Title IX, the section of the Education Amendments statute enacted in 1972, has once more been revised, but this time not for the better. Addressing sex discrimination and sexual harassment on college and university campuses inevitably raises vexing issues within a community of young people on their own, mostly free of parental restraints. Title IX is the government’s attempt to formulate guidelines for institutions receiving federal funds on how they must handle any resulting charges of sexual harassment or discrimination.

In 2020, Title IX was amended as a result of growing dissatisfaction over the sometimes arbitrary and one-sided proceedings that often deemed defendants (mostly male) to have committed violations, and hence were disciplined or even expelled, without having had the opportunity to know who had made the charges against them or the opportunity to review the evidence. The 2020 amendments established protections for accused students, including allowing them to know the complainant’s identity, prohibiting introduction of evidence of off-campus conduct in “hostile atmosphere” allegations, and requiring the charges to be proved by “clear and convincing” evidence instead of the lesser “preponderance of evidence” standard that had prevailed previously.