A&M scrambles to meet compliance for new Title IX rules by August

After being stalled for two years, the Biden-Harris administration established new Title IX regulations. All public institutions, including Texas A&M, will implement the changes on their campuses by Aug. 1. 

Listed in a 1,577-page document, the new rules are extensive, but the main changes added legal protections for transgender and pregnant students, removed live-hearing and cross-examination requirements, archived mandatory reporting policies and changed the Title IX definition of sexual harassment from “unwelcomed verbal, visual or physical sexual conduct”  to “unwelcome sex-based conduct.”

Republicans have slammed a new protection that was added to prohibit transgender students from being discriminated against based on sexual orientation or gender identity. They argue it will interfere with laws relating to gender-assigned bathrooms and participation in athletics.

On April 29, Gov. Greg Abbott criticized the changes in a letter to President Joe Biden, saying Texas will not abide by the revisions. Texas joined a Republican-led lawsuit from almost a dozen states to challenge the policy on Monday, claiming the overhaul exceeds Biden’s authority as president.

“You have rewritten Title IX to force schools to treat boys as if they are girls and to accept every student’s self-declared gender identity,” Abbott’s letter reads. “I am instructing the Texas Education Agency to ignore your illegal dictate. Your rewrite of Title IX not only exceeds your constitutional authority, it also tramples laws that I signed to protect the integrity of women’s sports by prohibiting men from competing against female athletes.”

However, A&M’s Title IX office is proceeding with implementation, and according to its coordinator, is working hard to make these changes with help from the system Title IX coordinator and the Office of General Counsel.

 

Ensuring compliance by August

In a statement, A&M Title IX Coordinator Jennifer Smith said she anticipates a large workload to implement the new regulations by August. Smith said any incident that occurs before Aug. 1 will be resolved based on the prior 2020 regulations.

“My initial impression is that I have a lot of work to do,” Smith said. 

Smith said the new regulations will improve A&M’s Title IX process and, in some cases, make it easier and faster to resolve complaints. The 2024 regulations no longer require formal, written complaints for Title IX offices to take action — a 2020 regulation that Smith said delayed A&M’s ability to act.

“For example, the new regulations specifically authorize informal resolutions,” Smith said. “The informal resolution is focused on the parties’ needs and can involve discipline, written apologies, training and compensation for damaged property. An informal resolution can be completed in less than a week, whereas an investigation or hearing might take more than a semester.”

The majority of Title IX’s new rules focus on improving accommodations for individuals who need them. Smith said the updated regulations benefit pregnant students the most, expanding their opportunities to make up classwork due to medically related absences.

Rick Olshak serves as the director of Title IX and Student Conduct Compliance for the A&M University System and is a member of the advisory board for the Association of Title IX Administrators. 

“I’m appreciative of the pregnancy accommodations, in part because we spent so much time focusing just on sexual assault, and that’s not where our numbers are,” Olshak said. “There are other areas of civil rights that get ignored in the process. Whether it’s pregnancy under sex-based, accommodations for students with disabilities or it’s workers who need accommodations.”

 

Arguments continue after new changes

Olshak said the major change he sees is a return to things he believes shouldn’t have been changed.

“We’re talking about the definition of sex-based harassment, which, forever, we had agreed that Title IX matches the Title VII employment law,” Olshak said. “Then, under the Trump administration, they imposed sex-based discrimination.” 

When the proposed regulations were released in 2022, Olshak said he was shocked to see that a major part of them had not been included in the 2024 regulations.

“The Biden administration left out the most polarizing piece of the regulations, which is transgender participation in athletics,” Olshak said. “So, we were very disappointed when we heard the rumor that this part would be left out. But we also understood that it is April before the election.” 

As for the future of Title IX, Smith said in a written statement that she hopes to see consistent regulations:

Olshak said the future of Title IX still needs to be improved by moving away from trying to make Title IX a political issue.

“Until the Trump administration, Title IX was never political, as Democrats and Republicans alike all agreed on the regulations,” Olshak said. “Now, it’s just gotten sucked into the culture war, and I want this to stop being toxic and political.”

Olshak said he would love to see everyone agree on how others should be treated equitably, regardless of gender, sexual preference, status or identity. “We don’t live in that world right now,” Olshak said.

 

Navigating past Title IX cases

However, these changes came too late for some, such as Class of 2023 graduate Michelle Arnold. While still attending A&M-Corpus Christi, Arnold said she was sexually assaulted while drunk by a male student in on-campus housing. 

“Eventually, he led me into his room, and then, the assault happened,” Arnold said. “I was able to escape his room, and he tried following me afterward. But some people intervened. There were a few witnesses to the situation, and I reported a year later.”

Arnold said had these changes been implemented during her case in 2021, the ruling would have been different.

“A part of me believes that these new regulations, if done correctly, would have changed the direction of my case,” Arnold said. “The preponderance of evidence would have considered everything I provided and shown that he was guilty of what I was accusing him of. Then also the single investigator model, instead of having the cross-examination and live hearing, would give an individual the full perspective of the entire case.”

Arnold was reluctant to report her case, fearing that investigators wouldn’t believe her due to alcohol being involved. “My fears came true when my case report came back, and they said that my story didn’t make much sense to them,” Arnold said.

Reflecting on the process, Arnold said she felt mistreated and was allegedly targeted by Title IX staff. Arnold said A&M-Corpus Christi lost her testimony after she transferred to College Station and never contacted her new case adviser.

“For whatever reason, the investigator at the time resigned, and that investigator would not release my testimony to A&M’s main campus Title IX,” Arnold said. “So they made me re-give my testimony. Then, they never put me in contact with an advisor to help me through the process of providing mental health services, even though I had asked for one.” 

At the time, these issues exasperated Arnold’s depression and caused suicidal ideation, which she said made her struggle with the cross-examination portion of her live hearing. 

Although the A&M Title IX office is working to implement changes, Arnold said she believes cases like hers will continue to be mishandled at other campuses due to disorganization.

“I think that the A&M-Corpus Christi Title IX Office is terribly disorganized and has no trauma-informed care, and I think that they, in particular, probably would still have mishandled my case,” Arnold said. “I believe A&M Title IX has issues similar to those of their sister campus. These new regulations promise that things could be different and change, and with the proper follow-through this could change the trajectory of these cases and survivors in general.”

Arnold believes more students will be able to come forward and not be as fearful as she was about making a report. She also said she is hopeful that eliminating pressures caused by cross-examination and live hearings will benefit other cases.

“Having to face the person you reported is very difficult and traumatic,” Arnold said. “So, not having that pressure, I think, will help survivors feel more at ease about coming forward.”

Editor note: Rick Olshak is the director of Title IX compliance for the Texas A&M System, not A&M College Station. This distinction was not present in the original article and has been updated.