Higher education institutions will be required to revert back to or maintain the Title IX policies established under President Donald Trump’s first presidency, following a mandate from the U.S. Department of Education.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter, the Department of Education announced the government would be enforcing the 2020 Title IX rule that limits the definition of “sex” to male and female. This opposes the 2024 changes Joe Biden had attempted to adopt that expanded the policy to be more inclusive to members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Biden’s adjustment to the policy would have expanded the definition of discrimination to include exclusion or harassment due to one’s gender identity and sexual orientation.
As a private institution receiving federal funding, the University of Miami is required to comply with Title IX regulations. But, because Florida joined in an initial lawsuit against Biden’s rewrite, the policy was on hold for the state and never adopted at the University of Miami. The Education Department’s announcement guarantees Biden’s policy will not be enacted at UM.
“This puts transgender and LGBTQIA+ individuals at more of a risk and makes them far more vulnerable,” said Nicole Kujas, the membership co-coordinator of It’s on Us, a student ambassador program at UM bringing educating students on sexual misconduct. “They’re already more vulnerable to sexual assault and sexual harassment, and it lessens their protection.”
The Trump administration revision, written by former Education Secretary Betsey DeVos in 2018 and enacted in 2020, will once again limit schools’ liability in sexual misconduct cases and require live hearings where accusers and the accused of misconduct would be allowed to cross-examine one another through an advisor or lawyer. It will provide more protections for individuals accused of sexual assault, providing a presumption of innocence for those students.
Kujas said the reverted Title IX policies “can potentially discourage students from reporting their sexual harassment, as it may cause them to be fearful of having to encounter their assaulter in a live setting.”
It’s on Us believes that changes to Title IX demonstrate the need to continually bring attention to and educate students on sexual misconduct topics on college campuses.
Title IX, which was enacted in 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding.
In the more than 50 years since its enactment, Title IX’s enforcement has evolved in regards to how schools handle cases of sexual harassment and assault.
Prior to the announcement from the DOE, a federal judge in Kentucky blocked Biden’s rule from taking effect. The judge determined that the increased transgender students’ protections were unconstitutional, which stopped the enforcement of the revisions.
In response, the Department of Education, under the Trump administration, mandated that all federally funded educational institutions return to the Title IX policies implemented during Trump’s first presidency.
The revision on Jan. 31 also narrows the definition of sexual harassment to mean conduct that is “subjectively and objectively offensive and is so severe or pervasive that it limits or denies a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the recipient’s education program or activity.”
It’s a problematic approach, Kujas explained.
“One of the most concerning parts is that sexual harassment and assault look differently on different people, and it shouldn’t have to be ‘so severe and pervasive’ to be considered sexual harassment.”
The letter also states that the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights answers to President Trump, because “he alone controls and supervises subordinate officers who exercise discretionary executive power on his behalf.”
Ongoing sexual misconduct investigations will be “immediately reoriented to comport fully with the requirements of the 2020 Title IX Rule,” according to the “Dear Colleague” Letter. This would require investigations to potentially obtain a higher standard of proof, known as “clear and convincing evidence” of sexual misconduct, as outlined in DeVos’s rules.