As the 2024 presidential election looms ever closer, one of Biden’s flagship campaign promises remains unfulfilled and precarious; an overhaul of the long-since-gutted Title IX system in the United States. Though the Biden campaign’s initial promise of a day-one rework was reluctantly accepted as irreverently optimistic, numerous administration-given deadlines have unceremoniously come and gone. The Department of Education missed its initial May 2023 deadline and has now missed its extended October 2023 deadline This leaves the potential of a comprehensive Title IX rewrite as an open question, and an open wound on Biden’s rapidly deteriorating reputation (if, indeed, he ever possessed a positive one). Assuming that the legislation reworks are fast-tracked through the bureaucratic hell of the policy review process (which they won’t be), the earliest we could expect to get our hands on something tangible would be January of 2024.Worst case scenario, the policy will remain mired in red-tape indefinitely, relegating it to, again, a hallmark campaign promise of the next abortive Democrat to win the primary nomination.
Where does this leave EMU? Or rather; where are we now, exactly? I believe that the undeniable reality is that EMU has a Title IX problem, this much I find inarguable. The true challenge of this claim is not so much its own verifiability, but rather the nuance necessary in allotting responsibility to our institutions’ systemic failings while balancing the aforementioned failings at the federal level. For example, the gutting of Title IX resulted in the codification of legal language that posits a steep prescription of behaviors to be present before a case is considered for progression beyond an initial report. EMU as an institution has their hands tied in this regard; they have no legal means of enacting punitive measures on a student via the Title IX system if that student’s behavior does not meet the current metrics for problematic behavior. Even if these behaviors would have readily been considered in violation of Title IX years prior, or are widely recognized as abhorrent (or are inconsistent with the student code of conduct). However, non-federal punitive policy can be utilized by the institution in such cases of insubordinate student behavior that may not meet the current qualifications of Title IX.
This, to me, is where EMU’s policy falls short, or rather, EMU’s enforcement of its own policy. In essence, EMU does not have an effective framework for dealing with student conduct that is in clear violation of its own sexual and relationship violence guidelines that are independent of Title IX. This results in an “all-our-eggs-in-one-basket” approach, wherein all student reports of sexual misconduct at EMU are pigeonholed into a singular location; the Title IX coordinator’s office. Thus, the system (which, as I’ve established, is already impaired) becomes bottlenecked under the weight of this burden, resulting in horrific wait times and unresponsiveness. Compounding this, Kimberly Anderson, EMU’s Title IX coordinator, is only budgeted a finite number of working hours over a given period of time, placing her in the unenviable position of being forced to make judgment calls on the priority of certain reports, all of which must be done virtually. Worst of all, the reports that even make it to *this* stage likely don’t constitute the majority of sexual misconduct incidents on campus. According to the RAINN institute, only 20% of female students report their account of sexual violence- and similar statisical data reguarding men and people of other genders is difficult to come by. The impotence of the current system (which is well-acknowledged among the students who have engaged with it) plays an active part in dissuading others from coming forward.
This has resulted in a cultural attitude shift towards apathy and powerlessness among our most vulnerable students- even those who have yet to engage with said system. With no foreseeable federal Title IX policy rewrites coming to save us, EMU (both as an administrative body and as a community) must bear the impetus to right the wrongs of the current unjust framework. A framework which vulnerable students are expected to navigate whilst undergoing the most traumatic experiences of their lives. Our community must bear the responsibility of creating meaningful new policy that fosters a community of healing and change on campus; a community that is emboldened by the pursuit of sexual justice and safety for all people, a community that does not currently exist. In no uncertain terms, EMU must change its approach to sexual safety in order to live up to its own ideals. To cite EMU’s own Title IX web page:
“Eastern Mennonite University (EMU or the University) is committed to establishing and maintaining a community rich in equality and free from all forms of discrimination and harassment.”
As such, I ask- no, PLEAD that the administrative body heeds the voices of students who have been wholly failed by the system as it exists currently, and centers those same students in the creation of a more holistic community via the implementation of rewritten and reimagined policy regarding sexual misconduct on campus.