Joi Dean, Advocates for Youth
In 2020, Betsy DeVos rescinded former President Obama's 2011 Title IX guidance and released the "final Title IX rule" which contained several regressive changes to Title IX legislation that severely limited the rights of survivors. Here are the following changes she made to Title IX (KnowyourIX.org):
Schools must dismiss any complaints of sexual misconduct that occur outside of campus-controlled buildings and/or educational activities. This means that sexual violence, including sexual assaults, harassment, intimate partner violence, and stalking that happens during study abroad or in off-campus housing is not covered under Title IX. With 84.4% percent of students living off campus nationally and rates of assault an estimated five times higher in study abroad programs, this change was extremely harmful.
Colleges must allow live cross-examination by the ‘representative’ of each party’s choosing. This means survivors can be cross-examined by their rapists’ parents, friends, fraternity brothers, or sorority sisters greatly increasing the risk of re-traumatization.
The new rule allows schools to drag students through lengthy and burdensome investigations without reason. The final rule removes the previous 60-day requirement for investigations without providing an alternative. Prior to previous guidance—and Education Department oversight—schools frequently drew investigations out for months or even a full year. Schools forced survivors to undergo an unnecessarily lengthy, traumatic process that often led to survivors dropping out of an investigation, or out of school entirely. Neither survivors nor respondents deserve to have an unnecessarily long investigation disrupt their education.
The definition of sexual harassment is narrowed to include only instances that are severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive. By raising the bar this high, the rule is functionally preventing survivors from accessing justice and telling countless survivors that their experiences are not valid.
Mediation is allowed in cases of sexual assault, rape, dating violence, and domestic violence. Informal resolutions are allowed on a voluntary basis by both parties, a process that was not permitted under previous guidance. The lack of accountability in mediation will worsen the already imbalanced power dynamic between survivors and perpetrators. Career mediators agree that mediation should not be used in instances of gender-based violence as it has the potential to further traumatize survivors.
Religiously-affiliated institutions can claim a Title IX exemption even after they are charged with discrimination. Religious schools have no obligation to inform their students whether they are still adhering to Title IX and can be exempt without submitting a waiver to the Department of Education. This means that students at religious schools are being stripped of their rights without any notice of it.
This policy greatly reduces a school’s obligation to act against sexual harassment. Schools are shielded from liability provided they are not shown to be ‘deliberately indifferent’. Raising the liability standard for schools that ignore sexual violence removes accountability, allowing schools to claim they weren’t aware of the violence occurring
You can only file a complaint against someone who attends your university. This means that if you are assaulted at the school across the street, you have no right to open a Title IX complaint against that person on your campus. This will force students to turn to law enforcement or additional legal routes to ensure that their perpetrator will be held accountable and will cause no further harm.
Know Your IX and activists around the country have already won key victories by flooding the Department of Education with comments. The removal of attacks on the Preponderance of Evidence standard and inclusion of supportive measures even for students whose cases don’t fit updated definitions of harassment is evidence that our organizing works.
President Biden signed an executive order on March 8th, 2021 giving his administration a 100-day timeline to review and amend Betsy DeVos's harmful ruling. At the end of 2023, Biden's Department of Education has still not released finalized Title IX regulations that reverse the harm DeVos caused. Title IX activists have continued to advocate for progressive changes to be made to Title IX and have ultimately been disappointed by the decisions of President Biden. Draft policies were released in April 2023 that kept several regressive measures including allowing institutions to bar transgender students from competing in athletics. The Biden Administration has still not finalized any Title IX rule and has continued to delay the process so activists are continuing to maintain pressure on the administration to finalize their new ruling before the next election cycle.
Learn more at: https://knowyourix.org/college-resources/hands-off-ix/