DeVos’ sexual harassment rules take effect on college campuses

New federal rules governing how colleges will treat claims of sexual harassment are going into effect Friday, after clearing a final legal challenge.

The final Title IX regulations revamp Obama-era guidance by allowing colleges to adopt a higher standard of evidence for adjudicating sexual misconduct allegations. The new rules allow those accused of sexual harassment to confront their claims and cross-examine the evidence. Accusers still will be shielded from having to come face-to-face with the accused, the department outlined Friday. The new rule also says colleges do not have to investigate sexual assault or harassment that occurs off-campus.

“Today marks a new era in the storied history of Title IX in which the right to equal access to education required by law is truly protected for all students,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement Friday. “This rule, as courts have recently noted, restores balance to the scales of justice in our schools, ending one of the most infamous and damaging overreaches of the previous administration.”

Some student and sexual assault survivor groups criticized the new rules for eliminating the expectation that colleges respond to sexual assault and harassment that occurs off-campus. As a result, some schools are now adopting more stringent standards than what Title IX requires.

“In accordance with federal law, Vanderbilt will incorporate the requirements of the new rules, including their related procedures, into its sexual misconduct policy,” said a university posting. “Vanderbilt’s policy, however, prohibits a larger range of conduct than is required by the regulations and is not as limited in geographic scope.”

A federal judge this week denied a request for halting the rules, filed by 17 states and the District of Columbia, ruling that universities maintain wide latitude in punish sexual harassment on campus.

“Plaintiffs are free to investigate and punish as violations of their codes of conduct or of state law behavior that does not meet the new definition of sexual harassment under the final rule,” wrote U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump appointee.