Courtesy of Naya Payne
By James Bennett III
Three USF St. Petersburg students planned for months to speak with representatives of the federal government about how Title IX changes would affect them.
Instead, the meeting was canceled without notice after the students had already waited for roughly half an hour.
The students, who are all members of the campus’ Sexual Assault Survivors Support organization, were expecting to discuss their rejection of pending Title IX changes with a member of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a subagency of the Office of Management and Budget that aims to regulate and implement the goals of the Executive branch.
Email records show the meeting was confirmed on Dec. 6 for 1 p.m. on Feb. 5.
The Department of Education proposed the Title IX changes in November 2018. Title IX is a federal law that was established in 1972 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex at federally funded schools.
The law recognizes sexual harassment and assault as potential barriers to one’s educational access and says schools can be held legally responsible for ignoring sexual harassment or assault under their supervision.
The changes, which were proposed by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, would give students accused of sexual misconduct more protection and reduce the liability of colleges that investigate Title IX complaints.
“This was a final rule stage meeting before the changes roll out,” said Naya Payne, who founded SASS. “So this is one of the last opportunities for people and or groups to voice their concerns and criticisms over the changes that will be rolling out.”
Payne said he scheduled the meeting in December, after receiving an email from the “It’s On Us” campaign, which provided a link and a “Regulatory Identification Number” that clarified which rule they wanted to discuss. It’s On Us was formed in 2014 under Barack Obama’s presidential administration to organize and engage students with the prevention of sexual assault.
In the organization’s email to Payne, It’s On Us wrote that it had received news that the proposed Title IX changes had made it to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
“This is the LAST step for review before the rules are implemented,” the email said.
SASS attempted to contact a representative from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs around 1:23 p.m., but was unable to reach anyone who could explain why the meeting was canceled without notice.
The meeting was scheduled to last half an hour.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs did not respond to several phone calls from The Crow’s Nest.
Payne also drafted a Student Government resolution last year that opposed the Title IX changes. The SG resolution was written in collaboration with other colleges’ student governments throughout the United States.
