STUDY: Colleges Ignore DeVos’ 2017 TitleIX Guidance. Stay w Obama-Era 2011 Guidelines
Betsy DeVos’s Education Department was busy this time last year. Her team crafted a message, and a temporary fix, for the anti-due process Obama era Title IX guidelines. Obama’s 2011 guidelines pressured colleges and universities to adjudicate sexual misconduct claims internally and, as was increasingly apparent in the years that followed, too often inefficiently and unfairly. Last July, DeVos held an emotional summit. Students falsely accused of sexual assault presented a case for reform or rescission of the existing federal guidance. Last September DeVos rescinded Obama’s “Dear Colleague” letter, (that never went through Congress’ mandated notice-and-comment period.) To replace it, her team gave administrators the option to adjust their procedures: Schools could use a slightly tougher standard of proof and a longer decision deadline if they chose. DeVos also promised a proper notice-and-comment process before issuing any binding guidance down the road.
More than three-fourths of the college officials recently surveyed by the consultancy firm APCO Worldwide said they had no intention to alter their internal policies on sexual misconduct. Of the 100 general counsels and communications officials who responded 64 said that they would ignore DeVos’s request for input as to what sort of binding policy should replace the rescinded guidance. Only 8 percent said they viewed her proposed changes positively.
Prominent Title IX consultants and attorneys have long predicted the resistance to change that the survey reveals. “That’s what I’ve been saying all along,” said Title IX attorney Andrew Miltenberg. “I think this is an issue that we’re not going to be able to legislate away.”
weeklystandard.com By Alice Lloyd
