flaws in the systems intended to hold perpetrators accountable.

This article was produced in partnership with the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.

NPR Illinois and ProPublica found several sexual harassment allegations against University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty that haven’t been publicly reported. Here's a rundown of the accusations, the consequences each faced and their responses.

This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica Local Reporting Network .

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has prohibited nearly all parishioners from carrying lethal weapons on church property.

Prior to the shift in policy, having a weapon on church grounds was considered "inappropriate."

The change was revealed in an update to a handbook sent electronically to local church leaders over the weekend.

In closing arguments in a death penalty trial, the prosecution told an all-white jury that a black defendant was "a big black bull."

In the case of a different black man, prosecutors justified excluding a black juror because he drank alcohol by calling him a "blk wino," whereas a potential white juror who drank was considered "ok" and a "country boy."

A few years ago, TV celebrity Rachel Maddow was at Rockefeller University to hand out a prize that's given each year to a prominent female scientist. As Maddow entered the auditorium, someone overheard her say, "What is up with the dude wall?"

She was referring to a wall covered with portraits of scientists from the university who have won either a Nobel Prize or the Lasker Award, a major medical prize.

Daniel Ortner grew up Jewish. His mom had a strong belief in God and would routinely make latkes for Hannukah. His father's family was deeply rooted in Judaism. Some of his father's relatives died in the Holocuast.

As a child, Ortner attended a Jewish private elementary school in South Florida. But then, a tragedy in high school shattered his faith - when his mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She passed away on his 18th birthday, right around Hannukah.

President Trump's evident desire to identify who's most "loyal" to Israel has a clear winner: U.S. evangelicals.

Not only do they outpace U.S. Jews in their support for policies that favor the Israeli government, but U.S. evangelicals have also become the fastest-growing sector of the Israeli tourism market. The developments may even be related.

When Lisa and Dan Macheca bought a century-old Methodist church in St. Louis back in 2004, they didn't think much about the cost of heating the place.

Then the first heating bill arrived: $5,000 for a single month.

"I felt like crying," Lisa Macheca said. "Like, 'Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into?' "

The nation's largest organization of Hispanic journalists is cutting ties with Fox News over what the group says is the network's spreading of misinformation about unauthorized immigrants, and by extension Hispanics.

The move will cost the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) some money since Fox was signed up to be a sponsor of their upcoming conference.

In August of 1619, a ship came to Point Comfort, in the English colony of Virginia. Over 20 enslaved African people, brought from what is now Angola, were on that ship. Once the ship landed, the colonists bought them as their property.

This sale ushered in an era of American slavery whose effects still endure today.

400 years later, the remnants of a once-formal system of racial hierarchy still play a defining role in the U.S.

Ever since Jay-Z announced a partnership between his Roc Nation entertainment company and the NFL — ostensibly to help the league step up its Super Bowl halftime show and amplify its social justice program platform — the whole thing has played out like a tragic blaxploitation flick. One powerful scene in particular from the era keeps replaying in my mind, like an eerie precursor to last week's press conference and the resulting fallout.

At some point nearly everyone has to deal with pain.

How do Americans experience and cope with pain that makes everyday life harder? We asked in the latest NPR-IBM Watson Health Poll.

First, we wanted to know how often pain interferes with people's ability to work, go to school or engage in other activities. Overall, 18% of Americans say that's often a problem for them. Almost a quarter – 24% — say it's sometimes the case.

A South African court is restricting gratuitous displays of the country's old apartheid-era flag, calling the banner "a vivid symbol of white supremacy and black disenfranchisement and suppression."

An Australian state appellate court on Wednesday upheld lower-court verdicts against Cardinal George Pell, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric to be found guilty of sexual abuse.

In a 2-1 ruling, the Court of Appeal of Victoria state rejected Pell's request to overturn his December conviction. The 78-year-old prelate, a former archbishop of Sydney who later became a top Vatican adviser, is serving a six-year prison sentence for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney announced the abrupt resignation of his city's police commissioner Richard Ross Tuesday amid reports of sexual harassment and racial and gender discrimination within the police department.

Calling himself "disappointed," Kenney, in a statement, said Ross has been "a terrific asset to the Police Department and the City as a whole."

Updated at 9:13 p.m. ET

When Sgt. Alan Van't Land of the Colorado Springs Police Department approaches two young black men in the 2100 block of Preuss Road in Colorado Springs, he tells them he is responding to a call about a possible assault.

He says the men match suspect descriptions and he has been informed one of them may have a gun.

You're at brunch with your friends on Sunday morning and after stuffing yourself with pancakes and mimosas, your server comes up to you and says, "Is this going to be on one check or — "

"Separate!" you all proclaim, barely taking a breath to pause from your conversation.

And why would you? It's pretty customary to pay for your own meal, or to go Dutch.

But it wasn't always the norm to split the check when going out with friends. In fact, in early English society, it was seen as selfish to invite someone out to eat and not pay for their meal.

Say the word "exosuit" and superheroes come to mind — somebody like Tony Stark from Marvel Comics, whose fancy suit enables him to become Iron Man.

After back-to-back mass shootings, residents in one Houston suburb are demanding members of Congress finally take action to stop a deadly trend in America.

Fort Bend County is home to Sugar Land and other cities where demographics and political stripes are dramatically changing. And voters in the 22nd congressional district who have elected Republicans opposed to major gun restrictions in recent years may be considering giving a Democrat the job in 2020.