While a gridlocked Congress debated spending and national debt – pushing the country closer to another government shutdown – student survivors of sexual violence and harassment have been anxiously awaiting the consequences of lawmakers’ inaction.
After years of advocating for changes to the Trump/Devos-era Title IX rules, students like me are tired of waiting for the Department of Education to issue new rules that will protect us from further harm and ensure the equal access to education we deserve.
President Joe Biden and Secretary of Miguel Education Cardona must take immediate steps to ensure that government officials critical to advancing the proposed Title IX update can continue their essential work. We can't wait any longer for a Congress fighting to function. Too many of us have waited too long already.
When my Title IX investigation concluded, I was devastated. After months of interrogation and anxious anticipation, my university determined that the abuse and harassment I endured failed to be “so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive” to warrant further action. When I asked for an explanation or an example of what would meet that threshold, I was given no clear answer. My university failed me.
For the next year, I lived, worked and tried to learn on a campus where I didn’t feel supported, let alone safe. My grades dropped and the burden fell upon me to advocate for the accommodations and support I desperately needed – which I did – at a tremendous personal cost. I was left exhausted, burned out and questioning whether I deserved what had happened to me. I had to postpone starting graduate school, racking up useless debt and delaying my ability to enter the workforce for another year.
And the reality is: My experience is not unique.
Government shutdown isn't inevitable.It's a choice – and a dumb one.
Know Your IX, a survivor- and youth-led project of Advocates for Youth, found that 39% of survivors took time away from school that many survivors reported experiencing financial harm – just like I did.
Meanwhile, schools aren’t required to provide specific supportive measures to survivors. When they are provided, the burden falls on the survivor. When I requested accommodations to avoid my abusers, I was only given two options: I could either keep living and taking classes in the same hall as my abusers, or I could move out of my dorm room and drop one of my classes.
Rules implemented in the Trump/Devos-era changed the types of harm that schools are required to investigate. Now, schools will only define something as sexual harassment if it’s “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive,” a standard even higher than the one used in claims of workplace sexual harassment.
The Devos-era standard makes it nearly impossible for students to prove the level of harm that occurred. And, even when we can reach this bar, Title IX only applies to incidents that happen on campus or at official, school-sanctioned events. This means that students living or working off campus often have no real means of reporting.
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Under the Biden administration’s proposed Title IX rules – the rules Biden promised us years ago – this definition would be lowered to the previous and more appropriate “severe or pervasive” standard; off-campus incidents would be included; and schools would be required to provide “robust” supportive measures. These rules would also include protections for LGBTQ+ students and pregnant and parenting students.
The Biden administration’s rules are an important step in the right direction for student survivors, but they mean nothing for us until they are finalized and enforced. Given the current timeline, this probably won’t happen until the end of the school year. To make matters worse, if there is a shutdown down the line, Department of Education officials working on finalizing the proposed rules and investigating civil rights violations might have to stop working immediately. This should not be possible.
President Biden must act now to ensure that these crucial Title IX rules aren’t further delayed by a government in chaos, and that the Department of Education has the resources needed to finalize new Title IX rules. Students like me – survivors who remain unsupported, unprotected and without justice – depend on it.
Andrew Davis (he/they) is a graduate student at Brown University studying public affairs and public health. He is a student engagement organizer with Know Your IX and a state director with The Every Voice Coalition. Their research looks at the intersections of eating disorders, sexual violence and substance use.