WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden on Monday ordered his administration to review the Trump administration’s rules on sexual assault on campus that strengthened the rights of the accused and narrowed the scope of cases that colleges should address.
In an executive order signed Monday morning, Biden ordered the Department of Education to review Donald Trump administration’s policies, including changes to Title IX regulations banning gender-based discrimination in federally funded institutions.
Biden instructed the agency to review all policies “that are or may be in conflict” with the aim of preventing gender discrimination in education.
Biden focused on gender equality throughout his campaign, pledging to bolster Title IX if he won the White House. He also signed a second executive order formally establishing the White House Gender Policy Council. Biden’s transition team announced his plans to form the council before taking office.
The injunction leading the Title IX revision could pave the way for a major shift in the way colleges handle allegations of sexual misconduct in the future.
Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, in 2018 revoked an Obama-era governmental standard in cases of reported sexual assault from requiring a “preponderance of evidence” – meaning it is more likely than not that sexual harassment or violence took place – to “clear and compelling evidence “.
The DeVos amendments reduced the liability of colleges and universities for investigating sexual misconduct claims and strengthened the accused’s rights to a fair trialincluding the right to question their prosecutors at on-campus hearings through a third party attorney.
Biden, as vice president, together with then-education secretary Arne Duncan explained the legal guidelines in 2011 of what was expected of college campuses in response to allegations of sexual assault on behalf of President Barack Obama’s administration.
With the education department evaluation, Biden’s intent is to establish policies that ensure students have an environment free from sexual harassment and without discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to a White House official who informed reporters about the orders.
The order to establish the Gender Policy Council comes after Trump dissolved an office specifically focused on women’s issues that arose during the Obama administration called the White House Council on Women and Girls.
While the new council is a resurrection of the Obama era, a government official said the renaming was a recognition that inequalities can affect people of all genders. Still, the official said the council will mainly focus on issues faced by women and girls because of “disproportionate barriers” they face.
The new council is tasked with helping to promote gender equality in the government’s domestic and foreign policy efforts. Some of the issues on which the council will focus include combating sexual harassment, addressing structural barriers to women’s participation in the labor force, narrowing the gender pay and wealth gaps, addressing concerns that have disproportionately affected women and the response to gender-based violence.
The orders come because Biden plans to deliver comments from the White House later Monday on the occasion of International Women’s Day., a global day celebrating women’s social, economic, cultural and political achievements.
Binkley reported from Boston.