Comments on Title IX regulations hit record
People and organizations submitted a record number of comments on Title IX regulations proposed by the Biden Administration. The Department of Education will review 240,085 comments received by the September 12 deadline before taking its next steps to revise Title IX’s regulations.
The surge in interest continues a trend in Title IX history. Before the Department of Education proposed the first Title IX regulations in 1974 to combat sex discrimination in education, notices of proposed regulations to implement laws might draw 10 comments, or maybe 400 for more controversial proposals. The draft Title IX regulations generated nearly 10,000 comments, an exceptional response in that pre-Internet era.
The final Title IX regulations adopted by the Department of Education in 1975 held fast for more than four decades. During that time the Office for Civil Rights issued many “Dear Colleague” letters with non-mandatory guidance to educational institutions on how to know when they’re complying with Title IX. The flavor of those letters varied depending on whether Republicans or Democrats occupied the executive branch of government, but the regulations stayed constant. Do certain things, a guidance letter might say, and the Office for Civil Rights will presume you’re following the Title IX regulations. If you don’t follow our guidance and we receive a complaint, we may launch an investigation. But the regulations themselves didn’t change.
Until, that is, President Donald Trump and his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos altered the game. Their proposed changes to Title IX’s regulations in 2018 drew more than 124,000 comments — more than 10 times as many as the original regulations. Most of the comments challenged the DeVos revisions as harmful, “a torrent of criticism from universities, advocacy groups, survivors of sexual assault, and campus leaders,” the Washington Post reported. But when DeVos implemented the new rules in 2020, they carried the force of law. Trump’s vision became mandatory. And DeVos became the most-sued Secretary of Education in history.
President Joe Biden vowed to improve the Title IX regulations from Trump’s version, the process now underway that has generated nearly twice as many comments as the last time. The higher numbers reflect more than feminists’ abiding interest in fair and effective Title IX rules. Conservatives’ culture war against LGBTQ people and their civil rights aims to turn out conservative voters in this election year by attacking Title IX’s protections for all students regardless of sex or gender. Their organizing generated many similarly-worded comments opposing the proposed Title IX regulations.
More interesting are the truly original comments that provide perspectives you might not read elsewhere, like suggestions from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network on how to make the regulations fairer for neurodivergent students. You can read synopses of comments from some other major organizations in news coverage by USA Today, Inside Higher Ed, Education Week, and other news outlets.
Elsewhere
Here’s the type of reporting we should be seeing about the many colleges and universities who claim to celebrate Title IX’s 50th anniversary — an exemplary piece by NorthJersey.com on the gains made for women athletes at Rutgers University and how the school still shortchanges them. Instead, we get sometimes interesting news with little context. Stanford University, for example, inducted its first group of all-women athletes to the school’s Hall of Fame. That’s lovely, but Stanford gives most of its sports positions to men despite women being a majority of students. It spends roughly twice as much to recruit men athletes compared with women and pays coaches of men’s teams two to three times more than coaches of women’s teams. And guess what: men hold all the head coach jobs for men’s teams and even half the head coach jobs for women’s teams, leaving crumbs for the women. You don’t have to take my word for it; see their annual federal report.
U.S. Antarctic research stations are rife with sexual harassment that affects academics and staff of all kinds, a National Science Foundation-commissioned report found. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a brief supporting three students who allege that Harvard University ignored sexual harassment by a professor. Meanwhile, the accused professor has returned to Harvard.
The family of a 12-year-old who killed herself following harassment based on her sexual orientation and hair loss sued the Elkhart (Ind.) Community Schools for knowing about the harassment and not following its policies to stop it. The number of U.S. colleges and universities deemed “unsafe” for LGBTQ+ people increased by five to 193 campuses on a list generated by the non-profit group Campus Pride. Bald Eagle Area High School, Bellefonte, Penn. is building a new softball field to resolve a Title IX complaint.
An excellent “Race on Campus” column in the Chronicle of Higher Education examines what healing might look like outside of the Title IX office for people of color who are survivors of sexual assault.
On the up side
Ms. Magazine bestowed a Ms. Wonder Award on Alexandra Brodsky, co-founder of Know Your IX and author of the excellent book Sexual Justice: Supporting Victims, Ensuring Due Process, and Resisting the Conservative Backlash.
Where you’ll find me
Out on the campaign trails, that’s where! Our democracy needs us right now to volunteer for canvassing, phone banking, poll working, and generally getting out the vote for the November 8 elections. Could you contact three friends this week to make sure they have plans to vote? I’ll be volunteering in New Hampshire. Other than that, look for me here:
Wednesday, October 19, 2022, 1:00-2:30 p.m. Central — The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Women in Law hosts an online conversation with me as part of their “Ex Libris” authors series.
Friday, October 28, 2022, 9 a.m. Central — I’ll be an in-person panelist at Northwestern University’s three-day conference, “Title IX at 50: Past. Present. Future?”
November 12, 2022 — I’m looking forward to two appearances at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in Minneapolis. Join me first at a 9:30 a.m. panel on “Women’s Politics: Finding a Way Out of No Way,” and then at a Feminist Author Showcase at 1:15 p.m. Central time.
February 2023 — I’ll speak at Iowa State University’s Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics in Ames, Iowa. Stay tuned for details.
*** Would you like to set up an in-person or Zoom session with me for your organization or book club? Reach me through my Contact page.***
The Nation magazine published an excerpt from my chapter 5, which introduces Title IX’s application by the movement against sexual violence. I published an article in the Washington Post’s Made by History section, this one on “The true mother of Title IX. And why it matters now more than ever.” The Christian Science Monitor included 37 Words in two articles — a cover storyon “Title IX at 50” and a sidebar examining the racial gap among women athletes in colleges. The Smithsonian Magazine quoted me and my book in its article about Title IX. The Guardianmentioned 37 Words prominently in its story on the history of Title IX. Read about the Supreme Court’s history of curtailing Title IX and other civil rights laws in my article in The Washington Post Made by History section.
You can watch a panel about Title IX with me, basketball great Allison Hightower, and Prof. Sara Fields hosted by Tel Aviv University on July 10, 2022 at a conference on women and sport. The Post News Group highlighted 37 Words and one of the three main people the book profiles — civil rights attorney Pamela Price. Women’s Running quoted my book in “A look at LGBTQ Athletes’ Fight for Protections Under Title IX.” The Washington Monthly gave 37 Words a fine review — check it out. The Wall Street Journal published a review of my book and I wrote a Letter to the Editor correcting some misinformation in that review.
Here are links to order your copy of my book 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination (The New Press, 2022).
#TitleIX #37Words #TitleIX50th
