KATHERINE HAZEN ‘18
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Last week, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos officially announced that during her tenure she will rewrite campus sexual assault rules, which are in large part defined by a set of 2011 regulations from the Obama administration. While it has been thought that she would make a move on this for quite some time, especially given the fact she was meeting with groups representing falsely-accused students along with victim’s rights group earlier this summer, the news is nonetheless jarring, especially as a victim with my own case pending in the department’s Office of Civil Rights.
For the time being, Title IX in its current form is the law of the land, meaning cases will still be decided under the “preponderance of evidence” standard, and colleges still have to adhere to the guidelines set forth in 2011. These standards and regulations provide an important albeit imperfect framework to protect victims of sexual violence and shame colleges into adherence.
However, Secretary DeVos wants to give more rights to the accused, whom she says have not been given their “due process” in the “kangaroo courts” colleges have created.
A college degree is a privilege, not a right: it should not be far easier to punish or expel a student for plagiarism than for rape or assault. Secretary DeVos and her head of OCR Candice Jackson – who fell into hot water after casting doubt on “90 percent” of accusations in The New York Times this summer – have made it abundantly clear they have no interest in protecting students from sexual violence.
Where our federal government will not protect us, we have to look to the state government and the Smith administration. State Senator Michael O. Moore, D-Millbury, introduced legislation earlier this year that would keep in place those protections – including the “preponderance of evidence” standard – for public and private institutions in Massachusetts. If you live or are registered to vote in Massachusetts, pressure your representatives to pass this legislation.
While I understand the Smith administration cannot possibly react to every troubling piece of news out of Washington, every rollback of Obama-era policy, I found the silence on last week’s Title IX news especially troubling – representatives of other universities responded within hours to DeVos’s speech, reiterating their commitment to a healthy campus culture and taking claims seriously. Students, parents and alumnae should demand answers to whether students will be protected should Secretary DeVos get her way.
Last week, I had the privilege to join a conference call of organizations like End Rape on Campus, Know Your IX, It’s On Us and so on, during which former Vice President Joe Biden spoke at length (really, he went on an incredibly long and passionate rant) about the power of shame politics and what we can each do to pressure our representatives and universities into action. If you marched in January, it was just the warm-up – now is the time to get out your mattresses and red tape, Smith.
The Department of Education is currently accepting public comment on the matter.
