UC Davis students to reflect on how his next term will affect their time in college following tightening of Title IX policies
By AMBER WARNKE — features@theaggie.org
When Donald Trump became president in 2017, he nominated Betsy DeVos to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Education. Once she took office, DeVos announced sweeping changes to Title IX, the federal civil rights law preventing sex-based discrimination in education, which has been widely applied to cases of sexual assault and harrasment that occur within the context of educational settings.
“Betsy DeVos in May 2020, issued what’s called the ‘DeVos rules’ to Title IX,” Alice Malmberg, a Ph.D. student in American politics, said. “And that fundamentally changed how Title IX was implemented, specifically for higher education [cases of] sexual harassment. So it narrowed the definition, first of all, of sexual harassment, and required colleges to investigate claims only if they were reported to certain officials.”
This limited the number of people to whom a student could report sexual assault and harrasment, which previously included teaching assistants (TAs), coaches, community advisors (CAs) and a wide number of other university staff.
Hearing of these decisions, Heather Williford, a fourth-year cognitive science major, made a comment on her analysis of the issue.
“It doesn’t sound like progress; It sounds like we’re going backwards,” Williford said.
Malmberg also said that the DeVos rulings “required live hearings” between complainants — both those who reported sexual misconduct and respondents who were accused of it.
“Students were allowed, and in some cases required to, question one another [and’ cross-examine one another through representatives during these live hearings,” Malmberg said. “A survivor could question a person accused of committing an act of an assault, but also that accused person could question the survivor.”
This stands in strong opposition to the previous guidelines, which strongly discouraged cross-emaninations in cases of sexual abuse or harrasment, only allowing for cross-examination to occur through a third party.
“I’m willing to bet that someone who is accused of perpetuating sexual assault, who has everything to lose but wants to clear their name, is a lot more comfortable and is willing to take advantage of questioning a survivor than the survivor wanting or […] having the motivation to question that person,” Malmberg said.
Critics have pointed out that being cross-examined directly by their assaulters can be “highly traumatic” for survivors and may lead to some victims dropping their cases entirely.
When considering the 2020 Title IX policies, Sophia Lim, a third-year applied mathematics major, commented on her fear for women’s safety going into the next presidential term.
“It’s just restricting people’s voices in a way that affects their safety,” Lim said. “[It] makes me feel scared. It makes me feel like there’s not a place for women in this world.”
However, the Title IX rulings around sexual misconduct are “not surprising” because of Donald Trump’s being found legally guilty in 2023 of sexually assaulting a woman, E. Jean Carroll, in the 1990s, according to Lim.
Malmberg explained that under the DeVos rules, colleges were not required to handle complaints from students about instances occurring beyond the borders of the Davis campus — with some exceptions including campus or fraternity houses.
Not only were universities not required to manage these cases, but they were actually forced to dismiss them. In addition to this, there were no Title IX protections for students studying abroad.
“For example, if something happened in Downtown Davis, even if the incidents were both UC Davis students, and even if they had just been coming from the Davis campus, colleges and universities would not necessarily be required to treat that as a Title IX matter because it didn’t happen on campus grounds [under the 2020 rules],” Malmberg said.
Furthermore, under the DeVos regulations, colleges were not obligated to investigate all sexual harassment reports, but only the “most egregious cases” that were “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive,” rather than the previous definition, which included all behavior that was an “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.”
Williford considered the wording of the DeVos rulings.
“It sounds like it’s making it more strict about what qualifies as something you can report,” Williford said. “I think you should be able to report anything that’s upsetting to you of that nature.”
The DeVos rules also lacked a deadline for investigations, which were previously mandated to take no longer than 60 days in order to give complainants a speedy result.
“[There was] a lot of criticism from universities that they assumed, and I think correctly so, that the number of Title IX reports and complaints would go down, and the number of assaults or incidents wouldn’t necessarily go down,” Malmberg said.
There is also a concern that these cases would become increasingly underreported, according to Malmberg.
Although many of these rulings have been reversed under the Biden Administration, it is unclear if and how Title IX rulings will be changed when Trump takes office again in January.
“[Trump has vowed to] undo [the Title IX] protections specifically for LGBTQ+ individuals,” Malmberg said. “He said that repeatedly throughout his campaign.”
Trump has promised to enact these changes as early as “day one” of his presidency.
Williford reflected on these statements in light of the election results.
“In regards to trans people in particular, the general hate I’m seeing, especially online, is getting worse instead of better, which you would hope would happen with time,” Williford said. “I don’t think [Trump’s rulings on transgender issues are] gonna lead anywhere good.”
Lim shared that the future feels especially unclear for her due to her identity as a queer person.
“It’s disheartening and then scary [to think of how Title IX’s protections may be changed] just because of something that is completely out of my control,” Lim said.
Written by: Amber Warnke — features@theaggie.org
