On Jan. 30, Chancellor Rebecca Chopp wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Education on DU’s position on the proposed revisions to Title IX. In this letter, Chancellor Chopp supported the comment letter proposed by the American Council on Education on the Title IX changes.
The proposed Title IX changes include provisions to further address the issue of sexual harassment and assault on university campuses. The first step taken is in defining sexual harassment as “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex this is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the school’s education program or activity.” In defining sexual assault, Title IX will adopt the Clery Act definition.
Included is a mandate of investigation following any formal complaint and supportive measures offered to students to help their success in the school’s educational programs, with or without a formal complaint.
The provisions would also require schools to follow due process protections for students including a presumption of innocence, written notice of allegations, equal opportunity to review evidence and a right to cross-examination. Universities would also be required to hold live hearings for cross-examination and to promote impartiality, no “single investigator” or “investigator-only” models may be used.
Chancellor Chopp writes on behalf of DU, “We share the Department of Education’s goal of having campus disciplinary processes that are clearly understood, based on an objective evaluation of relevant facts, consistently applied and fair to both parties. While some of the proposed regulations will help accomplish the goal of preventing campus sexual harassment and sexual assault, others would be a detriment to the progress that has been made by colleges and universities in recent years.”
To end this letter, Chancellor Chopp states, “I urge the Department of Education to reevaluate many of the recently proposed provisions so that colleges and universities can continue to focus on being educational institutions, not arms of the criminal justice system.”
