How Betsy DeVos plans to change the rules for handling sexual misconduct on campus – CBS News
On April 4, 2011, Vice President Joe Biden faced a crowd at the University of New Hampshire and announced, “We are the first administration to make it clear that sexual assault is not just a crime, it can be a violation of a woman’s civil rights.” That same day, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) delivered the strictest interpretation to date of Title IX, the 1972 law that bars sex discrimination in education, with new guidelines for how colleges should handle allegations of sexual misconduct on campus.
The update came in the form of a “Dear Colleague Letter” — in this case, a letter offering guidance to school administrators about how to adhere to the requirements of the law. The scope of Title IX has grown significantly since it was signed into law nearly five decades ago, and staying in compliance can be complicated. The letter did provide some clarity as to the Obama administration’s position on the law, but it also created an atmosphere of anxiety for some college staff. The letter itself is not the law and doesn’t prescribe comprehensive procedures for how to implement the law, but schools that failed to comply faced the threat of losing federal funding.