Trump Administration Gets An Earful On New Campus Sexual Assault Rules

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Trump Administration Gets An Earful On New Campus Sexual Assault Rules

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/30/689879689/education-department-gathers-feedback-on-new-campus-sexual-assault-rules?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20190130

January 30, 20197:32 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition


After a presentation from activists, Boston University sophomore Blaire Thomas looks at the HandsOffIX website, which offers a Mad Lib-style template to comment on proposed changes to federal rules on how campuses handle cases of sexual assault and harassment.
Tovia Smith/NPR

The Department of Education has been inundated with approximately 100,000 public comments on its proposed new rules for how campuses handle cases of sexual assault. Secretary Betsy DeVos opened the public comment period two months ago, after unveiling her plan to replace Obama-era rules with regulations that, she says, would better protect the accused. The window for comments closes Wednesday at midnight.

Many who have weighed in praise the new rules for "restoring sanity" and fairness to the process but many more are critical.

Those comments range from short expletives and insults aimed at DeVos, to personal and sometimes graphic accounts of sexual assaults,and pleas not to return to the bad ol' days, when victims were not believed and incidents were swept under the rug.

The deluge of comments comes as survivor advocates have been mobilizing their troops on social media, at comment-writing pizza parties, and through crash courses in commenting on college campuses.

At a recent meeting of the Boston University Students For Reproductive Freedom club, Sage Carson with the survivor advocacy group, Know Your IX joined in by video conference, updating students on what the proposals would do.


"I'll be blunt," she says, "It's devastating." She tells the students the proposed rules would mean schools don't automatically have to investigate incidents alleged to have occurred in private, off-campus apartments, or misconduct that is reported to a coach or resident advisor, for example, instead of the official Title IX officer.

She then instructs students how to formally file their objections through the Hands Off IX website. A Mad Libs-type of template makes commenting easy, and then forwards submissions on to the official regulation comment website. .........................