Update: This event has been rescheduled to January 17, 2019, from 4 to 7 p.m.
Washington University student activist group Title Mine has a message for the wider St. Louis community: Help us prevent sexual assault and harassment on our campus and others across the country.
The United States Department of Education released a proposal for changes to Title IX—a piece of national legislation intended to prohibit gender-based discrimination in educational settings—on November 29. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has withdrawn the 2011 “Dear Colleague Letter” for handling sexual misconduct. According to national advocacy group Know Your IX, the new regulations would change the definition of sexual harassment to be much stricter, limiting investigations to conduct that essentially completely denies a student’s ability to seek education. The changes will be legally binding, so institutions must comply with them. While the implications of Title IX include fair provision of athletic programs for male and female students, on college campuses, it is often discussed in terms of sexual assault and harassment.
“The whole point of Title IX is gender-based discrimination because you don’t want people to have a limited chance of their education based on gender,” Wash U sophomore organizer Mira Reed Twiss said. “Gender-based violence obviously falls under that because it really impacts you and your mental health, and ability to be on campus and get a good education.”
In the 2015 Association of American Universities Campus Climate survey, 22.6 percent of Wash U's female undergraduate respondents said they'd been subject to some form of nonconsensual sexual contact. This figure is on par with the national average.
The new changes would also include only incidents that occurred on campus, even though 87 percent of college students live off-campus nationally. “In the Wash U context, we know [fewer] students live off campus than in some larger universities, but the reality is that people live off campus for financial reasons, and preventing them from the resources and protection that the Title IX process affords students who are able to live on campus is really discriminatory and worrying for students of lower income,” said Wash U senior Julia Zigman.
Under the new regulations, institutions would adopt a higher standard of proof for sexual assault cases only. Both the Bush and Obama administrations recommended using “preponderance of the evidence” for sexual assault as well as incidents such as physical assault or discrimination. This administration is calling for “clear and convincing” evidence for sexual assault only. Educational adjustments such as changes in class schedules or dorm assignments would be prohibited until the student won a disciplinary hearing, which differs from the current legislation allowing academic accommodations. Another large change is that schools would be allowed to implement their own “mediation” processes instead of investigating claims of sexual assault. Know Your IX emphasizes that unregulated mediation could hinder perpetrators from taking responsibility for harm they’ve caused. Live cross-examination, which could be traumatizing to a survivor, would also be permitted.
“Wash U has been really dedicated to centering survivors’ rights with this process. Some of these regulations will make that impossible no matter how well intended Wash U is,” Reed Twiss said. “It’s kind of scary to think about, because it’s not about the university, where there are administrators I know and can go talk to if I have an issue with something. To put that up to the government level and not have any power as a student here and as an organization overall, you’re kind of bound by law.”
When such regulations are released, a “notice and comment” period opens. During this time, the Department of Education accepts public opinion on the regulations. The department must consider this input in supplying its final regulations. The 60-day period will remain open until January 28, 2019.
Title Mine wants to help people on and off Wash U’s campus let their discontent be known before it’s too late.
Title Mine was the force behind one of the largest rallies in Washington University’s history last spring. At the rally, survivors shared their stories and advocated for their rights on campus in front of hundreds of student attendees.
When the group read the new Department of Education legislation, they knew they had to spring into action—and quick. They wanted their classmates, professors, and the surrounding community to participate in the notice and comment period before heading home for the long holiday break.
Title Mine planned a comment-writing party for December 7, the last day of classes for the semester. It included hours of speakers, such as university administrators and legal experts, information about gender-based violence, and a representative from national organization Know Your IX. The university supplied catering, and as many as 80 attended.
“We decided that the best way to go forward is to mobilize as many people as possible to mount a collective response in the form of public comment,” junior organizer Luka Cai said. “We read up as much as we could about notice and comment and how activists across the country recommend that students, faculty, and staff respond. We put together this event in Tisch Commons on campus on the last day of class. Our goal is to maximize attendance and get as many people on board and mobilize as many people as possible.”
Title Mine plans to host another comment-writing party on January 17, 2019, from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Danforth University Center’s Tisch Commons at Washington University. Attendees can come for as long as they choose.
“We absolutely welcome members of the community to come,” Cai said. “I think it would help to strengthen the relationship between students and the community, and I think also community members have a unique and important perspective that we want to hear.”
The comment-writing party is four days before the end of the notice and comment period.
“This is a big opportunity,” Reed Twiss said. “It’s one area of government where you don’t have to have any title at all to have input. The government is required to read anything you write.”
Writing a comment can be simple and straightforward. Resources like Know Your IX have detailed guides for comment writing. The January 17 comment-writing party will be open to anyone—from those who have already written comments and want to polish them, to those who haven’t begun writing.
“It’s so easy to have your voice heard if you put in a little time, and it’s really worth it,” sophomore Joanna Grill said. “Because this notice and comment process makes it possible for our voices to be heard when we feel like something’s not fair, and we should take this opportunity.”
