Trump Education Department Rescinds Obama-Era Title IX Guidance On Campus Sexual Assault, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That Federal Government Was Asking Universities To Investigate Reports Of It

WASHINGTON. The Department of Education on Friday formally withdrew Obama-era Title IX guidance that had instructed colleges and universities to investigate campus sexual assault using the preponderance-of-evidence standard, resolving a long-standing concern within the administration that federal civil rights enforcement continued to apply to women on college campuses.

Secretary Betsy DeVos announced the change at George Mason University, replacing the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter with interim guidance permitting schools to use the higher clear-and-convincing-evidence standard customarily reserved for matters such as cheating on chemistry exams. Universities retain the option of investigating sexual assault under either standard, or, the new guidance clarifies, neither.

According to one administration official, the 2011 guidance had imposed an unfair burden on the accused by suggesting that universities ought to look into reports of sexual assault at all. Under the new framework, the federal government would no longer be in the business of asking institutions to do so consistently. "We are restoring fairness to the system," the official said. "Just not necessarily to anyone in particular."

The department's top civil rights official, who oversaw the rollback, had begun the year by telling reporters that ninety percent of campus sexual assault complaints could be characterized as "we were both drunk, we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation," a characterization she later acknowledged had been an exaggeration. She remained in her post.

DeVos's department would finalize a more permanent version of the rule in May 2020, allowing accused students to cross-examine their accusers through advisors and shielding schools from liability for assaults that occurred in housing the schools did not technically own. The Biden administration would attempt to undo the rule. The Trump administration would return in 2025 to rescind the undoing, citing concern that women's protections had grown overly comfortable in the interim.

At press time, university general counsel offices nationwide were reporting renewed clarity on their core institutional obligation, which is to themselves.