Harvard College has been implicated in a federal complaint alleging the Ivy League school violated Title IX in not adequately responding to reports of sexual assault.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity with the Huffington Post, the two lead complainants said they are part of a group filing the complaint. The U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) received the complaint Friday and will decide whether or not to launch an investigation soon.

Title IX, a federal gender equity law, requires schools to discipline sexual discrimination, which includes assault and harassment.

Included in the complaint are testimonials from 10 sexual assault victims at Harvard as well as interviews conducted by student activist group Our Harvard Can Do Better.

"For survivors seeking support, the first person they go to talk to determines a lot of their knowledge for the rights they have," Our Harvard founder Kate Sim told the HP.

The complaint alleges that a Harvard official told one victim who happened to be a woman of color that "It's in your culture that men are gropey."

Just like the dozens of federal complaints before it, one of the complainants alleged the school did not follow through on enforcing a disciplinary action. She said she received a no-contact order against her assailant, but he still ended up working in the building where the both of them lived. What's more is the complainant said he was the building manager in charge of keys and resident information.

Another member of the federal complaint recently published an anonymous firsthand piece detailing the fallout of her attack.

"I developed an anxiety disorder shortly after moving back to my House this fall, and running into my assailant up to five times a day certainly did not help my recovery," she wrote.

Harvard spokesman Jeff Neal said the school administration has not yet seen the complaint, but could not comment on an ongoing legal matter.

"However, Harvard, as a University and as a community, takes the issue of sexual harassment and sexual violence extremely seriously," he said in a statement to the HP. "In recent years, we have created the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response; appointed the first-ever University Title IX officer; identified and trained Title IX coordinators at the College, as well as the other Harvard Schools; and undertaken a review of all Title IX policies and procedures. Work towards implementing a new, University-wide Title IX policy and set of procedures is nearing its completion."

Harvard president Drew Faust announced Thursday a task force devoted to improving the school's sexual misconduct policies.

Related