This video covers the recent changes to Title IX regulations, and the impact on colleges and universities.

The new rules include guidelines on employee training and responsibilities of Title IX coordinators, and expand sex discrimination definitions to include gender identity and sexual orientation. However, federal judges have blocked enforcement in 26 states, leading to confusion.

We discuss three key actions for higher education boards: staying informed, consulting legal counsel, and tracking campus climate to support student well-being. Check the links below for more details.

Watch the video.

Transcript

Morgan Alexander:
If you’ve been following the news, you know that new regulations on Title IX went into effect on August 1st for colleges and universities. Well, for some colleges and universities.

You see, the new rule has guidelines and new mandates that colleges and universities have to follow. This includes everything from employee training, to responsibilities of Title IX coordinators, and a lot more. Most controversially, the new rule stated that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, and that’s where this gets tricky.

Federal judges around the country have issued injunctions blocking the department from enforcing the rule. In twenty-six states and countless institutions elsewhere, now the rule can’t be enforced in some places, but it can in others, which is just going to be a huge mess boards have to understand.

The expectations for their institutions: Are they an affected state? Do they have students who are part of the litigation?

Here are three things boards need to do one stay on top of things:

Just because there’s a lot of confusion, doesn’t mean that boards are off the hook for understanding sexual misconduct policies on their campuses.

Two, listen to counsel, find out which regulations your institution falls under. If you approved a policy that can no longer go into effect, keep it on the shelf while the court cases work themselves out.

And three, ask your president and the administrative leadership how it tracks and measures campus climate. This whiplash on Title IX can cause a lot of fear, anxiety, confusion, all the things that make being a student really difficult. Tension and fear can have a deep impact on students success. Boards have to stay on top of this.

Find out more in the links below.

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