Take Action Today - #INeedIX

For decades, Title IX has protected students from sexual misconduct in learning institutions. Now, the safety and well-being of students are at stake.

Title IX, passed in 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination, which includes sexual harassment and sexual assault (Suk, 2020). In 2011, amidst a prevalence of sexual misconduct on campuses and activism in response to schools’ neglect, the Obama administration issued the “Dear Colleague Letter.” The letter told schools to “take immediate action to eliminate the harassment, prevent its recurrence, and address its effects.” More concretely, the letter instructed schools to use the “preponderance of evidence” standard (greater than fifty percent chance that a claim is true) rather than a higher standard to determine whether an incident of sexual misconduct occurred.

On May 6, 2020, the Trump administration issued regulations on Title IX, which imposed new legal requirements on how schools operate cases (Suk, 2020). These regulations include (but are not limited to) the following:

Schools must dismiss any complaints of sexual misconduct that occur outside of campus-controlled buildings and/or educational activities (The State of Title IX, n.d.). This means that Title IX cannot cover any incidents of sexual assault, harassment, intimate partner violence, or assault that occur in off-campus housing, although 84.4% of students live off campus.

Colleges must allow live cross-examination by the ‘representative’ of each party’s choosing. This means that survivors can be cross-examined by someone chosen to represent their perpetrator (i.e. parent, friend, lawyer). This regulation increases the risk of retraumatization for survivors (The State of Title IX, n.d.).

There is no more 60-day requirement for investigations without providing an alternative. This means that schools can drag survivors through lengthy, overwhelming investigations without reason. This regulation also increases the risk of retraumatization for survivors (The State of Title IX, n.d.).

Mediation is allowed in cases of sexual assault, rape, dating violence, and domestic violence. This means that informal resolutions may take place with consent from both parties. The alternative to the standard process may sound nice, but this often means a lack of accountability from perpetrators. This also provides an outlet for perpetrators to take advantage of survivors, which of course, increases the risk of retraumatization (The State of Title IX, n.d.).

These regulations have adversely impacted survivors. A 2021 survey found that 39 percent of survivors who reported sexual misconduct to their schools experienced a substantial disruption in their education (The Cost of Reporting: Perpetrator Retaliation, Institutional Betrayal, and Student Survivor Pushout, 2021). Specifically, 27 percent took a leave of absence, 20 percent transferred schools, and about 10 percent dropped out entirely. These are effects of not only sexual misconduct, but of schools’ failure to respond.

The Biden administration has proposed new Title IX regulations to be finalized in May, which would protect nonbinary and transgender students, expand the definition of sexual harassment, protect pregnant and parenting students, remove the requirement of live hearings, and promote the “preponderance of evidence” standard in determining the outcome of most sexual misconduct cases (Jimenez, 2023).

This is where we come in. The Biden administration is at risk of missing their rapidly approaching deadline. KnowYourIX, a survivor- and youth-led project of Advocates of Youth, has launched the #INeedIX campaign—a way for all survivors, allies, and community members to take action (Jiminez, 2023). Click the follow link to write a letter to the Biden administration pushing them to finalize their proposed changes: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/i-need-ix-from-biden-now

Sources:

The Cost of Reporting: Perpetrator Retaliation, Institutional Betrayal, and Student Survivor Pushout. (2021). Know Your IX.

Jimenez, K. (2023, February 8). Biden administration will release new Title IX rules in May. What to expect. USA Today.

The State of Title IX. (n.d.). Know Your IX.

Suk, J. (2020, May 16). How Concerning Are the Trump Administration's New Title IX Regulations? The New Yorker.

What is Title IX? | Sexual Misconduct | University of Illinois Chicago. (n.d.). University of Illinois Chicago.