By Kate Zydor
News Editor
The U.S. Department of Education released its 2024 Title IX Final Rule on April 19, broadening the law’s jurisdiction by including protocols for off-campus incidents and protecting individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The agency set an Aug. 1, 2024, implementation deadline for all colleges and universities nationwide. During this time, institutions of higher education were tasked with reviewing the regulations and determining how to modify their practices to be in compliance.
However, as of the publication of this article, the College has not yet been able to implement Title IX’s 2024 changes. Chelsea Jacoby, the College’s Title IX coordinator and director of Title IX compliance and sexual misconduct, explained that on July 2, a federal district court in Kansas made a decision that was combined with the federal department’s enforcement of the 2024 regulations.
Jacoby told The Signal that an injunction following this decision barred institutions with one or more members affiliated with three organizations — Young Americans for Freedom, Female Athletes United and children of members of Moms for Liberty — from implementing the 2024 Title IX updates.
These organizations were included in the injunction due to their nationwide efforts to push back against additional protections for LGBTQ+ identifying people, according to the Associated Press. More specifically, members of these groups aim to prevent LGBTQ+ inclusive policies from being implemented in their children’s schools.
“Essentially, these organizations provided a list and said, ‘if there’s anyone at an institution that is affiliated with one of these groups, the institution is prohibited from implementing the Title IX regulations,’” said Jacoby. “Someone affiliated with TCNJ was listed on one of these lists, which prevents us, right now, from being able to implement that.”
Jacoby said that various schools in New Jersey are facing the same concerns. Currently, the College is not aware of who was named in the lists and what organization they are affiliated with.
“We are awaiting the court to make the ultimate decision of whether or not the injunction would move forward or be lifted, and whether we can enforce the 2024 regulations,” said Jacoby.
In the meantime, the Office of Title IX Compliance and Sexual Misconduct, located in Brower Student Center Room 202, intends to promote communication with and transparency toward students. Jacoby emphasized that the office hopes to receive the green light to move forward with these changes as soon as possible.
“Sexual harassment, in the 2020 regulations, was defined as conduct on the basis of sex or gender that [is] severe, pervasive and objectively offensive,” said Jacoby. “It had to meet all these criteria in order to be considered sexual harassment. It also needed to effectively deny someone access to their education programs or activities.”
The 2024 regulations have broadened the scope of Title IX’s jurisdiction in terms of what constitutes sex-based harassment. Instead of requiring violations of Title IX to be “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive,” the 2024 regulations have changed “and” to “or.” Now, violations of this law do not have to fit all three descriptions.
According to Jacoby, the regulations allow institutions flexibility in determining how to implement Title IX processes in a way that best fits their campus community. This accounts for factors like school size, student populations and administrative structures.
With this, the Department of Education recognizes that there may be behavior in violation of Title IX that occurs off campus or outside of an education program or activity, Jacoby said. Under the new regulations, if such behavior directly impacts an education program or activity, the college or university is obligated to help address and remedy the situation.
Provisions have also been added to protect individuals from discrimination based on pregnancy and related conditions, as well as sexual orientation.
“The Department of Education’s updated 2024 regulations have been long overdue,” said Joelle DuFault, a senior English and women’s, gender and sexuality studies double major, and president of the College’s Women’s Center. “Not only are the updated regulations generally more supportive and inclusive of sexual assault survivors, but the specific emphasis on codifying anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination and increasing sex-based harassment prevention training serves to provide a safer and more inclusive campus community.”
According to its website, the “Office of Title IX & Sexual Misconduct is committed to creating/maintaining an environment free from all forms of sexual violence, and providing fair & equitable support and processes in which all students, faculty, and staff can learn, work, thrive, and succeed.”
Since 1972, Title IX has been a federal law that protects students, faculty and staff of federally-funded institutions from sex and gender-based discrimination and violence. This encompasses sexual violence, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, gender discrimination, retaliation and sexual exploitation.
“Title IX is an incredibly important piece of legislation, protecting not only female-identifying, transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students from gender discrimination, but also offering support for survivors of sexual assault,” said Dufault.
Through the Office of Title IX Compliance and Sexual Misconduct, students at the College are encouraged to file an incident report for themselves or others if they have experienced or witnessed violations of Title IX. This can be done in person – Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – or via telephone, email and the office’s online reporting form.
“When we receive reports, we have an obligation to do outreach toward the person who’s allegedly experienced the harm and make sure they’re aware of all their rights, resources and options,” said Jacoby.
Following this outreach, the office can, per an individual’s request, oversee the implementation of resolution processes, provide access to supportive measures and connect them with on and off-campus resources such as counseling or forensic examinations.
“We have an obligation to protect the safety of the campus community, but we understand that these are deeply personal and intimate circumstances that folks are reporting to, essentially, strangers,” said Jacoby. “We want to make sure, at the very least, that they’re empowered with information about their rights [and] options, [to decide] whether they want to move forward now, in the future or never.”
