Campus Safety

Campus sexual assault is a huge issue for countless young Americans. It’s possible that the Trump administration may exacerbate the problem further or provide a solution.

According to title IX, “schools are legally required to respond and remedy hostile educational environments and failure to do so is a violation that means a school could risk losing its federal funding.” The Obama administration reminded universities of such law by enforcing it. However, Betsy DeVos could void this policy.

Without this policy, college students can be more at risk of being sexually assaulted. Not just female, but also male and transgender students could potentially be raped, yet some school officials require clear and obvious evidence in order to be able to punish the perpetrator appropriately. Title IX, however, deems that campus sexual assault is a civil rights violation and has even moved some universities to hand rape cases to the law agencies. Forcing rape victims to provide certain evidence while allowing individuals (mostly men) to sue the university for only having “doubtful” evidence feeds a rather sexist culture. Some victims are unwilling to report because they believe that the legal system will favor the assaulter and at trial, the assaulter is presumed innocent. Thus, according to RAINN, only 344 individuals out of 1000 report being sexual assaulted to the police.

However, it’s true that title IX is not flawless. Declaring that an individual who is more than 50% likely to be the assaulter committed sexual assault is a very low threshold and could potentially result in accusing innocent people. DeVos has the power to improve the policy in a way that would attempt to eliminate bias for both the accused and the accuser.

Ultimately, changing certain aspects of the title IX would be beneficial to Americans. However, a complete rescindment would be detrimental to college students’ safety and happiness.