Letter to the Hon. Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, and the Hon. Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management and Budget - Gillibrand, McCaskill Call On Betsy Devos And Trump Administration To Delay Releasing Any New Title IX Rule Until Meeting With Sexual Assault Survivors

Letter

Dear Secretary DeVos and Director Mulvaney,

We write today to express our concern regarding recent reports that the U.S. Department of Education ("Department") intends to move forward with a proposed rule to rollback long-fought protections for victims of sexual assault at educational institutions. We are deeply concerned that the release of this proposed rule is contrary to the efforts of previous Administrations and individual institutions who have sought to provide protections to victims of sexual assault and harassment, and to ensure educational institutions properly investigate all complaints of sexual misconduct. All students deserve a safe and healthy educational environment, yet the number of sexual assaults at educational institutions remains unacceptably high.

Under current federal law, all institutions of higher education must protect students from sexual harassment, assault, and similar offenses. These institutions must also publicly disclose and promptly investigate sexual assaults when they occur. However, independent studies have found that sexual assaults and similar crimes are widely underreported. The Department's Office for Civil Rights, which enforces and investigates all violations of Title IX on college campuses, has warned that too many colleges fail to meet their obligations to prevent and address sexual assaults.

According to reports however, the proposed rule will weaken protections for survivors of sexual assault and place additional burdens on survivors by not requiring investigations into off-campus incidences of sexual assault and harassment and abandoning the requirement that institutions have an appeals process. We are also concerned by reports that the proposed rule will require adoption of an extremely narrow definition of sexual harassment that has previously been reserved for repeated complaints or particularly egregious allegations. Adoption of this narrow definition will likely end up limiting the number of complaints that meet the standard of sexual misconduct, affecting the assistance available to students in need and restricting schools' reporting requirements.

These concerns are further exacerbated by reports that the proposed rule has been developed with limited input from sexual violence survivor organizations and institutions who have voluntarily implemented changes to improve their responses to complaints of sexual assault, harassment, and misconduct. We are concerned that without robust engagement from key stakeholders, the Department's proposed rule will make it more difficult to hold institutions accountable for fully investigating all claims of sexual assault, harassment, and misconduct and ensuring that all students have a safe learning environment.

Sexual misconduct and violence at educational institutions is a serious matter that can result in a severe negative physical and psychological impact on victims. We urge you to take the necessary steps to ensure that any proposed rule upholds the civil rights protections for survivors of sexual harassment and assault while holding institutions accountable for student safety. Further, we request that you delay the release of the proposed rule until your offices have fully engaged with and taken into account the perspective of all stakeholders. This input is critical to ensuring that any proposed rules regarding Title IX takes into account the needs of survivors and provides clear, streamlined information to institutions to fully investigate and respond to, and prevent future misconduct from taking place.

Sincerely,

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