Education Dept. Defends Its Approach to Title IX in Face of Senate Pressure

February 19, 2016

Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, has accused the Education Department of overreach in pressuring colleges to fight sexual discrimination to comply with Title IX. [Lankford]said the department’s 2010 and 2011 guidance letter on sexual violence have been decried by “legal scholars and academics across the political spectrum” as pressuring colleges to take steps that threaten students’ free-speech and due-process rights. Catherine E. Lhamon, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, defended her agency’s action and it appears to set the stage for a clash between the Education Department and the Senate over the department’s powers.

chronicle.com By Peter Schmidt