Recent claims of professors’ sexual misconduct at The New School have re-opened discussions about how complaints of discrimination should be handled on campus.

The New School faced scrutiny last year for its handling of a Title IX investigation into Emanuele Castano, the former New School for Social Research psychology co-chair being sued for sexual misconduct with students. The university closed their Title IX investigation into Castano and did not release its results, as he resigned one day prior to its completion. This situation prompted the university to propose new Title IX policies in September and ask for feedback from The New School’s community until Nov. 30 through a confidential Google Form.

But what is Title IX?

Title IX is a federal civil rights law that protects against gender-based discrimination, including sexual harassment and abuse, in educational programs. The law applies to U.S. public and private colleges and universities and kindergarten through 12th grade settings that accept funding from the federal government, and extends to students, faculty, and other employees.

Legally known as Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the law states:

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Congress passed Title IX in 1972 as part of the Education Amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in response to the discrimination faced by women. The law added sex as a protected class, alongside other categories including race, religion, and national origin. At first, the law mainly got attention for for its protections against discrimination in athletics. The core focus of Title IX shifted to sexual politics in the 1990s when Antioch College created the first-ever university policy outlining affirmative consent.

Each university establishes its own policies against gender-based discrimination. But all schools must incorporate certain Title IX procedures as outlined by the federal government’s rules on dealing with sexual misconduct. Complaints, investigations, and colleges’ compliance with Title IX are are handled by college administrators called Title IX coordinators.

Jennifer Francone is The New School’s Title IX coordinator and is the contact person for claims regarding students. Her official title listed on the university’s Student Conduct Title IX webpage is assistant vice president for Student Life. Rhonnie Jaus, the school’s vice president for Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action, and Compliance, was hired by the university in February to assist in drafting a new Title IX policy. She is the contact person for claims involving faculty and staff.

The Department of Education requires schools to: publish and share their Title IX policies in an easily and readily available manner; designate at least one university official as the overseer of the school’s policy and its compliance with the law, known as the Title IX coordinator; provide a grievance procedure that allows both the person filing the complaint and the person accused to present their respective cases with witnesses and to appeal the outcome of the investigation; take steps to protect the complainant as necessary, including moving the accused to another living space; and notify both parties of the investigation’s result upon its conclusion.  

These rules were outlined in a document called the “Dear Colleague Letter,” created by the Obama administration’s DOE in 2011.

The document required universities to use “preponderance of evidence,” which is the lowest possible standard of proof, in investigating complaints — meaning that schools need to prove that it was more likely than not that the violation occurred. The DOE also recommended that investigations be completed within 60 days of the complaint filing.

Schools that are not compliant with the government’s procedural rules are subject to investigation by the Office for Civil Rights. If the university is found in violation of Title IX, the OCR will negotiate a resolution with the school to correct its problems, and monitor the university until it fixes its practices. Universities that fail to negotiate with the OCR could have their federal funding suspended, according to Campus Safety Magazine, a trade publication that reports on hospital and school security matters.

In 2011, the DOE and New York OCR launched a Title IX investigation into The New School. According to the investigation documents, a female student filed a complaint with these governmental offices based on her belief that the university mishandled her case and had retaliated against her for reporting a violation against another student. The student was a Lang sophomore named Jennifer Kaplan, who spoke to the Free Press article in November 2011. The OCR investigated Kaplan’s five claims in the context of the university’s broader Title IX practices. They found the university in violation of federal procedures, as The New School did not give the right to appeal to both parties in an investigation. The case was resolved after The New School changed its Title IX policy to make the appeal process available to all individuals who file complaints and to all who are accused, along with other additional provisions.

The Free Press read all 1284 pages of the 2011 investigation docket. The documents are available and annotated on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Title IX Tracker.

“The government has conducted 502 investigations of colleges for possibly mishandling reports of sexual violence. So far, 192 cases have been resolved and 310 remain open,” according to the Chronicle’s Title IX Tracker.

Current Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos formally withdrew the “Dear Colleague Letter” and issued interim guidance in September 2017. The New York Times reported that DeVos’ new regulations will give more protections to schools and the accused.

New York’s “Enough is Enough” law, signed into law in 2015 and legally known as 129-B, provides additional protections to students in the state, including a uniform definition of affirmative consent, a statewide amnesty policy, and expanded access to law enforcement.