Giving Compass' Take:

• Carolyn Phenicie, writing for The 74, reports the on the five major changes to Title IX policies that regulate how schools handle cases of sexual assault and harassment on campus. 

• What can on-campus groups do to protect their classmates if new Title IX policies are not sufficient? 

• Read about how a national database could help colleges fight sexual assault on campus. 

The Education Department and Republicans in Congress have unwound a host of major Obama-era policies, from protections for transgender students to tough school accountability rules under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Now, according to The New York Times, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will make major changes to the way colleges — and K-12 schools — must respond to allegations of sexual assault and harassment under Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex.

“The truth is that the system established by the prior administration has failed too many students. Survivors, victims of a lack of due process, and campus administrators have all told me that the current approach does a disservice to everyone involved,” DeVos said last September when she announced changes were coming.

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, in a statement said it is “shameful and appalling” that DeVos would issue a rule that would make it harder for assault victims to seek justice.

An interim policy, released last September, instituted perhaps the biggest change included in the new proposal: allowing schools to determine what level of evidence they’ll require to determine an assault occurred. The now-overturned Obama-era regulations required schools to use a lower “preponderance of the evidence” standard, rather than a more stringent “clear and convincing” mandate.

Other changes, according to the Times, include:

  1. Only formal complaints must be investigated.
  2. Only events on campus must be investigated.
  3. Victims and perpetrators could request information and cross-examine each other.
  4. Mistreatment of the accused could constitute sex discrimination.

Read the full article about changes in title IX policy by Carolyn Phenicie at The 74