New federal changes to Title IX policy regarding sexual assault will call for disciplinary hearings, the possibility of cross examination of the complainant and accused and will only cover cases that occur on-campus.
On Aug. 14, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education implemented its new Title IX guidelines for sexual harassment. While Title IX itself is a set of civil rights regulations regarding discrimination based on sex in education dating back to 1972, later Supreme Court decisions ruled that sexual harrassment and assault are forms of sex discrimination.
The rules call for live disciplinary hearings for sexual assault cases that occur on campus, in which the complainant and the accused both have the right to an advisor who can cross-examine the other party in a trial-like setting, with a Title IX panel ruling on the case.
U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos argued that this new rule would protect students falsely accused of sexual misconduct, as she believed previous rules were biased towards victims or false accusers. Studies from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center suggest that between 2-8 percent of sexual assault reports are false allegations.
“Both the responding and the complainant get support, which is fine,” Vice President of Administration and Finance Abigail Rider said. “I mean, that that doesn’t strike me as being either a problem or difficult to do.”
Additionally, Title IX complaints will only cover sexual harassment that occurs on-campus, not in off-campus housing or study abroad programs.
For the University of Rhode Island, Rider said that students who face sexual harassment off-campus will now need to report it to the the to Dean of Students or Office of Community Standards student conduct office instead of the Title IX office. Previously, students who were assaulted off campus could file a complaint through the Title IX office.
After the conduct charge is reviewed by a conduct officer, the case will be discussed and investigated. Depending on the case, it may be referred to the conduct board or require an administrative hearing.
“The big change is really in the process,” Rider said. “Because these regulations address exactly how we’re supposed to hold Title IX hearings; it’s very prescriptive. So we’ve done all the work to make sure that we’ve changed our process so that if something falls on your timeline, it goes through this exact process.”
Last year, there were 37 complaints involving sexual misconduct filed during the University’s 2019-2020 academic year, according to Larsen. Four of these complaints went to hearing.
According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest Network (RAINN), only 8 percent of all sexual assault cases occur in schools. However, students may still face harassment in other places and from other students. Yet if it’s not on University property, it is not covered by Title IX under the new guidance.
“One of the major things that they did was to really refine what is called the jurisdiction of Title IX,” Kara Larsen, URI’s Title IX coordinator said. “They geographically limited it to educational programs or activities under the control of the University and within the United States, so no longer will Title IX apply to study abroad programs, things like that; it effectively limits the scope to on-campus.”
Rhianna Eleck, president of Feminists at URI, argued that the new regulations belittled the concerns of victims of sexual assault, and put the burden of proof on them instead of their abuser. She explained that this contributes to rape culture, a socialogical concept that describes an atmosphere where sexual violence is promoted.
“I’m not the biggest fan,” Eleck said of the new guidance. “I think that it kind of is not protecting survivors in the way it should be and it treats people who are accused as always innocent, which is really promoting rape culture if we’re not believing survivors. The cross examination of survivors could be very traumatic, especially if it was very recent. These changes aren’t going to be seen positively, especially off-campus.”
The new rules significantly narrow the definition of sexual assault compared to Obama-era guidelines, with the complainant needing to prove that the incident was “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive.” However, Rider said that the University of Rhode Island will still hold students to the same standard of evidence of assault.
“The standard of evidence is unchanged,” Rider said. “It’s [the] preponderance of the evidence. Basically what the new regulations say is that you just have to use the same standard for everyone, which we’re going to do.”