Updates to Title IX

Background

• It seems that since 2014, the legislature—SaVE—has changed, but fraternity culture has not

  • Frat brothers rape 300% more. One in 5 women is sexually assaulted on campus. Should we ban frats?, background, this article is from 2014 and names several schools with rape or rape and drug culture

Santa Clara University—Background

• SCU dissociated completely from its fraternity and sorority system, yet still, today, “with six Fraternities and five Sororities, more than twenty-five percent of Santa Clara students are involved in Greek life.”

  • Greek life is the de facto social scene at SCU. This means SCU relies on the Greek system to attract students. They want to have their cake and eat it too.

  • Serious fraternity-related assault is occurring. Wrt these events, the administration took a “my word versus yours” position. They claimed incidents were not happening because reports were not being made.

• Another article, Reddit, Reddit2, Reddit3, “If you like drinking all day, being a dick, getting hazed, and trying to force girls to fornicate, scu greek life is for you.”

https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJose/comments/h9595f/students_suing_santa_clara_university_over_sex/

• The dissociation means Greek life at SCU is not under Clery jurisdiction

• It is moot because reporting culture is said to be “poor” at SCU

• A story (I did not ask to publish formally and do not plan to) from a current student—one fraternity at SCU has a policy for handling assault internally. Where they ask girls to list assault in an “accountability book” so they can hold brothers accountable themselves, with the worst repercussions being expulsion from the frat; no school or police involvement whatsoever. This was apparently the idea of the new frat president after the previous frat president was expelled from the frat for assault.

• There are no means for proving this from online sources. I can only quote a website saying “people don’t report at SCU”

• They do not have mandatory Title IX training annually. They do not have a Title IX accountability report to indicate efforts at transparency or concern for student safety and well-being

• They have zero Title IX cases pending with OCR, last 2 resolution letters are from 2017 and 2018 (Title II and Title VI/IX)

• Title IX Standard of proof

  • 2024 Federal Register Final Rule, Preponderance vs. clear and convincing evidence

    • 2020 Final Rule DeVos snuck a higher standard of proof option for schools as long as they use it uniformly in all cases (into COVID legislation)

    • “The Department has decided to retain the standard of proof proposed in the July 2022 NPRM, without any changes…” This means that 2024 FR opted to stay with the standard of proof from DeVos’ 2020 FR, but they added an option to apply a different standard to employees

    • Lawsuit story 1

    • Lawsuit story 2

    • All universities have stayed with preponderance standard. “UCLA will continue to use the preponderance of evidence standard for its Title IX investigations as well as for other university offices that conduct investigations, he added.” DB article on the 2020 FR

• Title IX Jurisdiction

  • It was updated in 2024, the explanation is rather complicated, and CFR § 106.11 Application is rather vague.

  • The main point is this—“A recipient has an obligation to address a sex-based hostile environment under its education program or activity, even when some conduct alleged to be contributing to the hostile environment occurred outside the recipient’s education program or activity or outside the United States.” If the conduct, regardless of where it took place, affects access to education, then measures can be taken. The recipient’s obligation may be vague, for example it need not investigate whether the conduct took place and punitive measures for the conduct if it is not under recipient jurisdiction. It may only need to provide supportive measures in these circumstances.

  • Student A and B jurisdiction

  • How does that apply to SCU “Lawsuit story” had it occurred at a frat?

  • SCU Title IX, it looks like this is the only SVSH policy they have. This talks about “on-campus and off-campus conduct,” but not specifically. It refers the reader to the Title IX office. The SCU Title IX policy is specific about its jurisdiction, which is limited and does not include the frats.

Notes

“As an alum, the school’s failure to handle these situations properly doesn’t surprise me at all. I saw several abusers protected during my time at SCU. It’s not a place I’d ever send my kids, nor a place I’d donate to.”

https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJose/comments/q2apxd/santa_clara_university_students_demand_action/

“Too bad the DEA can’t do something useful like stop and frisking for roofies instead of raiding dispenseries”

“Haven’t stop and frisk laws(extremely unconstitutional) only been used to racial profile in the past? There has to be better ways”

“I don’t see any realistic proactive alternatives to crack down on possession of rohypnol and reduce these assaults”

https://www.reddit.com/r/ucla/comments/j0lbjg/ucla_frat_breakdown/

https://dailybruin.com/2018/08/20/student-files-lawsuit-against-ucla-fraternities-alleging-sexual-assault

https://dailybruin.com/2019/04/24/campaign-responding-to-fraternity-sexual-assault-allegations-urges-for-reform

https://dailybruin.com/2018/08/20/student-files-lawsuit-against-ucla-fraternities-alleging-sexual-assault

https://dailybruin.com/2018/08/24/editorial-ucla-must-ban-greek-life-houses-that-perpetuate-sexual-assault-and-harassment

Santa Clara links

Santa Clara encourages a culture of non-reporting

• Policy

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/south-bay/hundreds-rally-at-santa-clara-university-to-condemn-sexual-assault-demand-action/2671711/

https://www.ktvu.com/news/sexual-assaults-go-largely-unreported-santa-clara-university-and-students-talk-disparity-in-numbers

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/10/04/santa-clara-university-students-demand-action-from-school-after-multiple-sexual-assault-allegations/amp/