37 Words published, in top 100 lists
The New Press published 37 Words this week, and early copies have been arriving for the past week to those who pre-ordered the book. It’s in the top 100 books by sales in three categories on Amazon: federal education legislation; gender and the law, and educational law and legislation law. You can watch and hear me describe the book, and the people and movements that it contains, in a virtual discussion this week with Kenyora Parham, executive director of End Rape on Campus.
I also had a stimulating public conversation at the Norwich Bookstore on my publication day with Kate Rohdenburg, program manager for WISE, a non-profit organization that’s leading the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont to end gender-based violence. Both WISE and Title IX are 50 years old this year! Listen to a podcast about the beginnings of WISE here. And if you don’t mind the fact that the screen is sideways in the first four minutes of the video of our event, you can watch the rest of the conversation here.
To celebrate my book launch, I’m offering to donate to either of these fine groups if you buy the book before May 1. Send a screenshot of your book receipt to titleixbook@gmail.com and mention either EROC or WISE and I’ll donate 20% of the cost of the book. Better yet, donate $100 to EROC (through Civic Nation) or $100 to WISE and forward the receipt and your mailing address, and I’ll send you a book!
And if you read the book and like it, please post a review on Amazon or GoodReads and give it a shout-out on social media. Thanks!
Elsewhere
A summary of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act includes many important facets. The one that caught my eye is the creation of a Task Force that will explore, among other things, the possibility of levying intermediate fines for not complying with Title IX. Under Title IX itself, there seems to be only the possibility of withholding all federal funds from an educational institution that violates Title IX — a “nuclear option” so severe that the Office for Civil Rights avoids it. This could be a game changer.
The cascade of anti-LGBTQ laws is setting up a showdown between state politicians who don’t want the federal government telling them that they can’t discriminate and federal officials whose job it is to protect citizens’ rights. Here’s a pretty good summary.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) forced out a famous biologist for his sexual harassment. Students at Louisiana State University say the former chair of the French Department should not be allowed to teach while being investigated for allegedly mishandling complaints of sexual assault. In other news, Louisiana State University suspended Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity for hazing and kidnap and assault of a member. You may remember in the documentary The Hunting Ground that SAE is known commonly as the “Sexual Assault Expected” fraternity.
The U.S. Department of Justice is interviewing students at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio about possible Title IX violations there. An in-depth investigation by the student newspaper at Ohio State University exposed how university officials publicly claimed neutrality but lobbied behind the scenes against legislation that potentially would have helped hundreds of victims sexually assaulted by a university doctor. And if you like in-depth journalism, ESPN wrote an epic story about a violent sexual predator on Pennsylvania State’s football team helped by disgraced former coach Joe Paterno.
A Virginia college is the second educational institution to say it will not accept transfers from athletes who have been found responsible for sexual violence. In South Carolina, a jury awarded $5.3 million to a former Clemson University student who said two classmates and the father of one of the classmates conspired to defame him over unsupported allegations of sexual misconduct. A judge rejected a former Dartmouth Medical School student’s request to force the university to readmit him after he was expelled for allegedly sexually assaulting his roommate.
Chino Valley Unified School District in Southern California agreed to make some changes after the federal Office for Civil Rights found that district officials failed to deal with sexual harassment by members of an athletics team.
On the up side
Yale University made a change that should help not only victims of sexual harassment and violence but other students who may be struggling: If they leave mid-semester due to physical or mental health burdens, it will be easier (and less costly!) to return to Yale when they’re ready.
The U.S. State Department will host an online event about equity in athletics featuring tennis legend Billie Jean King, documentary maker Dawn Porter, and others on Monday, April 18 at 12 noon ET.
Where you’ll find me
April 21, 7 p.m. ET — A virtual get-together with the Washington, D.C. chapter of NOW. RSVP here.
May 26, 6:30 p.m. PT — A virtual get-together with the Riverside, Calif. chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
June 9, 7 p.m. PT — Join me and Lucy Jane Bledsoe, author of the new Young Adult novel No Stopping Us Now, at a virtual event hosted by Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco.
June 23, 3:00-4:30 p.m. ET — It’s Title IX’s 50th birthday! I’ll be Zooming with members of the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA) to celebrate. Read details here. And watch a 30-second promo video with moi here.
The Washington Monthly gave 37 Words a fine review — check it out!
The New York Historical Society’s Center for Women’s History & Academic Affairs posted a discussion with me and some of the earliest Title IX activists, available on YouTube.
If you registered for the American Historical Association 2022 conference, you can watch a video that will be available through June of our panel session on “Fifty Years of Title IX: Evolutions in the Struggle Against Sex Discrimination in Education.”
The Nation magazine published an excerpt from my chapter 5.
