IT FIGURES
by James A. Baumann
C
olleges and universities are experienced in pivoting as policies and practices change when administrations – whether at the federal, state, or campus level – get new leadership. Across the past decade in the United States, the issue that perhaps most epitomizes this vacillation is Title IX.
The federal law, which states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” experienced its most recent twist in March when President Biden issued an executive order directing the Department of Education to review rules from the Trump administration that gave added protection to anyone accused of sexual harassment or assault on a campus. These changes came after the administration had already withdrawn the Title IX guidance issued by Obama’s administration, which had, among other items, directed campuses to adopt a lower “preponderance of evidence” standard when determining if sexual assault had occurred.
Campuses have watched this back-and-forth through the years. The Obama administration first offered new guidance in 2011 and again in 2014 as part of a highly visible campaign to reduce campus sexual violence. The ACUHO-I Public Policy Advisory Committee has also been watching reports and tracking campus trends. Recently the group conducted a straw poll, a survey administered between January 19 and 29, 2021, which collected data from 162 institutions on the ways in which the 2020 revisions to Title IX rules affected their housing operations. By and large, colleges and universities did not make any dramatic shifts with the new rules. Committee chair Terry Tumbarello, the director of residence life at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, noted as one example that almost every surveyed campus reported back that they made no changes to considering professional or paraprofessional live-in staff as being “responsible employees” (or mandated reporters), even though the new guidelines permitted them to do so. And, when asked if training protocols had been changed in regards to the new regulations, only 24.7% reported “yes” while 48.8% said “no” and 26.5% were unsure.
The immediate future of Title IX enforcement is unclear. The rules from the Trump administration remain the letter of the law, and Brett Sokolow, president of the Association of Title IX Administrators, says new rules might not be completed for years. Still, the poll results show that on the vast majority of campuses, even if an incident currently is not considered a Title IX violation, it still is being handled through already existing campus policies. Asked for an example, Tumbarello noted that "the most common example mentioned in this regard centers around the changes to the definition of what constitutes sexual harassment. Now, behavior that is clearly inappropriate and needs to be addressed, but doesn’t meet the standards for it to be considered a Title IX case, will need to be addressed through a campus's code of conduct."
Vagueness around some aspects of Title IX is nothing new. Sokolow noted on the ATIXA Facebook page, “We’ve seen such uncertainty before, from 2017 to 2020, as the previous administration completed the regulatory process. Then, the education field was left in limbo, unclear of what to do and uncertain of when new rules would take effect.” What is clear is that it will remain important to campus housing departments. "Based on the responses it is clear that our live-in housing and residence life professionals, along with their RA staffs, play a critical role in the sexual misconduct reporting process for colleges and universities," says Tumbarello. "Given an open door to remove the mandatory reporter piece to their positions, very few chose to do so. It is uncertain the exact impact the pandemic has had on students' reporting of sexual misconduct this academic year, so it is difficult to clearly assess how much of an effect, if any, the new regulations have had on students reporting; however, many members indicated anecdotally they believed this to be true. Our colleagues across the nation had to pivot to change protocols, training, procedures, and information disseminated to students in regards to sexual misconduct complaints. Not surprisingly, we did so, even given everything else that was expected of housing and residence life staff this academic year."
James A. Baumann is editor in chief of the Talking Stick.
