Academic Challenges: Title IX

From the student level to tenured faculty, academia poses a vast set of challenges. Every two weeks, Al-Diwan brings you a collection of articles and perspectives that touch upon one problem within academia. This week's focus is Title IX.

DeVos to Replace Obama-Era Sexual Assault Guidelines
By Andrew Kreighbaum (Inside Higher Ed) 

Betsy DeVos, the current Secretary of Education, announced on September 8 that she would be replacing aspects of Title IX policy set by President Barack Obama in 2011. The exact details of the changes and a timeline for the rollout have yet to be set.  

Close the Frats
By Vanessa Grigoriadis (The Chronicle of Higher Education) 

Fraternities are not only key tools for university recruitment of students, fostering alumni relations, and easing the housing burden of the university; they are also large contributors to the high rates of sexual assault on college campuses. Universities have taken different approaches to dealing with charges against fraternity behavior; Vanessa Grigoriadis looks closely at Wesleyan’s decision to enforce a coeducation standard for all the university’s Greek system.  

Sexual harassment of graduate students by faculty is a national problem
By Casey Quinlan (Think Progress)

Lacking concrete protocol on punishment for faculty accused and found guilty of sexual harassment, creating a drawn out process, allows for a faculty to serially harass students and co-workers. Graduate students, who have often been on the receiving end of the harassment, hope to develop union contracts that include more sexual harassment and assault protection.

Schools need to get better at fighting sexual assault. Betsy DeVos isn’t helping.
By Anna North (Vox)

The message Betsy DeVos sent in her speech on September 8, formalizing her decision to change Title IX policy was a punch to the stomach for sexual assault survivors and Title IX activists across the nation. Even without the exact plans for her own Title IX policy, DeVos signaled that the federal government would not protect survivors, which has pushed activists to shift their attention from attempting to influence federal policy to focusing on individual university policies.

Want to Fire a Professor For Sexual Harassment? It’s Going to Take A While
By Tyler Kingkade (Buzzfeed)

Student-faculty power dynamics often prevent students from reporting sexual harassment and assault by a professor. When students do choose to report though, what academic policies prevent them from getting justice? While tenure, says Tyler Kingkade, protects faculty’s academic freedom, it is also shielding faculty from facing punishment for sexual misconduct.

How Sexual Assault Survivors Feel Following Controversial Meeting with Besty DeVos
By Alanna Vagianos (Huffington Post)

Months prior to Betsy DeVos’s Title IX rollback announcement, she had several meetings with stakeholders in the conversation on campus sexual assault, including educators, university administrators, survivors, and activists. While it was unclear what would come from these initial conversations, the meetings were uncontroversial. However, DeVos also had a third meeting with a men’s rights organization and groups focusing on the rights of the accused. Frustrations arose with this meeting because, despite wrongful accusations only accounting for two to eight percent of all accusation, DeVos’s meeting with them for an extended period of time implies that wrongful accusation is a much larger problem than the statistics show.