Reemphasizing Title IX

This Monday, the White House issued new guidelines for combatting sexual assault on college campuses. The guidelines were released by a task force that President Barack Obama convened this January after a string of high publicized rapes on college campuses. The recent guidelines are a much-needed update to Title IX, the portion of the Education Amendments passed in 1972 that holds universities accountable for ensuring a campus environment free of gender discrimination.

The new guidelines correctly focus on the role that both school and government administrators should play in addressing campus rape. While prosecution of attackers should remain a priority, we should not deny the important role universities can play in creating a culture of safety for its students. The study notes that, at the present time, many universities do a poor job of disseminating helpful information to survivors of sexual assault. Eastern Michigan University, for example, was fined for failing to inform its student body that a female student was sexually assaulted and killed.  This problem should be simple to fix, and the fact that it hasn’t been lends insult to injury.

We also commend the president’s task force for focusing on sharing best practices between colleges. Specifically, the guidelines have cited bystander awareness policies being implemented at the University of New Hampshire and University of Kentucky as examples to follow. The government also launched a website, NotAlone.gov, that seeks to educate college men and women about Title IX and the realities of sexual assault. Democratizing the access to information regarding students’ rights is an important step in the right direction.

The new guidelines also address the question of whether universities should be expected to punish rape that occurs on campus at all. Some critics may point to the fact that other heinous crimes, such as murder or battery, are dealt with through legal means. But it is important to note that the Title IX guidelines do not exclude this option. In fact they explicitly state that “a criminal investigation does not relieve a school of its independent obligation to conduct its own investigation—nor may a school wait for a criminal case to conclude to proceed.”

Certainly in an ideal world, allegations of sexual assault would be swiftly dealt with by the police. Women would not feel shame for coming forward as survivors. Unfortunately, it is clear that the current state of affairs is far from this ideal. The government’s study shows that roughly two percent of “incapacitated sexual assault survivors” (such as those who were under the influence of drugs or alcohol), and 13 percent of forcible rape survivors report their assault. It is true that in order to fully bring an end to rape, a massive societal shift must occur. But millennia of misogyny do not dissipate overnight, and in the meantime the government guidelines serve a necessary purpose.