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A2 UP FRONT
Friday 17 June 2022
Continued from Front tracting students from their
President Joe Biden and classwork. Income dispari-
other critics say the rules, ties often play out, with af-
finalized in 2020 by then- fluent students able to pay
Education Secretary Betsy for attorneys and others
DeVos, fail to adequately represented only by them-
protect sexual assault vic- selves. In some cases, ac-
tims, deter them from re- cusers find themselves be-
porting misconduct and go ing questioned about their
too far in shielding the ac- sexual past.
cused. Biden is expected A process that already had
to announce new rules as seemed rough became
soon as this month. overwhelming to Arango.
In the meantime, many stu- "I just saw the words 'cross-
dents have opted out en- examination' and freaked
tirely, never reporting the out," she recalled. "I was
abuse. Or they've chosen like, 'I can't. I can't put my-
to go an informal route, in self through that.'"
which the accused might As more complaints fall out-
be asked not to take class- side its scope, experts have
es with the accuser, or to raised alarms that colleges
switch schools — often with are increasingly judging
no mark on their record. cases in parallel campus
Arango ultimately decided discipline systems that don't
not to pursue her case, and guarantee accusers the
nothing happened to the same rights as Title IX.
other student. Justin Dillon, a Washington-
"I felt like my identity was based lawyer who has de-
beginning to form, and Vice President Joe Biden, shouting "'no means no," speaks at a rape-awarness event at the Uni- fended dozens of students
then it was completely versity of Colorado, in Boulder, Colo., Friday, April 8, 2016. accused of sexual miscon-
stripped away," said Aran- Associated Press duct, called the cross-ex-
go, now 21 and heading amination process created
into her senior year. "Every- students on 27 campuses. At Michigan State Univer- she weighed whether to under DeVos an "unpar-
one just saw me as this girl Rates were nearly as high sity, the number of Title IX pursue a Title IX investiga- alleled success," but criti-
that was lying about being for students who are trans- complaints dropped from tion. People were calling cized the overall handling
sexually assaulted. And I gender, nonbinary or oth- more than 1,300 in 2019 to her a liar, she said. of sexual misconduct cases
was spiraling really bad." erwise gender noncon- 56 in 2021. School officials Arango asked Title IX of- under Title IX.
The Associated Press typi- forming. say the drop is the result ficials if the other student "It's just sort of created this
cally doesn't identify peo- Only about one-third of the of narrowed definitions in would be suspended or kind of sexual police state
ple who say they have female accusers reported the 2020 regulations. Com- sanctioned if she filed a for- on college campuses that
been sexually assaulted, what happened, accord- plaints that fall outside the mal complaint. The coordi- I think goes far beyond
but Arango allowed her ing to the survey. Doing so scope of the federal rules nator told her the process making sure that men and
name to be used. She often ends badly, accord- now go through a similar was lengthy and that, if women get equal access
serves on a caucus of survi- ing to Know Your IX, an but separate disciplinary nothing else, she probably to education," he said.
vors for End Rape on Cam- advocacy group that has system, officials said. could get a no-contact or- Students are filing fewer
pus, a national advocacy found students who report Arango's nightmare began der. sexual misconduct cases
group. abuse often leave school, in August 2019, when she She was skipping two class- and the bulk of them — up-
Sexual assault is common- at least temporarily, and blacked out after playing es to avoid the student and ward of 90% — are now be-
place on college campus- are threatened with defa- a drinking game with her his friends, on track to re- ing handled informally, said
es. Thirteen percent of col- mation lawsuits. new fraternity friends. ceive the first two Cs of her Brett Sokolow, president of
lege students overall and "The current process is not She recalls waking on an life — grades that could the Association of Title IX
nearly 26% of undergradu- really working for anybody," air mattress, a male student threaten her scholarship. Administrators. Sometimes
ate women reported non- said Emma Grasso Levine, on top of her, although she Then there was the isola- the accused will simply
consensual sexual contact, the manager of Know Your had given no consent for tion. "The thing is, no one agree to transfer so their
according to a 2019 As- IX. the sex. She grabbed her is talking to me anymore," new school won't know
sociation of American Uni- At some universities, the belongings and headed she realized. anything happened, he
versities survey of 181,752 Trump administration rules to class, acting like nothing She put the investigative said.
ARUBA have been followed by a had happened.
process on hold. By the For all the difficulties col-
decrease in the number of She kept quiet until that time she revisited it in the leges have had adjudicat-
complaints addressed by October, when she told a spring, the pandemic was ing sex assault cases, Title
CLEAN Title IX offices, according to fraternity friend but swore slowing everything down. IX at least holds them ac-
countable for protecting
him to secrecy.
Then DeVos' new regula-
records provided to The As-
sociated Press. A few days later, she re- tions were announced. the rights of accusers who
At the University of Nevada, ceived an email from the "Byzantine" is the word at- can otherwise sue, said
Las Vegas, 204 Title IX com- Title IX office saying her torney Russell Kornblith uses Maha Ibrahim, a staff attor-
plaints were logged in 2019, name had been included to describe them. He is rep- ney with Equal Rights Advo-
but just 12 in 2021, records in a sexual assault miscon- resenting three Harvard Uni- cates, a nonprofit that rep-
show. The number of cases duct report. Her friend had versity graduate students in resents survivors.
that met the criteria for for- shared her secret with the a lawsuit alleging that the "What if it wasn't there?
mal investigations fell from fraternity's president, who Ivy League school for years Then what?" she said. "You
27 to zero in the same pe- was a resident adviser and ignored complaints about know, college campuses
riod. No student has been required to report it. sexual harassment by a re- are just a free for all, a very
IS MORE found responsible for a Title The accused student soon nowned professor. dangerous place for wom-
DUSHI IX violation at the university found out. His fraternity He said pursuing the cases en and for queer folks. And
since 2020.
brothers shunned her as can be time intensive, dis-
then what?"q