Western Carolina University students, faculty and staff received an email on Feb. 5 announcing a Title IX update. The email sparked confusion and anger across campus about what these changes mean for WCU students.
“I got the email when I was in class and then I had to drive to work. I was really mad. I was screaming songs by Set it Off,” said Emily Presson, fourth-year social work major and Students Against Sexual Assault member. “The first thing I did, I was like, let me just research what’s going on because I want to know what’s going on. And then I screenshotted the email and posted it on my story angrily.”
Title IX of the Education Amendments was created in 1972 to prohibit sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational programs or activities. The past few years have had a series of changes to Title IX. In May 2020, changes included requiring cross-examination of the complainant and respondent and enforcing “innocent until proven guilty.” These regulations went into effect on Aug. 14, 2020. Next, on April 19, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education announced changes that clarified terminology used in Title IX to create greater protections for LGBTQ+ individuals. These changes went into effect on Aug. 1, 2024.
In a press release on Jan. 31, the E.D. announced that K-12 schools and higher education institutions will be returning to the 2020 Title IX Regulations. The press release came after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled on Jan. 9 that the Title IX 2024 regulations were unlawful, citing excess of authority, Constitutional violations and arbitrary language.
“Your comfort level, feeling safe in the school you go to is a very important concern. Having, like for transgender individuals, less protections under Title IX, the space of the school won’t be as welcoming,” said Ella Whitehead, fourth-year chemistry major and SASA member.
At WCU, many elements of Title IX cases will remain the same, despite the federal changes.
“The user version of this hasn’t really changed. It’s more the behind the scenes, the policy writing, the putting things into place, the compliance pieces are the bigger changes,” said Deidre Hopkins, WCU’s Title IX Coordinator and Equity Officer.
One of the biggest changes to Title IX is regarding jurisdiction and what cases WCU can handle under Title IX. While the 2024 Regulations gave universities wider jurisdiction over what cases can be handled, the 2020 Regulations require incidents to occur on university property, among other criteria, for universities to investigate under Title IX.
“[The sexual harassment] has to be in the United States, it has to be in an educational program or activity, it has to be on university property or building controlled by the university,” Hopkins said. “For instance, study abroad. Although it may be a university function, education program or activity, it’s not happening in the United States… therefore, it wouldn’t have Title IX jurisdiction.”
Incidents that fall outside the new Title IX jurisdiction will be handled by WCU under the WCU Student Code of Conduct or WCU Policy 53 Unlawful Discrimination for Employees.
The 2024 Title IX regulations allowed for broader definitions of discrimination and harassment. This created stronger protections for LGBTQ+ individuals. These definitions included clarifying sex discrimination to include “discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity.”
“2024 Regulations allowed for broader definitions that explicitly spelled out sex characteristics, sexual orientation and gender identity things of that nature. Those were not spelled out in the 2020 Regulations,” Hopkins said.
“I think it’s awful for students, even if you don’t, like, believe in transgender individuals and what they go through, you’re still harming them. You shouldn’t want to harm your constituents, the people that you’re serving. It’s operating under the opinion of one person, instead of the opinion of many, like a democracy is supposed to,” Presson said regarding the federal change.
In North Carolina, the law still provides protection for the broader definitions clarified in the 2024 Regulations as decided in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit case Grimm v Gloucester County School Board (2020). The law remains in effect, meaning this aspect of the change back to the 2020 regulations does not impact WCU or other North Carolina schools.
“We still interpret that here and we have to due to a court ruling that have happened in the U.S. Court of Appeals’ 4th Circuit,” Hopkins said. “We, here at Western, are still taking any and all cases – gender identity, sexual orientation – it doesn’t matter. We are going to address those as they come forward through the lens of Title IX.”
In the 2024 ruling, all employees were considered mandatory reporters or confidential resources. This means employees were required to report any Title IX violations that they witnessed or were told about. The 2020 ruling did not require university employees to be mandatory reporters.
Due to university policy, WCU required employees to be mandatory reporters prior to the federal ruling in 2024. WCU will continue to require mandatory reporting.
“Prior to the implementation of the 2024 Regulations, WCU had already established mandatory reporting as a requirement,” Hopkins said. “Although the federal law no longer mandates us to do so, we will continue to uphold mandatory reporting as a part of our commitment to maintaining a safe campus community.”
Along with mandatory reporting, the 2024 ruling required all employees to participate in annual Title IX training. This training requirement has been removed in accordance with the 2020 ruling. Hopkins said that while WCU does not have mandatory training for employees, she still holds many non-mandatory training sessions throughout the year.
The process for handling Title IX cases under WCU jurisdiction remains nearly the same between the 2020 and 2024 rulings. The one difference is any complaints have to be formal complaints.
“Now we’re going back to where we have to have the formal complaint,” Hopkins said. “The formal complaint includes the basic details of the harassment that took place including the name of the alleged, the date, location, and what happened and is signed off by the complainant.”
Hopkins assures students that WCU will still look into all reports filed.
“Our priority is always to make sure our faculty, students and staff feel safe on our campus and that has been our goal and will continue to be our goal,” Hopkins said.
SASA is also available as a resource for students.
“Trans students and anyone gender diverse is always safe in SASA. They can always come talk to us. If people have questions about really anything, like processes or who to reach out to, our Instagram DMs are open,” Presson said.
Any concerned individual is encouraged to file a Title IX report at safe.wcu.edu.
