Trump’s changes to Title IX are still impacting college survivors

Amid the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic nearly three years ago, former President Trump’s administration released its long-awaited changes to Title IX regulations. The new set of regulations from the Department of Education — 2,033 pages added to the simple one sentence that encompasses Title IX — set back the rights of survivors by miles.

With Trump’s 26 sexual assault allegations, this comes as no surprise.

Title IX is a federal law that states “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.”

Essentially, Title IX exists to hold schools accountable for maintaining a level of conduct that does not allow for sex-based discrimination, a large part of which falls under the categories of harassment and assault — especially on college campuses.

The first barrier to survivors is the sheer length of the regulations — thousands of pages of legal jargon are difficult enough for lawyers and lawmakers, let alone a student just trying to understand their rights. By comparison, former President Obama’s regulations were only 53 pages, making them infinitely more readable.

Accessibility matters, and not just to survivors themselves, but to the advocates who fight for their right to be heard. To report, one needs to know whether or not what happened to them is reportable, and 2,033 pages is a behemoth of an obstacle to overcome.

The new rule also changed the very definition of what constitutes sexual harassment, stipulating that actions must be “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive” in order to qualify. If you have ever seen the comments on an article or post about harassment, you will know that almost nothing is “objectively offensive.”

Advocates battled for years trying to get people to understand that sexual harassment is a serious issue, only to have the protection of federal law taken away from them. Universities are no longer required to investigate any offense that does not meet this standard, leaving many survivors with nowhere to turn.

Universities are now only required to investigate any occurrences that occur on campus or at a university-sanctioned student organization’s house, such as a sorority or fraternity house. This change means that off-campus residences are not included, nor are disaffiliated fraternity houses. However, according to the Rape, Abuse and National Network, only 8% of assaults occur on a school campus. Once again, the policy vastly limits what offenses are even required to be investigated by Title IX.

This was intentional. TIME writer and sociologist Nicole Bedera wrote in a 2020 article that, “in the included financial analysis of the new rule, it is estimated that the rate of investigations will drop so sharply that it will collectively save universities $189 million per year.”

And these are only the most egregious changes, so why hasn’t Biden changed them yet?

In his campaign for presidency in May 2020, President Biden said, “It will be put to a quick end in January 2021, because as President, I’ll be right where I always have been throughout my career — on the side of survivors, who deserve to have their voices heard, their claims taken seriously and investigated, and their rights upheld.”

This was only one month after the New York Times published its investigation of Tara Reade and seven other women’s sexual assault and harassment allegations against Biden himself. His motives for a swift response are clear, if not necessarily sincere.

However, these things work at the pace of bureaucratic turtles, as Biden’s administration took 17 months just to propose new rules. When Trump’s administration made the changes, they were proposed in 2018 and did not go into effect until 2020.

While for some, these new rules were not as comprehensive as they would have liked, others found them too comprehensive. The proposal decreased the threshold of what is considered sexual harassment, expanded protection from harassment to gender identity and sexuality, requiring universities to investigate off-campus incidents as well and more.

With more than 4 million students across the country estimated to have experienced sexual assault or harassment at school since those regulations were proposed, survivors can’t wait any longer. But, here we are, almost two years later. Still waiting.

Biden’s proposal stipulated its “Final Action” date to be “05/00/23,” meaning sometime this May, so theoretically, we won’t be waiting much longer. Hopefully, this means that regulations will go into effect for the next school year beginning in August — although I’m not sure how trustworthy government deadlines are.