Proposed Title IX Changes: What You Need to Know

On November 16, the Department of Education released its long-awaited proposal for new Title IX regulations that will govern how colleges and universities respond to reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault. As widely anticipated, the proposed regulations effectively reverse many elements of the Obama administration’s Title IX guidance and impose new mandates that will require an overhaul of the way many colleges and universities respond to sexual misconduct.  Most significantly, the proposed regulations require colleges and universities to hold live hearings, with cross-examination, to resolve formal complaints. Effectively, this sounds the death knell for the “single investigator” model of resolving sexual misconduct complaints favored by many private, and some public, institutions. The proposed regulations, which the Department published on its website, will be open to public comment for a period of 60 days before being finalized.