Editing Title IX (section)

==Criticism==
Title IX has been called "toothless" and criticized for failing to make schools comply with the law's regulations.<ref name=":4" /> The [[Center for Public Integrity]] expressed this concern within their series on sexual assault on college campuses, and [[USA Today|USA TODAY]] reporters echoed it in their series called "Title IX: Falling short at 50."<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Title IX: Falling short at 50 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2022/05/26/title-ix-falling-short-50-exposes-how-colleges-still-fail-women/9722521002/ |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}</ref> The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is supposed to hold schools in compliance with Title IX, but it is under-resourced, and when it finds that schools are out of compliance, its only punitive measure is to revoke federal funding from a school. This is such a severe penalty that it had never been used as of 2022. Instead, the office tries to work cooperatively with schools found in violation. However, schools can choose not to cooperate, withholding records, refusing to meet, and delaying or dropping future communications without penalty. In the investigative series, interviews with insiders stated that this has resulted in mindsets across university administrations that discount parts of Title IX as easily ignored, and some aggressively noncompliant schools have been found in violation but ignored their resolution agreements for years without consequences.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Axon |first=Rachel |title=What happens if a school doesn't comply with Title IX? Not a whole lot. |url=https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2022/12/15/title-ix-enforcement-essentially-toothless-mired-red-tape-delays/10803850002/?gps-source=BRNMSVCPSPXXTITLEIX&itm_source=usat&itm_medium=onsite-spike&itm_campaign=titleix-storytellingstudio-n&itm_content=static |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Kristin |date=2010-02-25 |title=Lax enforcement of Title IX in campus sexual assault cases |url=https://publicintegrity.org/education/lax-enforcement-of-title-ix-in-campus-sexual-assault-cases/ |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=Center for Public Integrity |language=en-US}}</ref>

Title IX has been blamed for failing to adequately protect students from harassment and discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, and sexuality. These concerns have been raised by lawyers and gender advocacy groups working in the space, as well as media outlets reporting on specific schools or the university ecosystem for how they handle sexual assault and discrimination. Broadly, schools that are seen as compliant with the law still aren't protecting students from preventable harassment. For example, although 1 in 5 women in college report being sexually assaulted there, colleges routinely do not hold students accountable for sexual offenses: in one study of large public universities, only 1 in 12,400 students are suspended and 1 in 22,900 expelled in a given year for sexual misconduct. Schools often set up complicated policies that allow a school to avoid investigating reports of harassment in the first place, and investigations overwhelmingly decide that no or minimal consequences are merited. At most colleges, Title IX-related offices are understaffed and investigations routinely take months. This disincentivizes reporting and has been described as a process that punishes victims rather than helping them get accountability.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jacoby |first=Kenny |title=Despite men's rights claims, colleges expel few sexual misconduct offenders while survivors suffer |url=https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2022/11/16/title-ix-campus-rape-colleges-sexual-misconduct-expel-suspend/7938853001/?gps-source=BRNMSVCPSPXXTITLEIX&itm_source=usat&itm_medium=onsite-spike&itm_campaign=titleix-storytellingstudio-n&itm_content=static |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Barthélemy |first=Hélène |date=2020-08-14 |title=How Men's Rights Groups Helped Rewrite Regulations on Campus Rape |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/betsy-devos-title-ix-mens-rights/ |access-date=2025-04-09 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Lavine |first1=Paula |last2=Noren |first2=Nicole |date=2014-08-20 |title=Athletes, assaults and Title IX inaction |url=https://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/11381416/missouri-tulsa-southern-idaho-face-allegations-did-not-investigate-title-ix-cases |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=ESPN.com |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Lombardi |first=Kristen |date=2010-02-24 |title=A lack of consequences for sexual assault |url=https://publicintegrity.org/education/a-lack-of-consequences-for-sexual-assault/ |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=Center for Public Integrity |language=en-US}}</ref>

Concern has been expressed that colleges have been overly aggressive in enforcing Title IX regulations, particularly about sexual matters. [[Laura Kipnis]], author of ''How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior'' (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2010), and others have argued that Title IX regulations have empowered investigators who routinely endanger academic freedom and fair process, [[Presumption of innocence|presume the guilt]] of suspects, assign the man full responsibility for the outcome of any social interaction, and minutely regulate personal relationships.<ref>{{cite journal| url =https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septoct-2015/what-went-wrong-with-title-ix/| title =What Went Wrong With Title IX?| last =Bagenstos| first =Samuel| date =October 2015| journal =Washington Monthly| volume =September/October 2015| access-date =April 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last =Kipnis| first =Laura| title =Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus| publisher =Harper| date =2017| pages =256| url=http://laurakipnis.com/books/unwanted-advances/| isbn =978-0062657862 }}</ref>

Writing in ''[[The Atlantic]]'', [[Emily Yoffe]] has criticized the Title IX process for being unfair to the accused,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Yoffe|first=Emily|date=2017-09-06|title=The Uncomfortable Truth About Campus Rape Policy|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-campus-rape-policy/538974/|access-date=2021-11-27|website=The Atlantic|language=en}}</ref> based on faulty science,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Yoffe|first=Emily|date=2017-09-08|title=The Bad Science Behind Campus Response to Sexual Assault|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/the-bad-science-behind-campus-response-to-sexual-assault/539211/|access-date=2021-11-27|website=The Atlantic|language=en}}</ref> and racially biased against students of color.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Yoffe|first=Emily|date=2017-09-11|title=The Question of Race in Campus Sexual-Assault Cases|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/the-question-of-race-in-campus-sexual-assault-cases/539361/|access-date=2021-11-27|website=The Atlantic|language=en}}</ref>