Dive Brief:
- Higher education institutions have invested millions in new bureaucracy around Title IX compliance, creating administrative positions and developing prevention and response initiatives.
- The New York Times reports costs have ranged from thousands to millions of dollars by campus — UC Berkeley, for example, has increased its Title IX spend at least $2 million just since 2013 — and the Association of Title IX Administrators has grown from 0 members to 5,000 in five years.
- Besides Title IX administrators, campuses are hiring more lawyers and counselors, training committees and investigators, and dispatching teams to work on education for sexual assault prevention.
Dive Insight:
Title IX first caused a massive expense for schools that were forced to make room for women in athletics. Its next major shakeup has been about sexual assault and harassment. While the regulation doesn’t specifically mention the topic, it prohibits gender-based discrimination, and schools run the risk of violating victims’ civil rights by poorly handling accusations of sexual assault or creating an environment that allows it.
While victims' rights groups have made a lot of progress in holding schools accountable for their policies and procedures, accused students have seen some recent success in arguing their own rights have been violated from overly aggressive punishments. Some argue colleges are not equipped to handle the balance. But, their responsibilities remain.