Title IX as a Threat to Academic Freedom

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights brought needed attention to the problem of sexual assault and harassment on college campuses with its 2011 letter telling institutions to enforce the law. But in so doing, the office has created a slew of new problems with implications for free speech and academic freedom. That’s the premise of a lengthy new report from the American Association of University Professors.

Drawing on the history of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits gender discrimination in education, the report argues for a more judicious application of the law across academe. The report is an attempt to reshape discussion of Title IX -- to put substantially more emphasis on due process.

Predictably for so controversial a topic, “The History, Uses and Abuses of Title IX” is earning praise and criticism from those on all sides of the argument.

“Success stories about compelling universities to address problems of sexual assault, such as those recounted by student campus groups, are matched by reported cases in which university administrators fail to punish gross and repeated sexual harassment, or where Title IX administrators from the [Education Department] and within the university overreach and seek to punish protected academic speech,” reads “Uses and Abuses.”'