In 1972, then president Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments Act into law, establishing the now familiar clause that prohibits universities who receive federal funding from discrimination under the basis of sex for any university affiliated program.
According to the NCAA, discriminations prohibited by Title IX can be defined as rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment, as well as making sure men’s and women’s sports teams are entitled to the same quality of equipment and facilities.
In theory, Title IX effectively equalizes the playing field for men’s and women’s sports teams, but as with any action that elicits an equal and opposite reaction, something must give. Under Title IX it can be argued that male athletes and students have been at risk of losing their right to due process under quasi-legal campus courts and amateur investigations.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released what is known as a “Dear Colleague” letter to universities reminding them of their responsibilities to take “immediate and effective action” in response to sexual assault and harassment cases. Since this letter has since been rescinded by current United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, it has set a precedence for harmful lasting effects of Title IX that the framers of the Education Amendments Act never intended.
Under the Dear Colleague letter of 2011, an individual accused of sexual assault or harassment could be found guilty if campus investigators were at least 51 percent sure of the validity of the charges, a simple “preponderance of the evidence” as reported by the New York Times in a September 2017 article.
While the Dear Colleague letter of 2011 was well-meaning, a sentiment shared by Betsy DeVos according to ED.gov, universities should not shoulder the responsibility of investigating accusations typically withheld for a court of law and licensed investigators. With mediocre means, one would expect mediocre results. The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Title IX investigation tracker reports 502 cases of government investigation regarding university mishandling of reports of sexual violence under Title IX.
These facts build up to an issue that has been ongoing since 1972. So just how should one go about resolving such discrepancies in true equality presented by Title IX? The first step to creating a better system was the rescinding of the Office for Civil Rights’ 2011 Dear Colleague letter. A move in the right direction would be to limit the role of the campus itself in deciding guilt of an accused student, and instead leave the responsibility to law enforcement officials, with the campus only dealing with punishments if the accused is to be found guilty.