The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Fenanda Zamudio-Suarez
September 22, 2017
The U.S. Department of Education has rescinded two pieces of Obama-era guidance that told colleges how they should handle issues related to campus sexual assault, and has replaced them with new interim guidance, the department announced on Friday.
In a speech this month, the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, announced that the department would begin a process for replacing the Obama-era guidance. The department's action on Friday withdrew two key documents: a 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter, which kicked off a new era of enforcement under the gender-equity law known as Title IX, and a 2014 questions-and-answers document, which offered colleges additional guidance on how they should respond to reported sexual violence.
Read the full article at The Chronicle of Higher Education website here.
PSU-AAUP took an active interest in the 2001 "Dear Colleague" letter and met with OGDI at the time about application of the new standard. PSU-AAUP had a fear that the new standards for students accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault would also be used for faculty members and academic professionals. We asserted the need for higher standards around the "just cause" requirement of Article 27 of our CBA.
Since that time we have had approximately 4 faculty members removed for behavior which could be broadly characterized as sexual harassment/assault, and in each case PSU-AAUP aggressively defended the member's rights to due process. Little changed in our effectiveness in this area after the 2011 letter was promulgated, and we expect the same due process after this announcement.