Today Education Secretary Betsy Devos announced rules on how colleges and universities handle cases of sexual misconduct and harassment. These rules aim to enhance legal protections for the accused. This includes raising the level of proof needed from “preponderance of evidence” to “clear and convincing evidence”. Additionally, students will now be allowed to cross-examine each other through a third party. This can easily cause the victim to relive their trauma. This rules will cause already low levels of reporting to plummet, as survivors will not want to submit themselves to such a difficult process, especially when it is already set against them. The rules also include requiring colleges and universities to offer supportive measures for survivors, like a no contact order, but bar any measures that would “burden” an accused student.  School would only have jurisdiction to investigate cases that occurred specifically on their campus. Reports must be made to specific administrators, meaning that schools would have no obligation to investigate if a student reports an incident to their coach or their resident advisor. 

These new rules are going to contribute to the constant victimization of survivors, and cause the number of reports to go down. These rules will not encourage students to report their assaults. In a time when perpetrators are already not held responsible, this will make matters worse. Please sign to tell Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education you disagree with these rules to protect perpetrators of sexual misconduct and harassment.